French ship Ferme (1785)

Scale model of Achille, sister ship of French ship Ferme (1785), on display at the Musée de la Marine in Paris.
History
France
Name:	Ferme
Namesake:	Ferme générale
Builder:	Brest[1]
Laid down:	December 1784[1]
Launched:	16 September 1785[1]
Commissioned:	1786[1]
Spanish Empire
Acquired:	1794[1]
Fate:	Broken up in La Guaria in 1808[1]
General characteristics [2]
Class and type:	Téméraire-class ship of the line
Displacement:	1,966 tonnes 3,260 tonnes fully loaded
Length:	55.87 metres (183.3 ft) (172 pied)
Beam:	14.90 metres (48 ft 11 in)
Draught:	7.26 metres (23.8 ft) (22 pied)
Propulsion:	Up to 2,485 m2 (26,750 sq ft) of sails
Armament:	74 guns: Lower gundeck: 28 × 36-pounder long guns Upper gundeck: 30 × 18-pounder long guns Forecastle and Quarter deck: 16 × 8-pounder long guns 4 × 36-pounder carronades
Armour:	Timber

Ferme was a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy. Offered to the Crown by the Ferme générale as a Don des vaisseaux, she was renamed at the Revolution. Her officers surrendered her to Spain in 1793 out of Royalist political convictions and she served in the Spanish Navy until 1818.

Career

Built under supervision of engineer de la Motte, Ferme entered active service on 28 January 1786. In September 1790, she was sent to the Caribbean, where she recaptured the naval schooner Bigotte on 10 November 1791. The next week, she recaptured Îlet Ramiers, whose garrison had rebelled.^[1]

On 3 October 1792, she was renamed Phocion, but before the decree arrived, her officers had mutined against the First French Republic and were flying the Royalist white ensign. On 11 January 1793, they sailed her into Trinidad to surrender her to Spain.^[1]

Ferme was incorporated into the Spanish Navy, where she served until 1808.^[1]

Notes, citations, and references

Notes

Citations

References

• Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours 1 1671 - 1870. p. 198. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922.