AHOY Mates!, So I thought this would be a good topic to link to my new Flickr set of 17th century French warships. Bava gave me links to a bunch of new images. He is also building one. Also the links Seb provided were a good source as well to finish this set.
I have been collecting images of the French ships for a while, but they are harder to find. Even though the French ships of the 17th century are very beautiful, there are just not near as many plans, paintings, or models of them as other nations like Spain, Holland and England.
This is very interesting when you consider that France under the Sun King - Louis XIV was THE European superpower of the time - in terms of their armed forces. They were a close second in income/revenue to the Dutch Republic, which allowed them to continually fund and stay at war. Poor Britain was just the opposite. They were always broke and couldn't pay the Army and Navy. Their population was five times larger than the Dutch, but they were mostly peasants. The Dutch took advantage of that problem on several notable occasions.
France on the other hand enjoyed lots of manpower AND coin to pay soldiers and sailors -- all that remained was to arm them. However the French arms industry was inferior to that of their neighbors. Their iron "mixtures" were known to be very poor. Because of this, the French imported the majority of their weapons from other countries. The vast majority of their ordinance came from the Dutch Republic. The same can also be said of their ships - which I believe is the reason there is a lack of surviving examples.
From my research I learned that the French produced only one quarter of its own ships and the rest (3 quarters) were imported from other countries. At a time when literally eighty percent of the worlds ships had been built in Dutch shipyards OR by Dutch shipwrights in foreign ports, it is not a stretch to say that 80 percent of those imports (of ships) into France were also of Dutch manufacture.
Evidence for this is heavily reflected in the surviving contemporary drawings of the Van de Veldes. It is fascinating to note the clearly Dutch lines and common Dutch stern shapes covered in French style decorative ornamentation. I have managed to find a lot of these drawings for this set!
Even in some of the exclusively French designed models you will see a slight Dutch and English influence "hints" on some ships. However, the beautiful flowing French ornamentation is exclusively identifiable as a form of its own. THAT - is what I personally love about French 17th century ships. We need more of these ships. I am reskinning a couple we have to be more authentic for GOF Eras using these pics.
If anyone has anymore examples of these beautiful ships, please provide them to me to share with others - and everyone as obsessed with 17th/early 18th sailing ships as much as I. Obviously no copyright infringement is intended nor are these images used or to be used for profit. They are to be used for educational purposes only covered under USC 107
MK
http://www.flickr.com/photos/49225014@N05/sets/72157632135025276/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/49225014@N05/sets/72157632135025276/show/
I have been collecting images of the French ships for a while, but they are harder to find. Even though the French ships of the 17th century are very beautiful, there are just not near as many plans, paintings, or models of them as other nations like Spain, Holland and England.
This is very interesting when you consider that France under the Sun King - Louis XIV was THE European superpower of the time - in terms of their armed forces. They were a close second in income/revenue to the Dutch Republic, which allowed them to continually fund and stay at war. Poor Britain was just the opposite. They were always broke and couldn't pay the Army and Navy. Their population was five times larger than the Dutch, but they were mostly peasants. The Dutch took advantage of that problem on several notable occasions.
France on the other hand enjoyed lots of manpower AND coin to pay soldiers and sailors -- all that remained was to arm them. However the French arms industry was inferior to that of their neighbors. Their iron "mixtures" were known to be very poor. Because of this, the French imported the majority of their weapons from other countries. The vast majority of their ordinance came from the Dutch Republic. The same can also be said of their ships - which I believe is the reason there is a lack of surviving examples.
From my research I learned that the French produced only one quarter of its own ships and the rest (3 quarters) were imported from other countries. At a time when literally eighty percent of the worlds ships had been built in Dutch shipyards OR by Dutch shipwrights in foreign ports, it is not a stretch to say that 80 percent of those imports (of ships) into France were also of Dutch manufacture.
Evidence for this is heavily reflected in the surviving contemporary drawings of the Van de Veldes. It is fascinating to note the clearly Dutch lines and common Dutch stern shapes covered in French style decorative ornamentation. I have managed to find a lot of these drawings for this set!
Even in some of the exclusively French designed models you will see a slight Dutch and English influence "hints" on some ships. However, the beautiful flowing French ornamentation is exclusively identifiable as a form of its own. THAT - is what I personally love about French 17th century ships. We need more of these ships. I am reskinning a couple we have to be more authentic for GOF Eras using these pics.
If anyone has anymore examples of these beautiful ships, please provide them to me to share with others - and everyone as obsessed with 17th/early 18th sailing ships as much as I. Obviously no copyright infringement is intended nor are these images used or to be used for profit. They are to be used for educational purposes only covered under USC 107
MKhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/49225014@N05/sets/72157632135025276/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/49225014@N05/sets/72157632135025276/show/
