Succeeded by Surveillante class | Preceded by Forte class Completed 9 | |
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Builders Le Havre (3); Dieppe (2); Dunkirk (2); Lorient (2) Operators | ||
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
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.