Model showing characteristics and original painting scheme of Belle Poule, sister-ship of the French frigate Melpomène (1828). Model on display at Toulon naval museum.
History
France
Name	Melpomène
Namesake	Melpomene
Builder	Cherbourg
Laid down	17 May 1825
Launched	28 July 1828
Commissioned	1 March 1830
Decommissioned	1 October 1833
Out of service	1845
Stricken	1870
Fate	Scrapped
General characteristics
Class and type	Surveillante-class frigate
Displacement	2500 tonnes
Length	54 metres (177 ft)
Beam	14.10 metres (46.3 ft)
Draught	3.80 metres (12.5 ft)
Propulsion	sail
Complement	301
Armament	60 guns 32 × 30-pounder long guns 4 × 80-pounder Paixhans guns 24 × 30-pounder carronades
Armour	Timber

Melpomène was a Surveillante class 60-gun first rank frigate of the French Navy.

Career

Melpomène was commissioned in March 1830, in time to take part in the Invasion of Algiers in 1830, and was decommissioned on 28 October after the events.

The next year, on 7 February, she was recommissioned amidst growing tensions with Portugal, and she took part in the blockade, and the subsequent Battle of the Tagus, under Captain de Rabaudy. Arrived the first French warship, she was also the last to depart.

Fate

In October 1833, she was again decommissioned, never to serve again. She was condemned in 1845, and used as a masting crane in Toulon under the name Travailleuse from 1865.

References

• Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours, 1671 - 1870. Group Retozel-Maury Millau. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922.