Beautiful contemporary watercolor of the French Corvette La Tourterelle.

[uss frolick]

From the French site Drouot.com.

 

The 28-gun "La Tourterelle", or "The Turtledove" - a wonderful name for a man of war - was captured in 1795 by the 32-gun frigate HMS Lively. While the two ships seem to have been a close match for each other, Tourterelle mounted only 8-pounders on her lower deck, while Lively mounted 18-pounders on hers. But the stubborn frenchman just didn't want to give up, and only struck after heavy casualties. Historian William James reported 18 dead and 25 seriously wounded.  Tourterelle reportedly even used an oven to heat hot-shot in the action, but to no avail. The painting, a watercolor wash on paper, ("lavis sur papier") shows her at the conclusion of the action, greatly damaged, have lost much of her top-hamper. Tourterelle was a sister ship to L'Unite' - later HMS Surprise. Her draught survives in the NMM and is, IMHO, the prettiest sloop there, and she and the painting closely agree on all the details! She was broken up in 1816.

 

https://drouot.com/fr/l/10996015

 

To see a full screen, click the black bar marked, "Voir les Resultats" ("See the results"), then click the four-arrow tab on the left.

Edited January 10, 2024 by uss frolick

[Tony Hunt]

She certainly got battered. It looks like Lively's gunners really concentrated on the officer country end of the ship if the depiction of the distribution of shot damage to the hull is accurate.