-- The research for this dissertation conducted in the French naval archives in 1973-1974 produced much of the data on which are based the French "From Sail to Steam" portion of this website and the post-1816 portions of the book French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786-1861.
-- The Conseil des travaux de la Marine was formed in 1831 to advise the Minister of Marine on technical issues relating to the construction of ships, including ship design. In English "travaux" means "works," as in "public works." The four sections above from 1872 to 1905 are from a multi-volume printed summary of the Council's proceedings, from which copies of the first two annual sections, "Programmes - Questions générales" and "Projets nouveaux de navires" were supplied on microfilm in 1974 by the directors of the archives and library of the Service historique de la Marine at Vincennes, MM. Joël Audouy and Jean-Pierre Busson. A list of ship design topics discussed in 1865-1871, taken from other Council records, is also provided. The Conseil des travaux was replaced on 21 April 1905 by the Comité technique de la Marine.
-- The 1875 document consists of tabular data on the ships of the navy "collected and put in order by M. Dislère." The data mostly came from the ships' Devis d'armement, the technical reports produced by naval engineers when the ships were commissioned. The 1876 document consistes of "historical summaries compiled by M. Dislère, Secretary of the Conseil des travaux, to prepare and complete the deliberations of the Council" on specific ship types. These texts were in fact included in the minutes of the Council meetings, from which the missing text at the end on chaloupes-canonnières was recovered. Dislère compiled these internal documents just after publishing two books: La marine cuirassée (1873) and Les croiseurs, La guerre de course (1875), which he wrote to bring his technical knowledge to bear on key contemporary naval issues. The 1875 document is the 7th issue of the Mémorial du Génie maritime for 1875, and the 1876 document was filed in the library of the Service historique de la Marine under call number 27.L.13.
-- Albaret produced this volume of tables for the Navy's senior advisory council, the Conseil d'Amirauté. He based his tables on those compiled by Dislère (above) and like Dislère drew much of the data from the ships' Devis d'armement, although he considerably expanded the technical information on topics such as weights and stability. He signed his first edition on 1 August 1881 and this second one on 15 October 1884. Albaret's tables, supplemented by those of Dislère, were key sources for the earlier parts of the book French Warships in the Age of Steam 1859-1914. Both editions are in the archives of the Service historique de la Marine, the 1881 one with the call number 0DD1-40 and the 1884 one as BB8-968.
-- As soon as a new ship completed fitting out and commissioning, the naval engineer in charge of that process signed and delivered to the ship's captain a devis with a first part containing complete technical details on the dimensions, artillery, weights, stowage, machinery, trials, etc. of the ship. When a ship's captain was relieved, he would fill out and deliver to the new captain a second part of the devis containing his comments on all aspects of the ship during his command with a brief summary of the ship's activities. The remarks were then reviewed both locally and in Paris to evaluate the changes made to the ship after commissioning and the observations of the ship's captains on the performance of its component systems. In the 1860s the two parts of this devis were separated, the first becoming the Devis d'armement and the second the Devis de campagne. These devis tended to be stored in the ships' folders in series 7DD1 of the archives of the Service historique de la Marine.
-- In 1848 the Navy printed a "Liste générale des bâtiments en chantier et à flot," which in 1853 became an "État (général) des bâtiments composant la flotte" and in 1861 a "Liste de la Flotte." Such lists had existed for many years in other forms, often as parts of other documents, and ships were being struck "rayés" from the Navy as early as the 1660s.
-- These two theses were written by student officers at the École de Guerre Navale, Barbier in 1923 and Leteux in 1925, both soon after the events narrated. Leteux describes the French program of 1914-1916 to build a coastal patrol force (including some vessels in the U.S.), and Barbier discusses a later French small craft program, the purchase of 100 American 110-foot subchasers in 1917, with emphasis on how the craft crossed the Atlantic in 1917-18. Although outside the focus of this website, these may be of interest to American as well as French researchers. They were filed in the library of the Service historique de la Marine, Barbier with the call number 11.T.6 and Leteux as 11.T.110.
