Some Basic Facts

This corvette is especially well known today because the Marquess de Courtanvaux had a 1/12 scale model made by a certain Poi de Coeur of La Havre and Mathieu Chopin, master and commander of the corvette by the king's orders since 19 April 1767, after his return at Le Havre on August 28 1767.

As far as the real ship is concerned, The Marquess called on Nicolas Ozanne for the construction which was completed in Mai 1767, but it is not certain whether he also participated in the design. In any case, Ozanne left us an engraving depicting the launching of l'Aurore. After it was accepted by the purchaser, the balance achieved between the refinement of its shape and its sailing qualities was much admired.

After completion of the fitting out process, departure from Le Havre to Calais, initially planned for May 21, was delayed until the 25th because of bad weather. Poor weather again delayed departure from Calais until June 6, before reaching Dunkirk where it stayed until June 20 before starting on the trip to Rotterdam.

During the voyage to the North, the Marquess received some visitors who came to admire the elegant corvette and called at some ports like Delft and The Hague.

Leaving from the mouth of the Maas River on July 8, the ship crossed the Zuiderzee to arrive at Amsterdam on the 11th. Leaving this port on the 22nd of this same month, l'Aurore returned to Calais on August 5 and reached Le Havre on Aug 27 1767, after some side pleasure trips by the Marquess.

At the end of the voyage it was observed that one of the chronometers had deviated by 5 minutes on the trip North and 51 seconds on the return trip, while the second one had only deviated by 15 and a half seconds.

Many details on the ship suggest inspiration from British Navy usage: The boomkins are held in place by a metal rod rather than shrouds, The channels are reinforced with brackets, The height of hatch coamings is fairly great, the bowsprit bees are of British type, the mizzen is gaff-rigged, the design of the tops is not according to French usage and the rigging shows many characteristics borrowed from our neighbors across the Channel.