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Hermione, what is she worth?

This new painting is for sale, care to make an offer??? Hermione, a French frigate  Hermoine_16.04.14_IMG_0417.JPG_d.JPG oils on canvas 762 x 1219 mm (30″ x 48″). Discover in the text below a fascinating and on going story…

In 1997, construction of a full size replica ship was started in Rochefort sur mer near la Rochelle on the Atlantic coast of France.

There is a story with photographs about my visit to the yard on my blog, simply use the search facility entering Hermione.

In April 2015, the replica of the Hermione frigate plans to make a voyage to the United States from Rochefort, France.

Hermione will call at ports including Yorktown, Mount Vernon and Philadelphia to New York and Boston.

Hermione’s itinerary will reaffirm the long and historic relationship between the United States and France.

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In April 2015, after sea trials and training in 2014 Hermione sail for the USA.  The voyage will start from the mouth of the River Charente, in Port des Barques, near Rochefort sur mer where La Fayette boarded on March 10th, 1780.  The transatlantic crossing is expected to take 27 days in total, before landfall at Yorktown, Virginia.


As L’Hermione moves up the Eastern seaboard, it will be accompanied by a traveling exhibition.  It will be part of an expansive outreach program, digitally enabled, which will reach out to millions of people.  Cultural events, exhibitions and educational programs will mark its progress.

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Hermionebuilt (1779) was a 12-pounderConcorde class frigate of the Royal French Navy.

Hermione became famous when she carried General Lafayette to the United States in 1780 to allow him to rejoin the American side in the American Revolutionary War.

Gilbert du Motier Marquis, better known as General de La Fayette embarked at Rochefort on 11 March 1780 and arrived in Boston on 28 April carrying the then-secret news that he had secured French reinforcements (5,500 men and 5 frigates) for General Washington. She got underway again on 2 June and suffered serious damage in the fierce but indecisive Action of 7 June 1780 against the more powerful 32-gun HMS Iris commanded by James Hawker.

Hermione received the American Congress on board in May 1781.

Hermione fought several times in company with the Astrée, commanded by Lapérouse who’s later voyages of discovery is the subject of another of my paintings, “Laperouse at Botany Bay”.

Hermione was wrecked in 1793.