A Napoleonic French prisoner of war model of a Nile Prize
25
Overall Length: 14 ¼ in (36cm)
This partial full hull model of a French two-decker warship of 80-gun ports is made from fruitwood, whale baleen, bone and brass nails. The upper deck and bulwark screens are decorated with baleen; complete with intricately carved stern and quarter galleries, the bow adorned with a classical warrior figurehead in bone. English, circa 1800. During the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (17931815), large numbers of French prisoners were housed in open prisons throughout Britain. To help pass the time and generate a small income, they would make a variety of objects - including ship models - from simple, easilysourced materials such as bone and wood for sale at local markets. Typically, the models were not made to scale as accurate scale plans were not available and tools were limited. To realise a good price at market, the models were often named after famous ships of the time. The present model appears to represent Canopus a French-built 80-gun battleship of the Tonnant class with the horseshoe, or half-moon, shaped stern typical of the design. The British had very few 80-gun ships in this period, preferring the 74-gun for being almost as good and rather cheaper. All but one of the eight French Tonnant class ships were either captured or destroyed by the Royal Navy. One captured ship, the synonymous HMS Tonnant, was commanded by Sir Edward Pellew in 1803 (see the Pellew Sword page 82).
The classical warrior figurehead with Athenian helmet, sword and shield echo the attributes of Canopus, the pilot of the ship of King Menelaus of Sparta during the Trojan War. The figurehead also takes the full figure form of the French style, rather than the truncated British style of figurehead. Canopus was built at Toulon in 1797, and originally named Franklin, for the American polymath and Founding Father Benjamin Franklin. Franklin was the flagship of the French second-in-command at the Battle of the Nile, where the ship distinguished itself in the action against Nelson’s fleet with fierce resistance before being forced to surrender with over half the crew dead or wounded. Refitted and re-commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Canopus, the ship was captained by Francis Austen (1774-1865), the elder brother of the novelist Jane Austen. In February 1806, Austen commanded Canopus at the Battle of San Domingo (see Duckworth Silver pages 44-46). After the war, Canopus was laid up for many years at Devonport, and eventually broken up in 1887. As a celebrated ship and veteran of the Battle of the Nile which had served in both the French and Royal navies, Canopus was an obvious and commercial inspiration for a French prisoner-of-war looking to make and sell a model. His familiarity with the ship’s unusual design suggests he may have served in Franklin before capture, possibly at the Battle of the Nile.
