Minerve-class frigate

The Minerve class was a type of 40-gun frigate of the French Navy, carrying 18-pounder long guns as their main armament. Six ships of this type were built at Toulon Dockyard, and launched between 1782 and 1794. The frigates served the French Navy briefly during the French Revolutionary Wars. The Royal Navy captured all six between 1793 and 1799 and took them into service, with all but one serving in the Napoleonic Wars, and some thereafter.

The first four frigates were built to a design by Joseph-Marie-Blaise Coulomb. Jacques Brune Sainte Catherine modified Coulomb's design for the fifth, lengthening it to permit the addition of a 14th pair of gunports on the upper deck, although a 14th pair of guns was never carried in this pair of ports. Sainte Catherine further redesigned the class for the sixth, final frigate. The French Navy preferred the designs by Jacques-Noël Sané. However, the more rounded hull form of the Minerve-class vessels' found favour with the Royal Navy, leading it to copy the design.

Ships

 * FRENCH FRIGATE Minerve
 * Ordered: 30 October 1781
 * Begun: January 1782
 * Launched: 31 July 1782
 * Completed: October 1782
 * Fate: Captured by the British 18 February 1794, taken into service as HMS San Fiorenzo, broken up 1837


 * FRENCH FRIGATE Junon
 * Ordered: 30 October 1781
 * Begun: February 1782
 * Launched: 31 July 1782
 * Completed: October 1782
 * Fate: Captured by the British 16 June 1799, taken in as HMS Princess Charlotte, renamed HMS Andromache January 1812, broken up 1828


 * Impérieuse
 * Ordered: November 1785
 * Begun: February 1786
 * Launched: 11 July 1787
 * Completed: May 1788
 * Fate: Captured by the British 12 October 1793, taken in as HMS Captain, renamed HMS Unite 3 September 1803, hospital hulk 1836, broken up 1858


 * FRENCH FRIGATE Melpomène
 * Ordered: 1787
 * Begun: February 1788
 * Launched: 6 August 1789
 * Completed: April 1792
 * Fate: Captured by the British 10 August 1794, taken in as HMS Melpomene, sold on 14 December 1815


 * FRENCH FRIGATE Perle
 * Ordered: 1789
 * Begun: June 1789
 * Launched: 27 August 1790
 * Completed: September 1792
 * Fate: Handed over to the British 29 August 1793, taken in as HMS Amethyst, wrecked 27 December 1795


 * FRENCH FRIGATE Minerve (ii)
 * Ordered:
 * Begun: late 1791
 * Launched: 4 September 1794
 * Completed: October 1794
 * Fate: Captured by the British 23 June 1795, taken in as HMS Minerve, recaptured by the French 3 July 1803, renamed Canonnière, sold June 1809 and renamed Confiance, recaptured by the British 3 February 1810 and sold