French Career
Oriflamme served during the Seven Years' War, and had an encounter with a superior British squadron in late February 1758, when she was chased off the Spanish coast by the 60-gun HMS Montagu, under Captain Joshua Rowley and the 74-gun HMS Monarch under Captain John Montagu. They chased Oriflamme onshore, but owing to Spain's neutrality at the time, did not attempt to destroy her, and Oriflamme was later salvaged.
Oriflamme again encountered the British, this time when she was chased by the 50-gun HMS Isis, under Captain Edward Wheeler, off the Mediterranean coast of Morocco on 1 April 1761. The two engaged at 6pm, with Wheeler being killed early in the exchange of fire. Command then devolved to Lieutenant Cunningham, who on seeing that the French ship was trying to escape towards Spain, ran aboard her, and soon forced her to strike her colours. Oriflamme, which had been armed en flûte and was carrying between 40 and 50 guns during the action, had 50 killed and wounded from her complement of around 370. Isis had four killed, including Wheeler, and nine wounded. The captured Oriflamme was brought into Gibraltar.
Read more about this topic: French Ship Oriflamme (1744)
Famous quotes containing the words french and/or career:
“Sanity is the lot of those who are most obtuse, for lucidity destroys one’s equilibrium: it is unhealthy to honestly endure the labors of the mind which incessantly contradict what they have just established.”
—Georges, French novelist, critic. L’Abbé C, pt. 2, ch. 17 (1950)
“I’ve been in the twilight of my career longer than most people have had their career.”
—Martina Navratilova (b. 1956)