La Renommée

Posted by F.F. on Tuesday 2nd of June 2026 22:14

I wish I had corrected my mistake, but I didn't. You did it, Mʳ Stockman: thank you very much.

Posted by David Stockman on Saturday 30th of May 2026 13:51

The Renommee at the Battle of Negapatam was a French East India ship of 28 guns commanded by Gâtinais, and not the same la Renommee of 1744 (Brest), according to Léon Guérin's Histoire maritime de la France and La Bourdonnais' own Mémoires historiques. La Renommee of 1744 (Brest) at the time was commanded by Kersaint and voyaging between Louisbourg and France.

Posted by F.F. on Friday 14th of February 2025 13:55

Her displacement, according to Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau, was 785 tonneaux de poids and 1556 livres ≈ 769.3ｔ (SI); her deadweight (everything received on board, including food, water, complement, artillery, weapons, ammunitions, powder, masts, yards, spars, sails, rigging, cables, anchors, boats, tools, and so on), 435 tonneaux de poids 168 livres ≈ 425.9ｔ; her burthen, according to the formula used in France from the late ⅹⅶᵗʰ century, 592 tonneaux de jauge; according to the formula used from 1795, 630 tonneaux de jauge; as measured in the British Navy, the burthen of la Renommée was 676 tons.

Posted by F.F. on Sunday 22nd of January 2023 03:12

Dimensions (according to Duhamel du Monceau)
Lenght, 120 pieds ≈ 38,98 ｍ ≈ 127' 10⅔"
Beam (measured differently than done in England), 31 pieds 8 pouces ≈ 10,29 ｍ ≈ 33' 9"
Depth to deck, 15 pieds 7 pouces ≈ 16' 7.3"

Posted by F.F. on Sunday 22nd of January 2023 02:57

According to W. L. Cowes et alii (The Royal Navy. A History from the Earliest Times to the Present, volume III, London, 1898), la Renommée had 32 guns, and was taken on September, the 13ᵗʰ, 1747 by the Dover, 50, after having been crippled on the 12ᵗʰ, in an unconclusive fight against the Amazon (formerly the French frigate la Subtile, according to Clowes, or la Panthère, according to Wikipedia; anyway, in 1747, her captain was Samuel Faulknor), 26, on the 12ᵗʰ. Mʳ Christoph Koch (cf. his comment below) already said that count de Conflans was among the prisoners: his name is well-known because a fleet under his command was to be defeated by Hawke on November, the 20ᵗʰ, 1759 (Quiberon Bay).

Clowes says that in 1745, when Louisbourg was to be sieged, «the French Government, hearing of the projected attack, had hastily despatched the Renommée, 32, one of its fastest frigates, commanded by the celebrated Kersaint, with dispatches for Louisbourg. On April 18ᵗʰ, she sighted Rous’s blockading squadron, which very pluckily attacked her and forced her to fly, greatly disabled. In her flight she encountered some transports, which, escorted by a privateer, were on their way to join Pepperel. These she attacked, but the privateer defended them so well that once more she made sail and got away.» Also, «Some French accounts mention […] the Renommée, 28, as having been with La Bourdonnais» on June, the 26ᵗʰ, 1746, facing Peyton, off Negapatam. Despite much greater forces, Peyton was repelled, and eventually Mahé de La Bourdonnais was to take Madras.

According to Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau (Éléments de l'architecture navale, Paris, 1752, p. 5), la Renommée was an «excellente Frégate , conſtruite à Breſt par Mr. des Lauriers» (excellent frigate, built in Brest by Mr Deslauriers [François-Guillaume Clairin-Deslauriers]). He says (p. 328) that her «port» (total weight on board—everything, but the hull) was some 435 «tonneaux de poids» ≈ 426ｔ (SI) ≈ 419 long tons, and her displacement, some 786 «tonneaux de poids» ≈ 769ｔ (SI) ≈ 757 long tons. She had 30 guns (twenty-six 8-pounders and four 4-pounders).

Frigates mounting 8-pounders had been launched in France as soon as 1728, designed by Blaise Ollivier, and those bearing 12-pounders, from 1747. The first English true frigates, the Lyme and the Unicorn (with 9-pounders), were launched in 1748.

Posted by Christoph Koch on Saturday 7th of January 2023 05:09

Note that in 1747 the Comte the Conflans was a passenger aboard Le Renommee, on his way to take his post as Governor-General of Santo Domingo. On this voyage (during which she was taken by the British), Le Renommee was captained by Saint-Alouarn the Elder, a First Lieutenant, not a Capitaine de Vaisseau.

Posted by David Stockman on Wednesday 6th of February 2013 20:29

The Renommée was first commanded by the illustrious Captain Guy Kersaint and was captured when commanded under the command of Francois de Saint-Alouarn. After capture in 1747 she as first named the Fame but before she put to sea she was renamed by the Admiralty as the Renown. Her first English captain was Washington Shirley, the captain who had captured her. She was laid up in ordinance at Hamoaze from 1750 until 1756. At the beginning of the Seven Years Wars she was first used to patrol the Channel and French coast and also sent to the West Indies usually stationed at Port Royal. In 1766 she was out of commission again but put back to sea duty in the West Indies the following year. The remaining years found her on patrol as previously until she was broken up at Woolwich in 1771. She had many captures and actions and the list of her commanders contains some of the finest captains at sea, both French and English, of that age.