Documents Relating to the Official Dutch Naval Visit to Cherbourg, 8–10 September 1786

Abstract

AbstractThis group of letters offers an insight into the value of the Franco-Dutch treaty of cooperation; although only half-finished, the new roadstead at Cherbourg was viewed as the basis of a new combined force able to challenge British hegemony in Channel waters.Key words: Franco-Dutch treatyCherbourgcrisis 1787French Channel port Notes1 Archives national, Paris: MAR D2 14, 426; and MAR D2 13, 4452 This is specified by Article IV of the treaty, ratified by the Dutch on 12 Dec and the French on 15 Dec. 1785, exchange made 20 Dec.3 Browning (ed.) Despatches from Paris, vol 1, 126.4 The rade at this point offered no protection from a westerly wind.5 The forts, and their armament, remained far from complete.6 Harcourt provides Melvill (Pieter baron Melvill van Carnbee, 1743–1826) with the approximately equivalent French title of chevalier.7 Harcourt is referring to the Fourth Anglo-Dutch war of 1780–84.8 Two redundant ships, the Triton (64), 1747, and the Brillant (64), 1774, were sent to Cherbourg to demonstrate the shelter provided by the breakwater and to be used as depots and barracks as required.9 Woensel uses the plural here to denote the whole of the plateau.10 This is now known as the passe Collignon. Its use was developed as a shortcut from the stone depot at Le Becquet to the breakwater site.11 Following the visit of the comte d’Artois, the king’s youngest brother, in May1786, the fort du Hommet was renamed in his honour.12 An N cardinal buoy still marks these rocks.13 This not entirely accurate idea dates back to Vauban’s Memoire sur les fortifications de Cherbourg of 1686.14 The descent of the English for a week in 1758 was another reason to fortify the rade at Cherbourg.15 This was repeatedly confirmed during the period of the breakwater’s construction, and nearly resulted in its cancellation as early as 1784.16 This is an exaggeration. A cone required around 30,000 cubic feet of timber, a frigate some 50,000 cubic feet.17 45,360 tonnes.18 A cone sunk and filled with stone cost around 300,000 livres tournois, or 15,000 pounds sterling.19 This is corroborated by the PS of Harcourt’s letter to Castries.20 Masonry was already recommended by Belidor in his Architecture hydraulique of 1753. There was much debate about how to complete the breakwater as it became apparent the cones were unable to resist wave action.21 The fort de Querqueville was still only a project at this point.22 The Service historique de la défense is today housed in this naval barracks.23 The site had been proposed as a harbour from the beginning of the eighteenth century, see Battesti, ‘Vauban thuriferaire de Cherbourg’, 75–96. Detailed plans were drawn up in 1778 by military engineers, see Service historique de la défense, Vincennes: 1VH 575.24 A recurrent myth of the period; this vantage point, the montagne du Roule, offers a fine view but only as far as the shipping lanes, less than halfway across the Channel.25 In 1789 La Bretonnière calculated there was still only room for 40 warships.26 The hosts have provided full details of their roles, although they might have mentioned that the inventor of the cones, Ponts et Chaussées engineer Louis-Alexandre de Cessart, was the director of the works at Cherbourg until 1791.Additional informationNotes on contributorsSteve FraserSteve Fraser retired as head of Classics at Thomas Hardye School, Dorchester Dorset in 2015, where he completed a book-length study of the history of the school and its founders, sections of which have won awards and been published in the Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society. For the last decade he has been researching the development of the port of Cherbourg and the construction of its breakwater; he has had several articles published in the Chronique d’histoire maritime in France, and is at present completing a book on the subject for publication next year. Steve, who lives in Weymouth, is a keen cross-Channel sailor and races regularly at Cherbourg with the Cherbourg Yacht Club while on research visits to the archives there.