France II   at Bordeaux harbour 1912

The France II was a French sailing ship and the second one of that name. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. She was an extremely large tall ship of 5. A tall ship is a large traditionally rigged sailing vessel Popular modern tall ship rigs include topsail Schooners Brigantines Brigs and 633 GRT, 4. 544 NRT, and of square rigging as s five-masted barque, making her the biggest sailing ship ever built. Square rig is a generic type of sail and rigging arrangement in which the primary driving sails are carried on horizontal Spars which are perpendicular or square A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel History of the term The word barc appears to have come from Celtic languages She had a length of 146 meters (479 feet), a displacement of 10. 710 t (10. This article is about the tonne or metric ton For other tons see Ton. 541 tons or 10. 541 ton standard (ts)), and could carry 7. 300 tons of cargo. The vessel had some wooden components, including wooden decks, a beautiful lounge with a piano and precious furniture, seven luxury passenger cabins, a library, a darkroom, and a seawater therapy equipment. The piano is a Musical instrument played by means of a keyboard that produces sound by striking steel strings with Felt covered hammers She had a steel hull and 5 masts of steel tubing. Her deck-line was striking in that she had an extremely long poop, forecastle, and midship island with only two short open upper deck sections, each containing one of her huge loading hatches. Forecastle, also spelled fo'c's'le (ˈfoʊksəl originally meant the upper deck of a Sailing ship, forward of the Foremast. Her sail area amounted to 6. 350 m² [68. 350 sq ft]. She carried 38 sails: 20 square sails, 4 jibbs, 12 staysails, 1 spanker gaff sail, 1 spanker gaff topsail. A staysail is a fore-and-aft rigged Sail whose luff can be affixed to a stay running forward (and most often but not always downwards from a A topsail is a Sail set above another sail on square-rigged vessels further sails may be set above topsails Built in 1911 at the Gironde yards ("Chantiers et Ateliers de la Gironde") in Bordeaux for the nickel trade, she had the French call sign "JHGT" and was owned by the "Société Anonyme des Navires Mixtes (Prentout-Leblond, Leroux & Cie. ( Gascon: Bordèu) is a port city in southwest France, with one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area at a 2008 estimate Nickel (ˈnɪkəl is a metallic Chemical element with the symbol Ni and Atomic number 28 In Broadcasting and Radio communications a call sign (also known as a callsign or call letters, or abbreviated as a call, or otherwise )". The huge barque was equipped with two Schneider 950 hp diesel engines which have been removed in 1919. An engine is a mechanical device that produces some form of output from a given input Her crew consisted of 5 officers: captain, 2nd captain (on French ships only (second capitaine); a naval officer of a captain's rank as a vice-captain and security officer, see chief mate) and 40 able seamen, later on (1919) 45. See also Seafarer's professions and ranks A Chief Mate (C/M or Chief Officer, usually also synonymous (except on Passenger liners which

In July 1922 she went aground in New Caledonia homeward bound to Europe with a nickel cargo. For the former North American fur-trading district see New Caledonia (Canada, and for the Scottish colony in Panama see Darien scheme. Because of fallen cargo rates her owner refused to tow her free from the Ouano reef by a tug which was absolutely possible. In 1944, American bombers bombed the wreckage.

There are currently plans to build a replica of the France II.

External links

• official website of the French Ship Academy, dedicated to rebuilding the France II

See also

• List of tall ships
• List of large sailing vessels