Our Only Trafalgar Prize.

New Zealand Illustrated Magazine, 1 April 1905, Page 44

Our Only Trafalgar Prize.

The fate of an historic man of war, the only other existing ship .'besides the Victory of all the sixty vessels that fought at Trafalgar, is .at this moment — in the centenary year of Trafalgar— before the Admiralty for decision. The question is whether she shall be preserved, and possibly brought round to the Thames to lie, as ,a national relic, <on show off Greenwich Hospital, or go at once to the ship-breaker. The ship whose fate hangs in the balance is the old ImplacaFole at Devonport, and she is actually the only line-of-'battle ship originally of foreign nationality that now remains in the British Navy. For some time past the old vessel has formed a part of the floating establishment composed of two ships which have for so many years lain moored together, and officially known as the " Lion/ at Devonport. The man of war Lion, which ■gave the name to the two, was 'built at Pembroke in 1847.

This is. the 'lmplacable' s story, a very stirring one. . Originally built as the Duguay Trouin, in the days of the old French Monarchy, she wasi foalf burned to the water's edge by the British at Toulon, in 1793, salve*! and rigged,, and carried round to Rochfort to be rebuilt into .a. new ship there. . In 1803, the -ship, in company with. the 40-giiin frigate Guerriere, was .making . her way from the West Indies back to Burppe, when she was attacked, -very pluckily, by the British frigate Bo^idicea, of 38 guns. The Boadicea,

of course, could do little against such odds, particularly as there was a 'French 40-gun frigate with the Duguay Trouin, and had to haul off. She was fortunate to escape capture as the reward of her temerity. At a later period of the voyage the Duguay Trouin and Guerriere were assailed by a British seventy -four,, the Culloden ; but they got into Corunna after a desultory action. The Duguay Trouin wjas engaged at Trafalgar as one of the French van squadron, though she did not play a prominent part in the battle, at the close of which she made her escape with three other French vessels under the command of Admiral Dumanoir. On November sth, 1805, this squadron was brought to action 'by Sir Richard Strachan, off Cape Fmisterre, with the result that the whole four ships were captured. In' spite of what they had experienced at Trafalgar, the morale of the Frenchmen was good to the last, and their defence admirable. The four ships, before they surrendered, lost 730 men in killed and wounded, of whom 150 fell on board the Duguay Trouin. The ship, on being 'brought to England, was added to the British Navy, under the rather meaningless name of Implacable. Duguay Trouin was apparently thought too big a mouthful for our Jacks to manage. ! In 1808, in the campaign that resulted from the Treaty of Tilsit, she formed one of a fleet sent to the Baltic against the Russians. There, in conjunction with the Centaur, she had a smart engagement with the

Russian fleet, and took the first Russian man of war ever taken by the Royal Navy. For that, also, the Implacable was awarded her first naval medal in the British service. In 1809 she captured a Russian fleet of guniboats and powder ships for the Russian Army. For this gallant exploit she received. a second naval medal. In 1839 she formed one of a fleet sent to the coast of Syria during the war between the Turks and Egyptians.

This was the Implacable 5 s last seagoing commission, and on her return to Devonport she carried a " cock }> at the masthead to denote that she was "cock of the walk," or smartest ship in the Mediterranean Fleet. After this the Implacable was laid up as a hulk at Devonport until June, 1855> when she was commissioned as a training ship in Plymouth Sound. In 1860 she was taken to her present moorings in Devonport Harbour as a training ship for boys. In 1871 the

Lion was attached to her, and the two have formed part of one "establishment" until now, when it has been decided to remove the boys to a " stone frigate " ashore a>n'd dispose of the two old ships. They were finally put out of commission on December 31st, 1904. That the fate of the Implacable wants watching is obvious. Less than twenty years ago (in 1888) the Admiralty quietly sold the old Canopus, the last of Nelson's Nile prizes, a ship

named at Nelson's own instance, for firewood, and everyone knows how the Foudroyant, after that, found her way to a German timber merchant's yard on the Elbe. On board the old ship there are tothis hour many curious mementos of her former days. Inscribed in scroll-work in one part of the ship is her name and date of launch " Duguay Trouin : 1793/' To this was added on her coming into British hands : " Implacable r 1805," with the battle honours, added

Mer, " SeVblo<l : 1808," ■'•' Baltic : 1809."'.; Ai Ertglisii 32-pr, xqtiM s^ot fired into the ship, at^rafeigar vfras cut put of the frame -timers" of the stern during &om^ repair^ totHe vessel a fe% yeairs ago, . >n& the ovetMad bedms of the drlop deck are still deeply scored aiid . covl-ted with the carvings and flevices cat in, -them by the original French crew at Trafalgar while confined below •as prisoners of war on their way to England. It is said of the iigurelaead that it is actually the ship's original French figure-head, carved to represent the Corsair- Admiral Duguay Trouin, in the wig and garb of sea officer of Louis the Fourteenth's time, as shaved away in part& and altered to represent a •stern-faced nondescript personage by the Plymouth Dockyard carvers in 1806, when the British name of Implacable was sriven the vessel. — " Daily Graphic."