While learning new things about Napoleon, I came across this floating contraption. I guess, some prisoner claimed that such a thing was in the works. Considering that it was supposed to be made of wood (pictures suggest that), the entire idea looks uber bizarre (unless it was supposed to be made of iron). The rigidity of a wooden construction would have hardly supported its size. Sounds like it was never made, but who knows?
KD: Per the narrative, the invasion did not happened.
I was unable to find any texts pertaining to 1798, or to any one of the designs. The "windmill" propulsion was mentioned 38 years later, in this 1836 book.
In 1855 they called it "a new system of propelling vessels".
They were still talking about these "windmill powered ships" in 1872. Sounds like there was at least one in operation at some point.
KD: Just figured it was worth sharing. Wondering if they actually had something like this fully operational in 1798...
- 600 feet long, 300 feet wide, loaded with 500 guns, 36 and 48 pounders, and is capable of transporting 15,000 troops
- An Exact representation of a raft, and its apparatus, as invented by the French for their proposed invasion of England.
- A new Machine (or Raft) to cover (or protect) the Landing of the French on their intended Invasion of England.
- This is another variation on the supposed raft being built by the French for the invasion of Britain in early 1798.
- Unlike other prints produced during this wave of paranoia in London, which represent the vessel as an excessively fantastic contraption more appropriate to the tales of Baron Münchhausen, this print pares it down to a severe geometric symmetry to assert its claim to being based in fact.
- Indeed, a greater air of authority is lent by the claim that the engraving is made after an original drawing by a French prisoner of war, and by the wealth of statistical detail in the caption.
- The machine is described as: ‘2,100 Feet long, and 1,500 Feet broad; has 500 Cannon round it, 36 and 48 Pounders; at each end is two Wind Mills, which turns Wheels in the Water at every point of the Wind to Navigate; in the middle is a Fort enclosing Mortars, Perriers.
- It carries 60,000 Men, Cavalry, Infantry, and Artillery.’
- Nonetheless, this does not disguise the unseaworthiness of the ‘new machine’, and neither is there any firm evidence that such a vessel was being constructed on the north French coast at this time.
- The destruction of the French raft by an English frigate mand by brave British tars. 6 February 1798.
KD: Per the narrative, the invasion did not happened.
I was unable to find any texts pertaining to 1798, or to any one of the designs. The "windmill" propulsion was mentioned 38 years later, in this 1836 book.
In 1855 they called it "a new system of propelling vessels".
They were still talking about these "windmill powered ships" in 1872. Sounds like there was at least one in operation at some point.
KD: Just figured it was worth sharing. Wondering if they actually had something like this fully operational in 1798...
