French frigate Thémis (1862)
Open-knowledge reference entry
The Thémis was a 46-gun Magicienne class frigate of the French Navy.
The keel of Thémis was laid in 1847, but she took 15 years to complete: as her design would have been obsolete before completion, she was lengthened and fitted with a steam engine, and launched as a steam frigate. She took part in the French intervention in Mexico, and was one of the ships escorting the SMS Novara, carrying Emperor Maximilian to Mexico. From 29 July 1865 to the first of January 1866, she cruised the off Terre-Neuve under captain Amédée Ribourt.
In 1874, she was redesigned as a first class cruiser, and in 1878, she became the flagship of the Southern Atlantic division. She later cruised the South China Sea, until she was decommissioned in 1882, and struck in November of that year.
Until 1929, she was used as a mooring hulk in Toulon harbour. In 1930, she was sold for scrap, and eventually burnt off Lorient on 1 July 1931.
Sources and references
Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours 1 1671 - 1870.
“French frigate Thémis (1862)” enters the record as open-knowledge reference entry. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what French, frigate and Thémis can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“French frigate Thémis (1862)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, French, frigate and Thémis provides the most credible route into that argument.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 14, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q3526293. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1847, 1865, 1866 and 1874.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “French frigate Thémis (1862)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow French frigate Thémis (1862) primary sources, French frigate Thémis (1862) archive and French research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “French frigate Thémis (1862)”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “French frigate Thémis (1862)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.