Belle-Poule and Cassard

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Belle-Poule and Cassard

Post by shipstamps » Sat Mar 28, 2009 11:11 am


On the 15f, stamp is the portrait of Prince de Joinville, one of the sons of King Louis-Phillipe. He was a brilliant naval officer and was responsible for the building of the first ship-of-the-line with an engine, at a time when most nations thought steam propulsion was only for smaller vessels such as sloops and harbour tugs. He was the admiral commanding the French fleet at the bombardment of Tangier in 1844, and took Mogador, quieting the Sultan of Morocco, and stopping a revolt.
The two ships on the stamp, my French correspondent believes, are the frigate Belle-Poule, which went to St. Helena Island and brought back to France the remains of Napoleon in 1840, and the Cassard in the background. The Prince de Joinville was in command of the Belle-Poule both at St. Helena and on the second occasion at the visit to St. Pierre and Miquelon when her consort was the Cassard.
The Belle-Poule was laid down in 1828 at Cherbourg and launched in 1834. She was armed with 30 long 30-pounders in the battery and on the deck with four 8-pounders and 26 30-pound carronades. She wore the flag of Joinville in 1844, after the North African campaign, on October 7-8, when, in company with the Pluton, Elan and Caiman, she escorted the frigate Gamer carrying King Louis-Phillipe for his visit to Queen Victoria. The Belle-Poule was used as an ammunition storeship at the begining of the Crimean War in 1854, but her sailing qualities and speed were still so good that she was rearmed as a warship, undertaking several cruises in the Black Sea with the Allied fleets in search of the Russian fleet. She became a store ship again during the campaign in Italy in 1859, and was erased from the active list in 1865 but was kept as an ammunition ship and renamed La Paudriere in 1865. She was condemned in 1888.
The Cassard was a 20-gun brig, also the third vessel to bear this name since 1795, laid down at L'Orient in 1829 and launched in 1832. She spent the best part of her career in the West Indies and South America, She was also present at the bombardment of Tangier and Mogador in 1844, and was erased from the French Navy List in 1851.
Sea Breezes January 1969.
St Pierre & Miquelon SG452.

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