The Henri IV was a 100-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, named after Henry IV of France. She was launched in 1848. Her shipwreck in a storm off Sebastopol in 1854 marked the beginnings of French meteorology.
History
Henri IV was the last warship launched under Louis Philippe I and also saw service under the French Second Republic and Second French Empire. She was commanded by Louis Henri de Gueydon from 1850 to 1852[1] and took part in the bombardment of Salé on 26 November 1851, suffering major damage and losing her main mast.[2]
She also fought in the Crimean War, including the Siege of Sevastopol. A major hurricane took the Allied fleet by surprise off the coast of Eupatoria on 14 November 1854, sinking the Henri IV and the corvette Pluton.[3] They were two of 38 French, Ottoman and British ships lost in November 1854. The sinking of the Henri IV proved a spur to French meteorological research.[4][5]
Bibliography
- Frédéric Zurcher and Élie-Philippe Margollé, Les Naufrages célèbres, Paris : Hachette, 1873 - 3rd edition, 1877, chap.19, pp. 184–195 [1]
References
External links
Media related to Henri IV (ship, 1848) at Wikimedia Commons
