The Battle of La Hougue, 1692: A portrait of the early French Navy of Colbert

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Current Research and On Going Projects at the J Richard Steffy Ship Reconstruction Laboratory" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

During the Nine Years War (1688-97), Louis XIV of France was fighting most of the other European powers, both in Europe and the Americas. By 1692, France’s earlier victories had provided the opportunity for a large invasion force to cross the English Channel near La Hougue. The fleet was attacked by a combined English-Dutch squadron that destroyed most of the French vessels. Five shipwrecks associated with the French forces were located by recreational divers in 1985. Built in different shipyards and a few years apart from each other, the wrecks demonstrate various techniques and shipbuilding traditions at a time when the French navy was beginning to standardize ship construction. This paper addresses an overview of the features from the La Hougue wrecks as part of the first extensive analysis of the site.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2019   •
• Current Research and On Going Projects at the J Richard Steffy Ship Reconstruction Laboratory

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 199