L' Hermione Canon Confusion Cleared Up!

[Thagarr]

Just to clear up a bit of confusion in a couple of my articles on L' Hermione, and of course to post as many pictures and videos as I can find of her, I wanted to share some information I have found about her during the past couple of days. One of the issues we have always had here at PA is translation between many different languages which sometimes leads to confusion and misunderstanding, and that is certainly the case with some of the L' Hermione articles I have been reading in French through Google Translate.

The article I posted last week about her guns stated that she had 27, at the time that is correct, however there is one more gun on the way and she will have a total of 28! That will be 4 less than the real 1779 Hermione which had 32 guns. I was a bit confused myself as to why the odd number of guns. The final gun is no currently on it's way to L' Hermione during a 3 week voyage that will take it on a bit of a tour through the surrounding area. This last gun will be part of several festivals held along the path of it's journey to join the rest of it's battery compliment on June 21'st.

Here is a video of her canon being forged and bored at Foundry SAFEM.

There has also been a bit of confusion on when she is set to begin her sea trials. Everything I had found earlier stated that they would start in September, well according to what I have found in some of the articles I have translated lately, she will actually be launched in late July! Which hopefully means some great video of her under full sail soon!

The French are making a grand display of pomp and circumstance throughout this whole process of fitting out this grand lady, and rightly so in my opinion. I only hope when she does arrive in the harbor at Yorktown, VA on the east coast of the US in late April 2015, she is greeted with the same ceremony, respect, and dignity that the French people have shown!

More video of her first sails going up back in April!

Here are some links to the original French press articles I have been reading and translating, I wish now I had taken those French classes in highschool! If those of you more fluent in French than Google would like to help in the translation that Google got wrong, that would be greatly appreciated! www.sudouest.fr, and HERE, and www.charentelibre.fr, where there is also some good video of the last canon being drawn by horse and wagon!

**Edited to add video of an actual ceremony**

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Ah, so that's it. The last cannon is on tour.

 

[Thagarr]

Yup! I haven't found any information about where or when they are going to test fire her guns, I am really hoping we get some video of that as well!

 

[Ashinokami]

Fascinating stuff as always with L'Hermione, too bad I'm not jobless and in France.. They write the ship to have all modern creature comforts, would like to see at least a single ship going for months à l'ancienne, would make a great documentary. By the way, I'm competent in french at least to read proficiently, so can help clear up things if needed, pm.

 

[Thagarr]

They are going to make a documentary about her, but I have found no real details on it yet. I hope it's a good long one covering the whole 17 years from conception to completion. They are also going to make a reality show, which has me a bit concerned ...but if done properly, that could really be entertaining and educational.

Thanks for your translation offer mate, I will certainly take you up on it when she actually hits the open ocean!

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Hmm. Now I'm wondering if they made the cannons and balls to modern tolerances or kept them period correct. That is "loose".

 

[Ashinokami]

Unless they let americans do the reality show, we can rest easy. Europeans are pretty good at it. BBC's "Georgian/Victorian farm" for ex. was a decent watch for a limited number of episodes. I actually waited until someone makes one about ships, ever since I read Sindbad's journey by Tim Severin, and he sailed from Oman to China on a coconut rope-sewn lateen rigger! Navigating by the stars!

 

[Thagarr]

Hylie, that is yet another question I don't think I have seen answered anywhere, but it is possible I may have missed it. From what I have seen, they have tried their best to keep everything period accurate while still conforming to modern law. I really have no idea what laws would govern a canon armed vessel, especially with all the terrorist inspired over reaction in recent years.

 

[Thagarr]

Ashinokami, I certainly hope that it is not an American production company, or all we will see is fighting and conflict about who is sleeping with who.

Hopefully after the Gala in New York in October we will found out quite a bit more about a lot of things. They are also planning on making a PC game!

 

[Ashinokami]

The guys in the forgery video say it's a challenge to get the gun shape right, as they were cast for original Hermione, but the rest is technicalities, that will be mastered along the way and the result will be 'correct'. The next person seconds him that having exact guns in terms of weight is very important to have correct vessel load and subsequently test ship's navigational properties. The voiceover says process was driven by this double imperative: historical form and weight.
.. And it might become us that actually make said game. Actually I let myself daydream that with the HoO sailing system ironed out, PA! could approach them to do such a project as a DLC for HoO or standalone, as means to get some funds into HoO development.

 

[Thagarr]

Thanks for the translation mate, much appreciated!

That there is a good daydream mate, and it is now a lot closer to reality than any of us ever thought possible a few years ago.

 

[Armada]

I guess there's nothing to stop us from at least including a model of L'Hermione in HoO. She's just about right for the first time period, anyway.

 

[Captain Armstrong]

I guess there's nothing to stop us from at least including a model of L'Hermione in HoO. She's just about right for the first time period, anyway.

As much as I'd like to see her included, more like the one after it ...she and the other french 12pdr 36s of 1779 were a fair bit larger and more powerful than earlier 12pdr designs, with the exception of a few one-off designs like the Danae. A lot of stylistic anachronisms as well for the 1750s/60s. But she and her sister ships were prime sailers! Hopefully the replica has the same qualities

 

[Armada]

OK, perhaps we ought to discuss (in a new thread) where to draw the lines between the eventual time periods, so we're all on the same page.