by Ulrich Guenther
Categories:
- Build type: [Corel][Kit]
- Material: [Wood]
- Scale: [1:50]
- Subject Type: [Sloop-of-War]
- Era: [1700-1815]
- Nationality: [France]
- Propulsion: [Sail]
About the Vessel
This model is built from a kit manufactured by Corel. Corel’s website lists it as a privateer and states that its true history is unknown:
In the last quarter of the 18th century, privateers were generally small fast merchant vessels. Carrying a large area of sail and highly armed with small calibre guns, unlike “pirate” ships, these vessels flew their national flag. The corvette TONNANT, a late 18th century French privateer, was particuarly representative of this class of vessel. The fragmentary nature of the historical information available to us does not allow us to trace a complete history of this vessel and the fact that several sailing ships of this period bore the same name (for example, the much more famous 80-gunner which was sunk at Abukir in 1798) makes it difficult to be certain that any references actually refer to this ship
http://www.corel-srl.it/pdf/tonnant.pdf
However, there is a French Navy corvette (not a privateer) named Étonnante from the same period and mounting the same number of guns. This could be the vessel that Corel intended to represent. Links to Étonnante have been provided below.
