Charmante-class frigate

HMS Unite - Ship plan 1796
Class overview
Name	Charmante
Builders	Brest, Saint-Malo, Nantes
Operators	French Navy Royal Navy Spanish Navy
In service	1778 (Charmante) - 1796 (Grâcieuse)
Completed	5
General characteristics
Type	frigate
Tonnage	540 tonnes
Length	44.2 metres
Beam	11.2 metres
Draught	5.4 metres
Propulsion	Sail
Armament	32 guns: 26 × 12-pounder long guns 6 × 6-pounder long guns Several had 2 or 4 x 36-pounder obusiers added
Armour	Timber

The Charmante class was a group of five 32-gun/12-pounder frigates of the French Navy, built during the late 1770s at Brest (lead ship) Nantes (2 ships) and Saint Malo (2 ships). They were designed by Jean-Denis Chevillard. Of the five ships, two were wrecked, two were captured by the British, and one by the Spanish.

• Charmante

Builder: Brest

Ordered:

Laid down: April 1777

Launched: 30 August 1777

Completed: January 1778

Fate: Wrecked on the Chaussée de Sein on 24 March 1780

• Junon

Builder: Rochefort

Ordered:

Laid down: September 1777

Launched: March 1778

Completed: May 1778

Fate: Wrecked by the Great Hurricane of 1780 off Saint Vincent on 11 October 1780

• Gracieuse

Builder: Rochefort

Ordered:

Laid down: November 1785

Launched: 18 May 1787

Completed: May 1788

Fate: Renamed Unité on 28 September 1793. Capturd by the British on 11 April 1796, recomissionned as HMS Unite, sold in 1802

• Inconstante

Builder: Rochefort

Ordered:

Laid down: January 1789

Launched: 9 September 1790

Completed: February 1791

Fate: Captured by HMS Penelope and Iphigenia on 25 November 1793 off Saint Domingue and recommissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Convert

• Hélène

Builder: Rochefort

Ordered:

Laid down: 1789

Launched: 18 May 1791

Completed: June 1792

Fate: Captured by the Spanish on 19 February 1793 during the French expedition to Sardinia and recommissioned in the Spanish Navy as Sirena

References

• Cunat, Charles (1852). Histoire du Bailli de Suffren. Rennes: A. Marteville et Lefas. p. 447.
• Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours, 1671 - 1870. Group Retozel-Maury Millau. pp. 325–6. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922.
• Winfield, Rif (2007). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714–1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 978-1844157006.