Sir, I was very interested to read the letters (Oct 30 and Nov 3) about the sad destruction of the Duguay-Trouin in 1949 because when I was a Boy Scout in the Portsmouth Grammar School troop, in the 1930s, we spent many wonderful weeks living in the Implacable, when she was moored in Portsmouth Harbour along with the Foudroyant, both under the supervision of Colonel Harold Wyllie, son of the more famous painter, who taught us to sail boats.

The 74-gun Duguay-Trouin, which was built in Rochefort in 1756 and which was not captured until a few weeks after Trafalgar, was the only ship that fought in that battle that was still afloat in the 1930s, having been copper-bottomed while in our Navy, the Victory having been in dry dock for a decade by then. She was one of the most beautiful of ships. I remember we used to marvel because, wherever we wandered over the decks, all the woodwork was beautifully carved, and she had beautiful stanchions made of carved and twisted brass, quite unexpected in a man-of-war. It was an unforgivable crime to take her out into the Channel and blow her up. I was too young to make a stand and get anything done to save her. For her companion ship, the Foudroyant, a fairy godfather did turn up in time. She was originally built in 1817 in Bombay under the name of Trincomalee, as a typical frigate of the kind used in Nelson’s Navy, later being renamed Foudroyant, and finally was completely refitted by a team of experts, led largely by Captain David Smith, RN, who raised a substantial amount of money for the project. Now, under her original name of Trincomalee, she is safely preserved for all time at Hartlepool.

Derek Worrall
Balcombe, West Sussex

Explore Letters

• Feedback