Napoleonic flagship found

Press, 2 July 1983, Page 6

Napoleonic flagship found

NZPA-Reuter Cairo Egypt has announced the discovery of L’Orient, the flagship of Napoleon Bonaparte’s navy, which was sunk by the British in the Egyptian Mediterranean

Bay of Aboukir on August 1, 1798, during the Battle of the Nile. Egypt’s Minister of Culture, Mr Muhammad AbdelHamid Radwan, has told a press conference that the

discovery of L’Orient would stand “as a great mark in history and as a new era in the common goals of Egypt and France.” A week ago a FrancoEgyptian naval expedition led by a French Navy minesweeper Vihn Long, began a search for the remains of the fleet which carried Napoleon’s invading force to Egypt. The leader of the expedition, Mr Jacques Dumas, said he had every reason to believe that what the Vihn Long had seen was L’Orient. "L’Orient could not be missed. She had 120 cannon, she had more than 1000 men aboard, and had three bridges. What we have seen conforms with these features.” L’Orient exploded when she was sunk by a British force under Admiral Hora-

tio Nelson, but experts on the expedition believe she broke in half. Mr Dumas said the Vihn Long had spotted a number of cannon of a size known to have been aboard the flagship, and the sm-long anchor. He said the French minesweeper had also detected another vessel of the fleet and would attempt later this week to locate two other frigates which he said should be in the same area. The expedition will return to Aboukir in August with two extra vessels equipped with heavy cranes. Egypt and France will share the objects found by the expedition, but Egypt will keep any gold. The expedition hopes to raise four vessels of the French fleet.