&sq=Facebook&lang=en&file=File:French_Corvette_L%27Astrolabe.jpg) French Corvette Astrolabe
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| History | |
|---|---|
&sq=Facebook&lang=en&file=File:Flag_of_France_(1814%E2%80%931830).svg){kind=small} France | |
| Namesake | Astrolabe instrument |
| Builder | Le Havre |
| Launched | December 1781 |
| Christened | Autruche |
| Reclassified | Frigate in 1784 |
| Fate | Wrecked on Vanikoro 1788 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Fluyt |
| Displacement | c. 500 tonnes |
| Length | 38.7 m (127 ft) |
| Beam | 8.5 m (28 ft) |
| Draught | 5 m (16 ft) |
| Propulsion | Sail |
| Complement |
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| Armament | 12 6-pounders; 3 x 1-pounders and 20 swivel guns (as converted) |
| Armour | Timber |
Astrolabe was a converted flûte of the French Navy, famous for her travels with Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse.
She was built in 1781 at Le Havre as the flûte Autruche for the French Navy. In May 1785 she and her sistership Boussole (previously Portefaix) were renamed and rerated as frigates, and fitted for round-the-world scientific exploration. The two ships departed from Brest on 1 August 1785, Boussole commanded by Lapérouse and Astrolabe under Paul Antoine Fleuriot de Langle.