Small paddle avisos

REQUIN (32 nhp, launched 1828)
REMORQUEUR (40 nhp, launched 1832)
RAMEUR (60 nhp, launched 1831)
RAPIDE (60 nhp, launched 1841)


REQUIN small paddle aviso

Displacement:	?
Dimensions:	?
Machinery:	32nhp
Hull material:	Wood
Armament:	6 guns
Complement:	?

Name	Builder	Launched	Fate
REQUIN	Brest	15.2.28	Stk. 21.10.35

This ship was probably ordered 1.12.26 and may have received the engines of Voyageur. She served as a tug towing barges of stones for the new breakwater at Cherbourg. She was reclassified as a service craft in 1835 and was BU 1837.



REMORQUEUR small paddle aviso

Displacement:	?
Dimensions:	98ft 5in x 16ft 5in x 4ft 0in mean, 4ft 2in max.
Same, meters:	30.00 x 5.00 x 1.21, 1.26m
Machinery:	40nhp (Pelletan & de la Barre)
Hull material:	Wood
Armament:	?
Complement:	?

Name	Builder	Launched	Fate
REMORQUEUR	Cherbourg	18.1.32	--

Machinery of an experimental type (à réaction) was ordered on 24.6.30 and the ship was assigned her name on 1.12.30. She was soon (1831 or 1832) reclassified as a service craft. After trials the machinery was rejected on 7.2.35 and the builder was invited to substitute paddle wheels for the experimental system. This move was unsuccessful, the machinery was definitively rejected on 7.4.38, and the navy finally sold it in 1841 to recover some of its money.

At least two other ships were listed under the generic name Remorqueur ("tug"). One of 50nhp was launched at Brest 10.8.35, renamed Actif on 11.6.36 and Erèbe in 1861, and disposed of in 1869. She appeared briefly on the navy list in 1854 as a 50nhp aviso, but reverted to service craft status on 1.1.55 after plans to send her to the Crimea were cancelled. The other was launched at Rochefort on 28.7.43 to use the forward engines of Pélican, q.v. She and many other tugs never appeared on the navy list because of their status as service craft.



RAMEUR small paddle aviso

Displacement:	140?
Dimensions:	108ft 3in x 19ft 8in.
Same, meters:	33.00 x 6.00m
Machinery:	60nhp (G. Dumoulin, Paris)
Hull material:	Wood
Armament:	?
Complement:	?

Name	Builder	Launched	Fate
RAMEUR	Cherbourg	28.6.31	Stk. 2.3.50

A hull was ordered and named 23.12.30 for experimental machinery which had been ordered on 15.9.30. The ship was used to tow barges carrying stones for construction of the breakwater at Cherbourg. She was used as a barge after being stricken and was replaced as such sometime before 1865 by the former 150nhp aviso Ramier.



RAPIDE small paddle aviso

Displacement:	201t
Dimensions:	134ft 10in wl x 19ft 9in x 7ft 3in mean, 7ft 7in max.
Same, meters:	41.10 x 6.02 x 2.20, 2.32m
Machinery:	60nhp (Indret). 4 cylinders
Hull material:	Wood
Armament:	2-12p carr., 2-4p
Complement:	?

Name	Builder	Launched	Fate
RAPIDE	Indret	21.7.41	Stk. 21.10.59

This ship was designed to replace the old Rapide as a tug at Cherbourg. She was to receive the 80nhp engines of the old Rapide, but during construction she traded engines with a ship under construction on the same plans, Voyageur. The engines she received were experimental ones of 60nhp built on the same system as the much larger engines of the paddle frigate Infernal. The beam over her paddles was 36ft 1in. She was used as a tug in the construction of the breakwater at Cherbourg until 1854, when she was sent to French Guiana. She returned to Cherbourg in 1856 and became a station ship.