User:Broichmore/French ship Aigle (1858)

Aigle (yacht 1858) the french Imperial yacht of Emperor Napoleon III, was built in Cherbourg for Emperor Napoleon III, she was converted into a gunboat in 1870 and into a corvette in 1873.

Early days
Building of the the yacht commenced with the laying of her keel on on 18 December 1857, in the No. 3 dock of the Arsenal of Cherbourg, according to the plans of Dupuy de Lome, director of equipment at the Ministry of Marine. Her builders were Prix-Charles Sochet et Jules Toussaint Villain. She had a 83 metre long wooden hull, 10.50 metres wide and 4.85 metres deep, weight 2,047 tons. She was fitted with a 500-horsepower Mazelin engine, with 6 boilers, her paddle wheels were 9 meters in diameter, she could carry 270 tons of coal, her rigging was that of a 3 masted schooner. Her crew numbered 180. She had a speed of up to 15 knots. She was adorned gold painted Eagle figurehead, and her hull was painted black with fake white gun ports. The fake gun ports were shuttered cabin windows, she was however armed with 2, 12 cm bronze shell guns. Launched on 23 December 1858, she was put into service on 8 February 1859, the Emperor and the Empress came aboard the Eagle after trials in harbour from 19 June 1859, commissioning was complete and crew muster lists opened by September.

The Emperor boarded her on 12 June 1860 at Cherbourg and she sailed to Toulon, arriving on the 27th.

Napoleon III embarked from Marseilles escorted by a fleet of Ironclad warship on 1 May 1865 for Algiers, where he landed on 17 September after a stopover in Valencia. On 3 May 1865, the emperor went back to Algiers.

She was to make several trips to the Mediterranean.

On on the morning of 14 September 1860 during an official three-week trip from Paris to Algeria, Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie saw Ajaccio for the first time, when the imperial yacht "L'Aigle" passed the Îles Sanguinaires archipelago to enter the Gulf, this Ajaccian brief stopover was regaeded as important securing the allegiance of Corsica as a part of France. They were mey by a delerious crowd.

Opening of the Suez canal
Prince of Wales Prince Charles of Hesse and by Rhine

She brought the Empress Eugenie and Napoléon, Prince Imperial to Egypt for the inauguration of the Suez Canal in October 1869, arriving at the El Guisr station. The Empress opened the canal, and on 17 November, at 8 o'clock in the morning, the Eagle, with dignitaries on board, including the Empress, Ferdinand de Lesseps, the developer of the canal, and his family, entered the channel to Ismailia, followed by 40 ships including those of other sovereigns.

Viceroy of Egypt, the Emperor of Austria, the Crown Prince of Prussia, the princes of the Netherlands, Hanover, Prince Charles of Hesse and by Rhine, and the ambassadors of England and Russia. In the evening, the L’Aigle dropped anchor off Ismailia, the new town built at the Temsah Lake by the canal builders.

On the 19th at noon, the Eagle took the lead of the convoy to Amers Lakes and Suez the next day, where Lesseps sent a telegram to Paris: "Suez, November 20, 11:30 am. The Eagle has wet in the Red Sea!".

Meanwhile HMS Newport (1867), commissioned in April 1868 under Commander George Strong Nares, and employed in survey work in the Mediterranean.

In 1869 during the opening ceremony and first passage of ships through the Suez Canal, Nares successfully managed to 'jump the queue' by navigating HMS Newport through a shallow area that stopped a larger vessel in the procession.

She was commissioned in April 1868 under Commander George Strong Nares, and employed in survey work in the Mediterranean. In 1869 during the opening ceremony and first passage of ships through the Suez Canal, although the French Imperial yacht L'Aigle was officially the first vessel to pass through the canal, HMS Newport, commanded by Nares, actually passed through it first.

On the night before the canal was due to open, Nares navigated his vessel, in total darkness and without lights, through the mass of waiting ships until it was in front of L'Aigle. When dawn broke the French were horrified to find that the Royal Navy was now first in line and that it would be impossible to pass them. Captain Nares received both an official reprimand and an unofficial vote of thanks from the Admiralty for his actions in promoting British interests and for demonstrating such superb seamanship.

Reclassified
Transformed into a gunboat in 1870, she was classified as a corvette under the name Le Rapide on 31 May 1873. She was used on 5 July 5 1873, to bring the Shah of Persia from Portsmouth (England) to Cherbourg, on the first leg of his official trip to France.

Fate
She was transferred into reserve and disarmed between 1885 and 1888, and demobilized on 29 January 1891. The French government sold her on 6 October for 103,210 francs and she was scrapped at Cherbourg.