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1779 French Frigate The Surveillante - Orders Signed By Its Captain

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:600.00 USD Estimated At:800.00 - 1,200.00 USD
1779 French Frigate The Surveillante - Orders Signed By Its Captain
American Revolution
1779 French Frigate “The Surveillante” Orders Signed By Its Captain “Charles Louis du Couédic de Kergoaler”

Died from wounds in Battle with the HMS Quebec in 1780
May 6, 1779-Dated Revolutionary War Period, French Naval Manuscript Document Signed, Charles Louis Du Couédic de Kergoaler, as Captain of the historic French Frigate “The Surveillante,” in French, Very Fine.
This original, 6” x 7” Document is dated 1779, at Brest (France), aboard the King's Frigate, “The Surveillante.” It is a brief order to make a sixteen inch cable, Signed by the famed Captain Charles Louis Du Couédic de Kergoaler, and three other Naval officers at Brest.

“The Surveillante” was an Iphigénie-Class, 32-Gun Frigate of the French Navy. She took part in the Naval operations in the American Revolutionary War. The Frigate became famous for her Battle with the British HMS Quebec in 1783, and she actually brought the news that the Revolutionary War was over to America!

The “Surveillante” was built in August 1777 in Lorient as the second Frigate of the Iphigénie class, a series of 32-gun frigates carrying 12-pounders designed by Léon Guignace. She was launched on 26 March 1778, and commissioned in May. The very same month, she was refitted as to upgrade her hull with copper sheathing, which was being gradually introduced in the French Navy. After her refit, Surveillante took part in the Naval operations in the American Revolutionary War, capturing HMS Spitfire on April 19th, 1779.

On October 6th, 1779, off Ushant, The Surveillante, under Captain Couédic de Kergoaler, met with the 32-Gun HMS Quebec, under Captain George Farmer. The first “Single-Ship” fight took place in January 1780 (rem: La Villemarqué's mistake: in fact, on October 6, 1779), off Ushant Island, fought between the French Frigate La Surveillante, manned by a Breton crew under Captain du Couédic de Kergoaler and the British Frigate, HMS Quebec, under Captain Farmer. That Battle lasted for three hours and a half.

No sooner had the Bretons stepped on the English frigate than a fire started there, as well as a leak on board the 'Surveillante'. The French jumped back on their ship, rushing for the pumps. The English were no more considered as enemies. Captain du Couédic sent the only boat left to him to rescue them. The latter joined the French in their efforts to save their ship. Back in Brest harbor, they were treated as shipwrecked sailors, not as prisoners. Kergoaler died of his wounds in Brest on January 17th 1780. On 19 February 1781, Surveillante, along with the 64-gun Éveillé, her sister-ship Gentille and the Cutter Guèpe, captured HMS Romulus in Chesapeake Bay.

In summer 1783, along with the British Frigate Medea, she sailed to America to announce the Peace of Paris that ended the war between France and Great Britain. She later took part in the French Revolutionary Wars, and was eventually scuttled during the Expédition d'Irlande after sustaining severe damage in a storm. The wreck was found in 1979 and is now a memorial, and an 1/6 model of the ship is now on display at Bantry.