# Romaine-class frigate

The Romaine class was a class of nine frigates of the French Navy, designed in 1794 by Pierre-Alexandre Forfait. They were originally designated as "bomb-frigates" (Fr. frégate-bombarde) and were intended to carry a main armament of twenty 24-pounder guns and a 12-inch mortar mounted on a turntable in front of the mizzen mast. Experience quickly led to the mortars being removed (in most vessels they were never fitted), and the 24-pounders were replaced by 18-pounder guns. The ships also featured a shot furnace, but they proved impractical, dangerous to the ships themselves, and were later discarded. A further eleven ships ordered to this design in 1794 were not built, or were completed to altered designs.
Two vessels of the class became breakwaters in less than 15 years after their construction. The British Royal Navy captured three. One was lost at sea. None had long active duty careers. All-in-all, these ships do not appear to have been successful with the initially intended armament, but proved of adequate performance once their heavy mortar was removed and their 24-pounders replaced with 18-pounder long guns.

## Vessels in class

* Romaine
    Builder: Le Havre
    Begun: March 1794
    Launched: 25 September 1794
    Completed: December 1794
    Fate: Condemned 1804.
* Immortalité
    Builder: Lorient
    Begun: May 1794
    Launched: 7 January 1795
    Completed: February 1795
    Fate: Captured by the British Navy on 20 October 1798, becoming HMS Immortalite.
* Impatiente
    Builder: Lorient
    Begun: May 1794
    Launched: 12 March 1795
    Completed: May 1795
    Fate: Wrecked off Cape Clear on 29 December 1796.
* Incorruptible
    Builder: Dieppe
    Begun: March 1794
    Launched: 20 May 1795
    Completed: December 1795
    Fate: Deleted 1815.
* Revanche
    Builder: Dieppe
    Begun: March 1794
    Launched: 31 August 1795
    Completed: December 1795
    Fate: Deleted 1818 or 1819.
* Libre
    Builder: Le Havre
    Begun: August 1794
    Launched: 11 February 1796
    Completed: January 1798
    Fate: Captured by the British Navy in December 1805, but not added to the British Navy.
* Comète
    Builder: Le Havre
    Begun: September 1794
    Launched: 11 March 1796
    Completed: January 1798
    Fate: Converted to a breakwater 1808, taken to pieces 1810.
* Désirée
    Builder: Dunkirk
    Begun: February 1794
    Launched: 23 April 1796
    Completed: December 1798
    Fate: Captured by the British Navy on 8 July 1800, becoming HMS Desiree.
* Poursuivante
    Builder: Dunkirk
    Begun: February or April 1794
    Launched: 24 May 1796
    Completed: April 1798
    Fate: Condemned 1805, made a breakwater 1806 or 1807.
Twenty ships of this type were originally included in the shipbuilding programme placed between October 1794 and April 1794, but several appear not to have been begun. Apart from the nine listed above, a tenth vessel, Furieuse, was begun at Cherbourg in March 1795 to the same design but was completed as a vessel of Forfait's earlier Seine class. An eleventh, Pallas (originally named Première) was begun at Saint-Malo in November 1795 to a much modified design; a twelfth, Fatalité was also ordered in October 1793 at Saint-Malo, but was cancelled in 1796, as was a further vessel, Nouvelle, ordered in 1794 at Lorient. Another vessel, Guerrière, was begun at Cherbourg in 1796 to this design but was also completed to a modified design.