French Imperial Navy

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French Imperial Navy
Marine Impériale
Napoleon Bonaparte
Active1804 –
Napoleon I
TypeNaval forces
Navy HeadquartersHôtel de la Marine, Paris
ColorsLe Tricolore
Engagements
Commanders
Napoleon I
Notable
commanders

The French Imperial Navy (

The Republic. It notably saw action at the Battle of Trafalgar, and its defeat prevented Napoleon's planned invasion of the United Kingdom
. After the First Bourbon Restoration in 1814, the navy was renamed to its old title of French Royal Navy, but after Napoleon's return in March 1815, briefly became the Imperial Navy once more. Following the Second Bourbon Restoration, the navy once again became royal, and the title wasn't used again.

History

Fleet of the Restoration

In 1789 the

American War of Independence, (Anglo-French War (1778–1783)), the French managed quite a few successes against the British Royal Navy which could at best contain this new, rejuvenated, navy. French naval officers had become more talented and one, Admiral Pierre André, Comte de Suffren, proved to be a brilliant opponent in the Indian Ocean (Second Anglo-Mysore War). Following the Treaty of Paris in 1783, the French continued to make improvements to the navy that had brought them revenge for the defeats of the Seven Years' War. The standard French ships of the line were of 74 guns (Third-rate designation) and were of excellent design. Some reforms were made in 1782, which organised the French Navy in the most sweeping fashion since the days of Louis XIV. The whole navy was divided into nine fleets (or squadrons) with many measures made for greater efficiency.[1]

The way the French fleet was officered and manned was somewhat different to that of the Royal British Navy. In the 1780s the officer corps was filled almost exclusively by the sons of noble families. Indeed, to become a Student of the Navy (Elève de la Marine) (the equivalent of a Midshipman in the British Royal Navy), the young aspiring officer had to apply with a certified copy of his family genealogy to ensure that he had the required amount of 'blue blood'. This system, which ensured officer positions for the nobility, nevertheless produced good officers since they were highly trained. Its evil lay in the unfairness to qualified men condemned to the lower deck or the merchant marine because they were not of noble blood. Because of this lacking hope, bitterness increased dramatically both in the army and the navy.[2]

In 1789 the French navy had three main military seaports:

Lorient and Cherbourg, and also in the colonies, such as Fort Saint Louis in Martinique and Port Louis in Île-de-France, which were humbler versions of the three great ports, all with the same military and administrative structure.[2]

Napoleon's reforms

Napoleon has often been considered to misunderstand the navy. Being an artillery officer, he was given to precise calculations and never quite accepted that the wind was more important to ships than his orders. His impatience at his fleet at Boulogne is famous. Much less known but just as important were his naïve pragmatic measures toward the fleet taken during 1800–1801. In a general reform, a mass of individuals notable for their 'crass ignorance' were kicked out of the navy and the ranks opened to anyone with decent qualifications, including former officers of the

British Prime Minister William Pitt, who felt it was a 'pistol aimed at the head of England'. For the first time in over a decade the navy emerged from chaos, thanks to Napoleon's measures.[3]

However, a good navy takes many years to build, not only ships, but an ample reserve of skilled officers and sailors. At first, Napoleon wrongly presumed that uniting the fleets of

Spain and Holland to that of France would automatically produce a great fleet – like gathering the contingents for the Grande Armée. Skilled manpower was always a problem for the fleet, which Napoleon tackled with increasingly military measures. A first experiment had been the formation of the Légion Nautique during the French campaign in Egypt and Syria. Following the defeat of the French fleet at Abukir, nearly 2,500 sailors and Marine artillerymen were stranded in Alexandria and used to form the new legion during October and November 1798. Issued with arms and uniforms, the new legion had eight companies of fusiliers, one of grenadiers, and sections of artillery and pioneers. General Bonaparte noted that the sailors could be trained and led quite efficiently in a militarised organisation. He did not forget this. The Légion Nautique was repatriated to France at British expense in September 1801, but disbanded after returning. Many of the veterans of this legion would later serve in the famed Sailors of the Imperial Guard. [3]

Trafalgar Campaign

Main article: Trafalgar campaign

Initial Plans & Changes

First Lord of the Admiralty Lord Melville was short of ships. If a combined Franco-Spanish fleet were to force the Navy from its station for even a short while, the French invasion force might succeed in crossing unmolested. The French aimed to achieve at least temporary control of the Channel, while the British aimed to prevent this at all costs.[4][5][6]

Battle and Campaign

Villeneuve's fleet underwent repairs in Cádiz, covered by a hastily assembled blockade of British warships, initially commanded by Rear-Admiral

Rodney at the Saintes, Nelson decided to split his fleet into squadrons rather than forming it into a similar line parallel to the enemy. These squadrons would then cut the enemy's line in a number of places, allowing a pell-mell battle to develop in which the British ships could overwhelm and destroy parts of their opponents' formation, before the unengaged enemy ships could come to their aid.[7][8][9]

The Battle of Trafalgar by J. M. W. Turner (oil on canvas, 1822–1824) combines events from several moments during the battle

Napoleon, increasingly dissatisfied with Villeneuve's performance, ordered Vice-Admiral

sortie led by some of the ships that managed to escape under Julien Cosmao managed to recapture the Spanish Santa Ana, but in doing so he lost three more of his ships, wrecked in the gale, while a fourth was captured by the British, but later wrecked. The British fleet and the surviving French prizes put into Gibraltar over the next few days.[7][10][e][11]

Aftermath

By early November the combined fleet had been practically destroyed. Two ships of the line had been lost at Finisterre, twenty-one at Trafalgar and in the ensuing storm, and four at Cape Ortegal. No British ships had been lost in these engagements. Many of those that had survived in French or Spanish hands were badly damaged and would not be ready for service for some time. The British victory gave them unchallenged supremacy of the seas, securing British trade and sustaining the Empire.[12]

After 1805 the morale of the French navy was destroyed, while its continued blockade in port robbed it of efficiency and will. While Napoleon returned to the possibility of an invasion some years later, it was never with the same focus or determination. The failure of his navy to fulfil its objectives left him disillusioned, while the timidity of its commanders and the determination of the British to resist them, both factors clearly expressed at various stages throughout the Trafalgar campaign, left the navy with a lack of purpose and direction.[13]

After Trafalgar

Napoleon found himself with weak and demoralised remnants of a high-seas fleet and flotilla. The

Crews battalions on 10 August 1805. This time, however, the flotilla was not disbanded and its better gunboats were used for coastal service, escorting convoys of small commercial vessels along the English Channel. Some gunboats might be useful on the coast, but meant nothing against the powerful ships of the British Royal Navy. Napoleon fully understood this and resolved to rebuild the fleet through a large long-term construction programme. Vat sums of money were poured into the great military ports in order to build new ships of the line.[14]

By 1811 the programme was running smoothly and six to seven ships of the line from 74 to 118 guns were launched every year until Napoleon abdicated in 1814. The French fleet then had 81 ships of the line with 18 more under construction. There were also about 100 frigates afloat or under construction at that date. In time, given good leadership and opportunity, there is no doubt that this new fleet would have united and challenged the British Royal Navy. Instead, many of these new ships were dispersed or destroyed by the allies as they occupied the French naval bases during the summer of 1814. This third blow–the first had been the Revolution, the second Trafalgar–was to be fatal for the French navy. Not until the second half of the 19th century would France have a powerful battle fleet again.[14]

Ministers of the Marine

Main article:
Minister of the Marine (France)
Portrait Minister name[a] Term
Took office Left office Time in office
Denis, Duc de Decrès 2 December 1804[b] 1 April 1814 9 years, 120 days
Portret van Pierre-Victor Malouet met een zicht van het bouwen van schepen onderaan Pierre Victor, Baron de Malouet 3 April 1814
11 April 1815[c]
 8 days
Denis, Duc de Decrès 20 March 1815 7 July 1815 109 days

Organisation

Because so many formations were formed and disbanded several times, effectively ad-hoc commands, only the permanent or long-lived formations are listed below:

Pre-Revolution

History of the "Two Fleets System", and the reorganisations into squadrons here.

Squadrons

Naval Corps

Main article: French Imperial Naval Corps

The 'Naval Corps' was the name given to the branch of the navy which oversaw the sailors, naval troops, and colonial troops.

List of ships

Footnotes

Notes

  1. ^ Titles of members are shown as they appear by the end of their term.
  2. ^ Denis Decrès had held this position since 3 October 1801 under the Consulate
  3. ^ Malouet would keep the position of Minister of the Navy till 7 September 1814. However, because this went beyond Napoleon's abdication, it is not listed here.

Citations

  1. ^ Chartrand, pp. 5–6
  2. ^ a b Chartrand, pp. 7–8
  3. ^ a b Chartrand, pp. 16–17
  4. ^ Best. Trafalgar. p. 15.
  5. ^ Best. Trafalgar. p. 43.
  6. ^ Best. Trafalgar. pp. 55–7.
  7. ^ a b Hibbert. Nelson, A Personal History. p. 362.
  8. ^ Hibbert. Nelson, A Personal History. p. 360.
  9. ^ Adkin. The Trafalgar Companion. p. 411.
  10. ^ Hibbert. Nelson, A Personal History. p. 363.
  11. ^ Adkin. The Trafalgar Companion. p. 528.
  12. ^ Clayton & Craig. Trafalgar. p. 372.
  13. ^ Mostert. The Line Upon the Wind. p. 515.
  14. ^ a b Chartrand, pp. 19–20

References

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