Built in 1829 on orders of the French Naval Ministry.
Tonnage 525 tons deadweight, dim. 48 x 11.20m. Her mainmast was 40m. tall.
Launched under the name ALCMÉNE, her name derived from the Greek mythology.
She was built for exploration and was the pride of the 19th century French Navy.
Fitted out already with seawater distillery equipment.
Was used between 1838 and 1851 for three exploration voyages, she visited South America (Brazil and Chile) and the Far East (Macao and Manila).
1844 She visited Naha Harbor, Ryukyus Islands, Japan, for seeking friendly relations and trade, entrusting that a reply to request for trade will be issued to the following ship to call in that port. She sails on to China leaving behind the missionary Theodore Augustine Focade.
From China she set sail for the Southern Oceans, at that time commended for their beauty, but dreaded for their treacheries.
In 1848 she sailed again from a French port for a two year voyage, she was stationed at New Caledonia and used for survey and trade from New Caledonia to Papeete and the Marquises Islands. She visited the Pines Islands and the east coast of New Caledonia.
Some of the crewmembers of the crew of 225 men are remembered in the local geography and history.
The first officer, his name was given to a street in Numea for his participation in the development of the new French founded colony of Port de France. An other officer on board Louis Boch is remembered after his name was given to a small island, Boh Island. Paul Devarenne, the discoverer of the channel of the same name between the Balabio reef and the mainland. Charles Pouthier, Pouthier’s Point is named after him, and Xavier de Saint-Phalle his names were given to three small islands.
The official mission of the corvette was to inspect the French catholic missions and the national whalers in the Pacific, but in reality the essential purpose for the voyage are contained in a secret instruction, which prescribe a detailed investigation of New Caledonia (hydrographic, climatologically studies and ethnography, particularly of the Pines islands as well as sickness found there.) To study the resources of the island and the possibility to establish a penitentiary. She was lost on 3 June 1851 on Bayly Beach far from suspecting that its mission of investigation will have cast the base of a new civilization.
The following comes from New Zealand Shipwrecks by C.W.N.Ingram.
I quote
L’ALCMÉNE, French corvette: When bound from Tasmania to Whagaroa, where she was to load kauri spars, the corvette was totally wrecked between Hokianga and Kaiparu on June 3, 1851.
Twelve members of the crew were lost. The commander of the warship, Captain the Comte Harcourt, lost his reckoning, and finding himself caught in a bight which he could not weather, decided to beach his ship. Heavy seas pounded in on the shore, and the beaching of the corvette resulted in tragedy, ten members of her crew being drowned and a number of others seriously injured.
Even when they reached the shore the Frenchmen had no idea of their whereabouts, and as they did not know how long it would be before they were rescued, they immediately set about building some rough huts out of timber from the wreck. A quantity of supplies was also salvaged from the wreck, so that the castaways were in no immediate danger of starving. When a temporary camp had been established, a party was instructed to go in quest of help. Plodding along the seashore, the party came to the north head and then followed the course of the river until they came in sight of the village of Okaro, which was on the far side of a tidal creek, and housed about 100 Maoris. The day on which the castaways arrived in the village was a Saturday, and as the next day was “Ra Tapu”, or the “sacred day”, the Maoris were not willing to take any immediate steps to organize a rescue party. They suggested, however, that a messenger should be dispatched on horseback to the scene of the wreck, with a letter, and this course was agreed to. Early on the Monday morning a relief party set out from the village.
Two days later the shipwrecked sailors and their Maori rescuers returned to the village, the injured men and the one woman being carried on stretchers. From the village the Frenchmen were conveyed to Auckland in boats and canoes, and were taken charge of by the Government. Later, the Maoris received fitting acknowledgement for all they had done for the sailors from the French Government.
The captain of the L’ALCMÉNE chartered the American ship ALEXANDER to convey the survivors to Tahiti and then to France. The ALEXANDER left Auckland on 1 August, 1851, with 192 survivors of the corvette.
The L’ALCMÉNE was a three-masted vessel mounting 36 guns. Heavy seas and high tides on the west coast beaches of the North Island for several days early in 1934, laid bare part of the wreck of the L’ALCMÉNE at Bayley’s Gorge, the site of the wreck.
Unquote
Parts of her and relics you can find in the Dargaville museum, New Zealand which I visited a few years ago.
New Caledonia 2002 210F sg?, scott?