La REINE HORTENSE yacht

The full index of our ship stamp archive
Post Reply
aukepalmhof
Posts: 7771
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

La REINE HORTENSE yacht

Post by aukepalmhof » Fri Dec 14, 2018 7:07 pm

Iceland issued in 1986 four stamps for the “Bicentenary of the City of Reykjavik” of which the 12 Kr stamp shows us an 1856 view from the banks of the Tjörn (Pond) with in the background the bay of Reykjavik. By the stamp is given by the Icelandic Post:
In the background there is the French Imperial yacht La REINE HORTENCE. This illustration is copied after a picture in a book entitled’ Voyage dans le mers du Nord” by Charles Edmond, which was published in 1857 and described the French Prince Napoleon’s voyage around the Northern oceans in 1856.

August 1844 the 3-mast yacht was laid down for King Louis-Philippe under the name COMTE D’EU on the yard of Augustin Normand in Le Havre.
20 December 1846 launched.
Displacement 1,100 ton, dim. 62 x 10.80 x 5.7m.
Powered by a Creusot 4-cyl. steam engine, 320 nhp, speed 12 knots.
Armament 6 – 12cm guns.
Laid down as COMTE D’EU, the ship was renamed to PATRIOTE on 20 February 1848 after the French Revolution of 1848.

In June 1853, she became the imperial yacht REINE HORTENSE.
06 August 1853 in Dieppe.
July 1854 Sailed from Cherbourg for Bayonne, at the disposal of the Empress.
19 August 1854 arrived in Danzig.
In 1855, she served as a troopship to ferry forces bound for the theatre of the Crimean War.
08 February 1855 arrived in Kamiesch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamiesch with ships in tow.

In June 1865 (wrong given by Wikipedia, must be 1856) she took Prince Napoléon on an expedition to Greenland, with the ARTÉMISE (1847), a 28-gun corvette, La PERDRIX and, the COCYTE and two British coal tender screw steamers, the TASMANIA and the SAXON of 700 tons each. On 30 June at Reykjavík in Iceland, she met again Lord Dufferin who was on his own travels that would feature in his book Letters From High Latitudes, published the next year. Dufferin's journey was taking in Iceland, Jan Mayen and Spitzbergen. He had chartered the schooner FOAM for the task. Dufferin was invited to join Prince Napoleon aboard his royal steamer, and the Prince hearing that the FOAM had broken down offered them a tow north to Jan Mayen as they were going to the same region. On their last night in Reykjavik the prince held a ball to which all the rank, fashion, and beauty of the tiny town (population 700 or 800) were invited.
The FOAM was attached with two cables and the flotilla set off on 7 July, the collier SAXON traveling all too slowly behind. The fragile La REINE HORTENSE was soon to be in increasing danger from the ice and the French were required to abandon their journey 100 miles short of Jan Mayen, and return to Reykjavík. So on 11 July they let loose the FOAM to carry on north by sail. This was fortunate in a sense since on their return they were to discover that the SAXON had been damaged by ice, and would have meant that the convoy would have been short of fuel. This effectively cancelled the expedition.

18-20 May 1857 sailed from Bordeaux to Rochefort with the Emperor Napoleon III and Grand Duke Konstantine Nikolayevich of Russia. Then via other French ports to the Isle of Wight and returned back in Calais on 31 May 1857, where after the Grand Duke leaves the vessel and traveled to Brussel.
07 July 1857 back in The Isle of Wight with Prince Napoleon and his suite, where after she sailed via Lerwick and Bergen to the North Cape.
REINE HORTENSE ferried Prince Napoléon Bonaparte from Marseille to Genoa in early 1859 for his marriage to Princess Maria Clotilde of Savoy, and Napoléon III from Marseille to Genoa on 11 and 12 May 1859.
28 June 1860 in the port of Toulon, 12 April 1862 sails from Toulon with the Duchess of Hamilton https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_ ... 80%931888)
In 1862 she was in the Baltic when she gave aid to a British vessel who she towed 80 miles from Bomarsund to Stockholm, on board had been Lord Dufferin, who she was to meet again 3 years later.
21 March1863 arrived in the harbour of Villefrance with the EAGLE.
06 October 1863 arrived on the road of La Rochelle with on board the Emperor.
01 January 1864 returned to the French Navy.
The REINE HORTENSE was recommissioned as the imperial yacht on 20 April 1865 for an official visit of the Emperor to Algeria.
01 October 1865 decommissioned as imperial yacht in Cherbourg.
On 14 February 1867, she was renamed to CASSARD, and commissioned for the Algiers station. She served there until 1881, when she was decommissioned in Toulon before becoming a littoral defence ship
Renamed to FAUNE in 1893, she was used as a hulk in Port-Vendre then munition depot in Toulon. She was eventually broken up in 1920.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_sh ... ard_(1846) http://www.dossiersmarine.org/c-c5.htm
Iceland 1986 12 Kr sg 684, scott ?
Attachments
Reine_Hortense.jpg
1986 REINE HORTENSE.jpg

Post Reply