French frigate Minerve (1831)
Minerve (1831) was a French Navy ship that began as a large warship and ended as a heavy frigate. It started life as a 74-gun ship of the line of the Téméraire class, designed by Jacques-Noël Sané. Ordered in 1807 as Couronne, it was renamed Glorieux in 1812 and Duc de Berry in 1814. Laid down in 1812 at Rochefort, it was launched in 1818 and completed soon after. After the 1830 revolution it became Glorieux again and was renamed Minerve in 1831.
In the 1830s it was razeed to become a 58-gun frigate, transforming from a ship of the line into a large frigate. It served as a major frigate in the early 1830s. The ship was about 56 meters long, 14.5 meters wide, displaced roughly 3,100 tonnes, and had a wartime crew of around 700.
Armament changed with its role: as a line ship it carried heavy 36-pounders and 18-pounders, later a mix of 36-pounder guns and carronades, and eventually served as a gunnery school with a different gun arrangement.
On 10 October 1844 Minerve ran aground off Rhodes, Greece; she was refloated with help from the French brig Alcibiade and six Ottoman ships. Minerve was stricken from the navy list on 12 December 1853 and condemned for demolition in 1874.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 08:25 (CET).