French frigate Melpomène (1828)

For other ships with the same name, see French ship Melpomène.

Model showing characteristics and original painting scheme of Belle Poule, sister-ship of the French frigate Melpomène (1828). Model on display at Toulon naval museum.

History
France
Name| Melpomène
Namesake| Melpomene
Builder| Cherbourg
Laid down| 17 May 1825
Launched| 28 July 1828
Commissioned| 1 March 1830
Decommissioned| 1 October 1833
Out of service| 1845
Stricken| 1870
Fate| Scrapped
General characteristics
Class and type| Surveillante-class frigate
Displacement| 2500 tonnes
Length| 54 metres (177 ft)
Beam| 14.10 metres (46.3 ft)
Draught| 3.80 metres (12.5 ft)
Propulsion| sail
Complement| 301
Armament|

* 60 guns
* 32 × 30-pounder long guns
* 4 × 80-pounder Paixhans guns
* 24 × 30-pounder carronades

Armour| Timber

Melpomène was a Surveillante class 60-gun first rank frigate of the French Navy.

## Career[edit]

Melpomène was commissioned in March 1830, in time to take part in the Invasion of Algiers in 1830, and was decommissioned on 28 October after the events.

The next year, on 7 February, she was recommissioned amidst growing tensions with Portugal, and she took part in the blockade, and the subsequent Battle of the Tagus, under Captain de Rabaudy. Arrived the first French warship, she was also the last to depart.

## Fate[edit]

In October 1833, she was again decommissioned, never to serve again. She was condemned in 1845, and used as a masting crane in Toulon under the name Travailleuse from 1865.

## References[edit]

* Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours, 1671 - 1870. Group Retozel-Maury Millau. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922.