L’Orenoque, French steam troop transport (1848)

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Vessel type: Three masted barque rigged frigate/troop transport with steam-powered side wheels

Designer: Unknown

Builder: French, location unknown

Keel Laid: 1841

Launched: 1843

Date Delivered: 1843

Date Modified: No modifications recorded during navy service

Date Scrapped: Not known, sold out of the Navy in 1878 for whaling service.

Length on deck: about 277 feet

Length over all: about 204 feet

Beam: about 37.5 feet and about 60 feet across the paddlewheel boxes

Height: about 133 feet

Depth: about 29 feet

Draft: about 17 feet

Gross Tonnage: unknown

Lightweight Tonnage: unknown

Maximum Displacement: 2568 tons

Construction Material: Wood

Rig Type: Three masted barque

Sail area: unknown

Crew Size: unknown

Passenger Capacity: unknown

Propulsion Plant: Reciprocating steam engine driving side paddle wheels

Horsepower: Unknown

Cruising Speed: Unknown

Maximum Speed: Unknown

Armament: about 24 guns

L’Orenoque was designed and built as a Troop transport, particularly for cavalry during the steam era for the French armed forces. She was an advanced hybrid steam and sail vessel that had real steam propulsion but continued to have a real sailing rig to prevent the vessel from having to rely completely on the supply of coal in distant ports. The vessel was rated as a frigate, though relatively lightly armed with only 18 guns on the gun deck.  Overall the vessel has quite a modern appearance with a rather fine hull in appearance is closer to the clipper ships that started to appear soon rather than the earlier full hull shape of vessel like Le Superbe. The vessel also had rather extensive deck houses more common for later vessels.

The vessel was an early version of a dedicated expeditionary vessel.  An expeditionary vessel was used to carry troops and supplies to a location where a waterborne invasion was to take place.  Generally naval power projection (offensive action against another country) is pointless if the power can only be projected from the sea without occupying the shore based objective.  As such, navies that do not exist solely for defensive purposes tend to include vessels to carry troops and deliver them to shore.  Originally such vessels were simply commercial vessels pressed into service for troop delivery purposes.  However, as such vessels were less than optimized for this task advanced navies developed specialized vessels, of which L’Orenoque was an early example.  Today, only the United States maintains a significant number of vessels that can deliver troops and equipment to distant and hostile shores.  The United States includes these vessels under its amphibious operations fleet.  While not as large as at the completion of WWII, US amphibious operations capabilities continue to be very impressive with dedicated vessels approaching the size of aircraft carriers able to deploy troops and heavy equipment like tanks from the sea to shore with helicopters, landing craft and hovercraft.  Other countries may have some amphibious capabilities, but they all pale against US capabilities in being able to deliver an effective amount of troops rapidly over very long distances.  These vessels are direct descendents of L’Orenoque.

L’Orenoque served in the Crimean War (1853-1856) as part of the Black Sea Expeditionary Fleet when France declared war on Russia on March 27, 1854.  She landed troops at Varna, a port situated on the Danube River Delta, and forced the Russians to retreat.  Again needed to transport troops, she sailed for Eupatoria where British and French forces landed. Eventually allied forces defeat Russia after several costly battles. After the proclamation of the Third Republic, L’Orenoque departed Toulon on October 30, 1870 under Leo Briot with 267 men. The vessel departed for Civitavecchia where she stayed until 1874.  In June 1870 six men are killed and twelve wounded when two boats collide with the jetty by the port entrance.  Leon Briot achieved the rank of Captain on January 2, 1873. She participated in the siege of Rome during 1873 but later returned to Civitavecchia because of changes in the war. On October 16, 1874, she departed for Toulon.  In 1878, the French Navy sold her and she became a whaler off Newfoundland, Saint Pierre and Miquelon.

This model was built in 2002 by Henry Schaefer from a 1978 Mamoli kit designed by Luigi Volunte. The kit comes with 9 different species of wood parts and is intended to be kept finished bright rather than painted in the ship’s actual colors.

Model Scale: 1:100