Qualla: French frigate Surveillante (1778)

French frigate Surveillante (1778): Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. On the night of 6 October 1779, off the island of Ushant, two ships of nearly identical size beat one another to pieces for three and a half hours. When it ended, the British frigate HMS Quebec was on fire from her own sails falling across her gunports; moments later she exploded. The French frigate Surveillante, leaking through a dozen wounds, with 30 dead and 85 wounded aboard, sent her boat out to rescue whatever British sailors had survived the blast. They returned to Brest the next day, French and British crew working side by side to keep the ship afloat. Seventeen years later, this same Surveillante would lie on the seabed of Bantry Bay, scuttled by her own captain.

Image: Unknown author | Public domain

French frigate Surveillante (1778): Built for a New Kind of War

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alfred Jean-Marie Paris, Public domain. Surveillante was laid down at Lorient in August 1777 as the second frigate of the Iphigenie class, designed by Leon Guignace and carrying 32 guns of 12-pound calibre. She was launched on 26 March 1778, just weeks before France formally entered the American Revolutionary War on th...

Image: Alfred Jean-Marie Paris | Public domain

French frigate Surveillante (1778): Three and a Half Hours Off Ushant

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Antoine Léon Morel-Fatio, Public domain. The battle with HMS Quebec on 6 October 1779 became famous in both navies. Quebec's captain, George Farmer, fought his ship until she was completely dismasted; her topsails, falling forward across her gun ports, caught fire from her own muzzle flashes. Surveillante, under Captain...

Image: Antoine Léon Morel-Fatio | Public domain

French frigate Surveillante (1778): Yorktown, and the News of Peace

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ange-Joseph Antoine Roux (Life time: 1765-1835), Public domain. Surveillante's American war was long. In June 1780 she sailed into Boston with Admiral de Ternay's Expedition Particuliere - seven ships of the line, three frigates, and 36 transports carrying Rochambeau's army to fight alongside the Continentals. She served in the squadron throu...

Image: Ange-Joseph Antoine Roux (Life time: 1765-1835) | Public domain

French frigate Surveillante (1778): The Failed Invasion of Ireland

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alfred Jean-Marie Paris, Public domain. In December 1796, France tried to land an army in Ireland. The plan, pressed by Theobald Wolfe Tone, called for some 15,000 troops under General Hoche to come ashore in Bantry Bay, raise a rising against British rule, and open a second front in the war with Britain. The fleet of ...

Image: Alfred Jean-Marie Paris | Public domain

French frigate Surveillante (1778): Found by an Oil Disaster

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Med, CC BY-SA 3.0. The wreck lay forgotten for nearly two centuries. After the 1979 Whiddy Island disaster - when the oil tanker Betelgeuse exploded at the Gulf Oil terminal nearby, killing fifty people - searches of the bay's seabed turned up Surveillante in 23 metres of water, exceptionally well ...

Image: Med | CC BY-SA 3.0