Length of French ships

[NMBROOK]

Hi all

I have a general query regarding how the length of French 17th Century warships were measured.

My question is that Soleil Royal 1692 is quoted by JC Lemineur as having a length of 168 pieds (old French feet) which equates to 54.573m.How is this measured, is it the length of the main gun deck?Different countries seem to have different rules.I have seen this discussed somewhere before and remember length between perpendiculars but not sure which country this applied to?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards

Nigel

 

[Frank48]

Hi all

I have a general query regarding how the length of French 17th Century warships were measured.

My question is that Soleil Royal 1692 is quoted by JC Lemineur as having a length of 168 pieds (old French feet) which equates to 54.573m.How is this measured, is it the length of the main gun deck?Different countries seem to have different rules.I have seen this discussed somewhere before and remember length between perpendiculars but not sure which country this applied to?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards

Nigel

from this text it is recommended by the late Master Boudriot as a Bible of the French Naval Du Monceau. original, Your question should be found here, I hope, second edition

 

[Uwek]

a good question, which I am not able to answer directly

Just checked shortly the data written at three decks



Here the length of the gundeck is mentioned with 170 Pied equivalent to 55,216 meter - source is

Nomenclature des Navires Français de 1661 à 1715 by ​

Alain Demerliac​

who wrote also

La Marine de Louis XIV, Nomenclature des vaisseaux du Roi-Soleil de 1661 à 1715​

which is also available as a print from ancre

NOMENCLATURE DES NAVIRES FRANCAIS, Demerliac

Jean Boudriot et Huber Berti vous présentent la collection archéologie navale.

ancre.fr

Alain Demerliac: books, biography, latest update

Follow Alain Demerliac and explore their bibliography from Amazon.com's Alain Demerliac Author Page.

www.amazon.de

 

[NMBROOK]

Thanks Guys

I did PM Marc (Hubac's Historian) and got some very interesting helpful information.There is some conflict depending on source and the original lengths are based on the sum of gunport widths and intervals which gets rather fuzzy when you get to the rounding of the bow.Couple this with the actual value of a French foot changed whilst Soleil Royal 1692 was being built and we enter an area of ambiguity.

I feel this is something I can only take an educated guess at

Kind Regards

Nigel