In French speech and writing, the name of a ship is always preceded by a definite article (le, la or l’) but for some ships the article is part of the name, while for other ships it is not. There is no reliable rule of thumb to as to whether the article is part of the name or not. Yet knowing the answer for a given ship is important when establishing alphabetical lists or when typesetting. The issue is also relevant when the vessel is talked or written about in a foreign language: if the article is part of the name, it should be kept and not dropped. The present blog entry is about “l’Hermione”, not about “Hermione” or “the Hermione”.

The frigate’s name board on the stern reads L’HERMIONE.

The confusion is pervasive in French (and so foreign writers can be forgiven ignoring the French article). For any given French vessel, one cannot rely on printed mentions unless they were edited by the ship-owners (and even they can be sloppy!). The only way to be sure is to read the ship’s name board or to see its official papers of registry.

French typesetting practice does not set ship names in italics as is the English and American custom, but puts them between double-chevron brackets. As this comment box does not enable italics, I shall follow the French custom.

The French naval schooner «Belle Poule» is referred to, in French, as “la «Belle Poule», not «la Belle Poule». You have the bisquine (3-masted luggers) «la Cancalaise» and «la Granvillaise», the Baltimore schooner type square topsail schooner «la Recouvrance», the lugger «Eulalie» (“la chaloupe «Eulalie»” or “l’«Eulalie»”).

For Frenchmen, the article gender can be another bugbear, when it is not par of the name. When it is part of the name, it is accords with the gender of the name. When it is not, it should be in accordance with the gender of the vessel’s type, even when the type is not mentioned (and most times speakers and writers do not know what the type is!).

Thus, “Le trois-mâts goélette «Marité»”, usually just written down as “le «Marité»”, which completely counterintuitive as Marité is the diminutive of the very feminine name Marie-Thérèse (actually, in this case, a portmanteau name made up from the names of the original owner’s two daughters Marie and Thérèse). Thus also the transatlantic passenger liner “le «France»” (short for “le paquebot «France») – the country is “la France”…

“Belle Poule” (“Pretty chick”, chick applying to a girl) is mentioned above as “la «Belle Poule»” not because “Belle Poule” is feminine, but because is “la goélette «Belle Poule»” “goélette” (schooner) is a feminine word.

Having to placing a masculine article in front of a feminine, or a feminine article in front of a masculine name is disturbing to French ears. The situation is usually avoided by giving names with the same gender as the type. Thus, French ships of the line (“vaisseau”, masc.) always had masculine names and frigates (“frégate”, fem.) always had feminine names.

As you surely know, “le” is the masculine definite article, “la” the feminine definite article, and the elided article “l'” replaces “le” or “la” in front of a word starting with a vowel or the letter H. There is an a peculiarity in the French case use convention for articles that are part of a ship’s name. One would think that a ship name being a proper noun or a proper name, the initial L should always be in upper case. The L in the “marquis de La Fayette” is always upper case even in the middle of a sentence, but for ship names with an integral article, the L is only upper-case if at the start of a sentence, and is lower-case if the name appears in the middle of a sentence. Thus, “«L’Hermione» partira pour l’Amérique en 2015” and “L’équipage de «l’Hermione» comprendra 200 volontaires”.

Just to conclude this boring blurb with one more boring piece of trivia:
In traditional French typesetting style, you would print « L’Hermione », with a space between the chevrons and the name (or quoted material – those double angled-brackets are French quote marks). Some publisher house styles and/or authors prefer the practice I have used above. I find it visually more pleasing and, when typing on a PC, it avoids having orphaned » at the start of the next line, obliging backspacing and replacing the space-bar space and a Ctrl-Shift-Space hard space, keeping the quote mark on the same line as the last word within the quote marks.
For ship names in French publications, I have noticed an increasing use of Anglo-style italics replacing the clumsy quote marks. Quote marks are still required when italics are not on offer.

What is this strange and anachronistic tricolor flag ? …VIVE LE ROY !

Could someone ask if it is possible to post the article from Wooden Boat magazine to the internet as a public service to provide access for the American general public without having to subscribe to the magazine? It is the best piece in English I’ve found and I’d like to refer it to many friends, but am not able to download it from Wooden Boat without having to subscribe. Thanks,