Best books to reference 18th Century French Warships

[admiralackbar86]

Hello all. I recently purchased the Sail and Sail Le Belle Poule kit. All of my models have been of English vessels so far and reference material for English 18th century ships are very easy to come across, yet when I look for French Navy books the pickings seem pretty slim. What books that are in English would you recommend to learn about French Warships during the 18th/ early 19th century, I am mainly focused on Frigates but would love to learn about ships of the line as well. I did purchase the Ancre Le Belle Poule monograph, but would love to learn more general information about the French Navy.

 

[Herman]

My first thought would be to check out the Ancre.fr books, but it looks like you've probably already looked around there.

Further maybe 2 books in the series of Warships in the Age of Sail are interesting :

• French Warships in the Age of Sail 1626-1786
• French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786-1862.

 

[admiralackbar86]

My first thought would be to check out the Ancre.fr books, but it looks like you've probably already looked around there.

For whatever reason I was thinking that Ancre were more specific books geared towards one vessel, now looking taking another look I see they have a book on French Frigates and several on Ships of the Line, i think these plus the others you mentioned should scratch my itch. Thank you.

 

[Powder Monkey]

They are beautiful ships ( French) .
I am reading about J P Jones novel “ Man of Action”

Quote IRT French vs English ships .
“Our ( English ) own men of war were so badly designed and proportioned that they were said to have been built by the mile and cut off as required”

 

[Roman]

Actually there is plenty of information on French frigates directly from ANCRE. “History of the French Frigate” by Boudriot comes to mind along with a variety of other monographs of which Belle Poule is but one of them. Although expensive I would invest in “The 74 Gun Ship” also by Boudriot, the base for understanding much of the French ship building program in the 18th Century. Well worth the investment. All from ANCRE.