‘Now or never’ to save €26m replica of historic French ship, campaigners say

Fresh plea for funds to repair copy of frigate that carried Louis XVI's promise of aid in American revolutionary war

French maritime enthusiasts are battling to save a replica of an 18th-century warship that became a symbol of the country's historic relationship with America.

The copy of L'Hermione, a three-mast, 32-gun frigate that carried the Marquis de Lafayette across the Atlantic to announce France's support for American independence from Great Britain in the revolutionary war, has been in dry dock at Anglet, near Bayonne, since its oak hull was found to be riddled with fungus four years ago.