Téméraire class ship of the line

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File:Achille mp3h9307.jpg
Scale model of the Achille, a typical French seventy-four of the Téméraire class at the beginning of the 19th century.
Class overview
Name:Téméraire
Builders:Toulon, Rochefort, Brest, Lorient, Antwerp, Genoa, Amsterdam, Cherbourg, Flushing, Venice
Operators: French Navy

 Royal Navy
22x20px Spanish Navy

 Royal Netherlands Navy
Preceded by:Centaure class
Succeeded by:Tonnant class
Subclasses:Téméraire (18 ships)

Duquesne (46 ships)
Danube (26 ships)
Cassard (Large variant - 2 ships)
Suffren (Short variant - 3 ships)

Pluton (Small variant - 25 ships)
In commission:1782 (Téméraire) - 1862 (Couronne)
Completed:107
General characteristics
Type: ship of the line
Displacement: 2900 tonnes
Length: 55.87 m (172 French feet)
Beam: 14.90 m (44 French feet, 6 inches)
Draught: 7.26 m (22 French feet)
Propulsion: Sail 2485 m²
Complement: 700 men
Armament:

28 x 36 or 32 pdr (16 or 14 kg)
30 x 24 pdr (11 kg)
16 x 8 pdr (3.6 kg)

4 x 36 pdr (16 kg) carronades
Armour: Timber
Notes:

Ships in class include: Téméraire sub-group: Téméraire, Audacieux, Superbe, Généreux, Commerce de Bordeaux, Ferme, Fougueux, Patriote, Commerce de Marseille, Borée, Orion, Léopard, Entreprenant, Impétueux, América, Apollon, Duquesne, Duguay-Trouin, Tourville, Aquilon, Jupiter, Éole, Vengeur, Jean Bart, Thésée, Scipion, Pompée, Suffren, Pyrrhus, Thémistocle, Trajan, Tigre, Tyrannicide, Nestor, Jemmapes, Barra, Marat, Droits de l'Homme, Wattignies, Cassard, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Viala, Spartiate, Hercule, Quatorze Juillet, Argonaute, Union, Duguay-Trouin, Aigle, Scipion, Héros, Brutus, Magnanime, Lion, Achille, Régulus, Courageux, Ajax, d'Hautpoult, Polonais, Tonnerre, Danube, Triomphant, Ulm, Golymin, Nestor, Marengo, Trident, Trajan, Agamemnon, Gaulois, Polyphème, Romulus, Ville de Marseille, Scipion (ii), Orion, Duguay-Trouin (ii), Colosse, Superbe, Brillant, Hercule (ii), Duc de Berry, Jean Bart, Triton, Couronne, Généreux (ii).
Cassard sub-group: Vétéran, Cassard.
Suffren sub-group: Suffren, Algéciras, Pacificateur (uncompleted).
Pluton sub-group: Pluton, Borée, Génois, Charlemagne, Commerce de Lyon, Anversois, Duguesclin, César, Dantzig, Ville de Berlin, Pultusk, Breslau, Dalmate, Albanais, Royal Hollandais, Rivoli, Mont Saint-Bernard, Régénérateur, Castiglione, Royal Italien, Piet Hein, Couronne, Montebello, Audacieux,

Polyphème.

The Téméraire class ships of the line was a class of 107 74-gun ships of the line built between 1782 and 1813 for the French navy. The type was and remains the most numerous class of capital ship ever built.

The class was designed by Jacques-Noël Sané as part of the fleet expansion programme instituted by Jean-Charles de Borda.

The design was appreciated in Britain, which eagerly commissioned captured ships and even copied the design with the Pompée class.

Variants from basic design

While all the French 74-gun ships from the mid-1780s until the close of the Napoleonic Wars were to the Téméraire design, there were three variants of the basic design which Sané developed with the same hull form of the Téméraire. In 1793 two ships were laid down at Brest to an enlarged design, in 1801 two ships were commenced at Lorient with a shorter length than the standard design (with a third ship commenced at Brest), and in 1803 two ships were commenced at Toulon to a smaller version (many more ships to this 'small type' were then built in the shipyards controlled by France in Italy and the Netherlands) - these are detailed separately below.

Ships in class

Téméraire (18 ships)

Builder: Brest shipyard
Ordered:
Laid down: May 1782
Launched: 17 December 1782
Completed: July 1783
Fate: Condemned in November 1801, broken up 1803.
Builder: Lorient shipyard
Ordered:
Laid down: July 1782
Launched: 28 October 1784
Completed: 1785
Fate: Condemned in November 1802
Builder: Brest shipyard
Ordered:
Laid down: July 1782
Launched: 11 November 1784
Completed: 1785
Fate: Wrecked on 30 January 1795 off Brest.
Builder: Rochefort shipyard
Ordered:
Laid down: July 1782
Launched: 21 June 1785
Completed: October 1785
Fate: Captured by the Royal Navy at Toulon in August 1793 but retaken by the French in December 1793; captured again by the Royal Navy in February 1800.
Builder: Toulon shipyard
Ordered:
Laid down: September 1784
Launched: 15 September 1785
Completed: 1786 or 1787
Fate: renamed Bonnet Rouge in January 1794 and then Timoléon in February 1794. Destroyed in action at the Battle of the Nile in August 1798.
Builder: Brest shipyard
Ordered:
Laid down: December 1784
Launched: 16 September 1785
Completed: 1786
Fate: renamed Phocion in October 1792. Surrendered to Spain by her officers in January 1793 at Trinidad.
Builder: Lorient shipyard
Ordered:
Laid down: August 1782, but work stopped in February 1783 and she was demolished.
Re-laid down: November 1784
Launched: 19 September 1785
Completed: late 1785
Fate: Captured by the Royal Navy at Trafalgar on 21 October 1805, and subsequently wrecked.
Builder: Brest shipyard
Ordered:
Laid down: September 1784
Launched: 3 October 1785
Completed: April 1786
Fate: Condemned in May 1820 and became Pontoon No.4 in April 1821. Broken up at Rochefort in late 1832.
Builder: Toulon shipyard
Ordered:
Laid down: September 1784
Launched: 7 October 1785
Completed: September 1787
Fate: Captured by the Royal Navy at Toulon on August 1793, then destroyed during the Siege of Toulon in December 1793.
  • Borée (renamed Ça Ira in April 1794 and then Agricola in June 1794)
Builder: Lorient shipyard
Ordered:
Laid down: January 1783, but work stopped in February 1783 and she was demolished.
Re-laid down: November 1784
Launched: 17 November 1785
Completed: August 1787
Fate: Broken up in 1803 at Rochefort.
Builder: Rochefort shipyard
Ordered:
Laid down: October 1784
Launched: 18 April 1787
Completed: 1788
Fate: renamed Mucius Scaevola in November 1793, then Mucius in same month; condemned 1802 and broken up 1803-1804.
Builder: Brest shipyard
Ordered:
Begun: October 1785
Launched: 22 June 1787
Completed: July 1787
Fate: wrecked February 1793 and then burnt
Builder: Lorient shipyard
Ordered:
Begun: May 1786
Launched: 11 October 1787
Completed: 1788
Fate: Broken up 1803
Builder: Rochefort shipyard
Ordered:
Begun: July 1786
Launched: 25 October 1787
Completed: 1788
Fate: captured by the British June 1794
Builder: Rochefort shipyard
Ordered:
Begun: April 1787
Launched: 21 May 1788
Completed: 1788
Fate: renamed Gasparin in February 1794, reverted to Apollon in May 1794; renamed Marceau in December 1797. Broken up 1798.
Builder: Brest shipyard
Ordered:
Begun: end 1786
Launched: 21 May 1788
Completed: 1789
Fate: Captured by the Royal Navy June 1794
Builder: Brest shipyard
Ordered:
Begun: end 1786
Launched: 30 October 1788
Completed July 1790
Fate: Destroyed during the Siege of Toulon in 1793
Builder: Rochefort shipyard
Ordered:
Begun: September 1787
Launched: 8 June 1789
Completed: June 1790
Fate: Captured by Britain during the Battle of the Nile in August 1798.

Duquesne (46 ships)

Builder: Toulon shipyard
Ordered:
Begun: August 1787
Launched: 2 September 1788
Completed: 1789
Fate:
Builder: Lorient shipyard
Ordered:
Begun: June 1787
Launched: 16 December 1788
Completed: July 1790
Fate:
Builder: Lorient shipyard
Ordered:
Begun: June 1787
Launched: 15 November 1789
Completed: August 1790
Fate: Broken up in Baltimore in 1816
Builder: Brest shipyard
Ordered: 19 August 1787
Begun: June 1788
Launched: 4 November 1789
Completed: October 1790
Fate: renamed Montagnard in March 1794, Démocrate on 18 May 1795 then swiftly Jupiter again on 30 May 1795, and Batave in December 1797. Broken up in Brest in 1807
Builder: Brest shipyard
Ordered:
Begun: May 1788
Launched: 16 December 1789
Completed: August 1790
Fate:
Builder: Lorient shipyard
Ordered:
Launched: 7 November 1790
Fate: Wrecked at the Battle of the Basque Roads on 26 February 1809, hull burnt by the British in April.
Builder: Toulon shipyard
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Fate: (Renamed Révolution, then Finisterre)
Builder: Rochefort shipyard
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Fate: (Renamed Mont Blanc, 31 Mai, Républicain, HMS Mont Blanc)
Builder: Brest shipyard
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Fate: (Renamed Redoutable) Participated in the Battle of Trafalgar, taken by the British, foundered two days later.
Builder: Lorient shipyard
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Builder: Toulon shipyard
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File:Vaisseau-Droits-de-lHomme.jpg
Battle between the French warship Droits de l'Homme and the frigates HMS Amazon and Indefatigable, 13 & 14 January 1797. (Indefatigable on the left, Droits de l'Homme at the centre, Amazon on the right.)
Builder: Lorient shipyard
Ordered:
Launched: May 29, 1794
Fate: Beached January 14, 1797
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  • Lion (Renamed Marat, Formidable)
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Fate: (renamed Voltaire, Constitution, Jupiter and HMS Maida)
File:Fight of the Poursuivante mp3h9426.jpg
Fight of the Poursuivante against the British ship Hercules, 28 June 1803.
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Builder: Lorient
Ordered: 31 May 1798
Begun: August 1798
Launched: 24 January 1803
Completed: March 1803
Fate: Renamed Impétueux in February 1803. Beached and set ablaze by the British in Chesapeake on 14 September 1806.
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Danube (26 ships)

Builder: Lorient
Ordered:
Begun: August 1805
Launched: 25 May 1808
Completed: October 1808
Fate: renamed Lis in April 1814 (resumed Polonais from March until July 1815)
Builder: Brest
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Begun: 16 April 1794
Launched: 9 June 1808
Completed: September 1808
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Builder: Toulon
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Begun: June 1807
Launched: 27 December 1808
Completed: August 1809
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Builder: Antwerp
Ordered:
Begun: December 1808
Launched: 5 July 1814
Completed: September 1814
Fate:
Builder: Genoa
Ordered:
Begun: February 1812
Launched: 18 April 1815 for the British Navy as HMS Genoa
Completed: 1815
Fate:
Builder: Toulon
Ordered:
Begun: September 1812
Launched: 26 May 1815
Completed: August 1815
Fate: renamed Provence in July 1815, then Alger in July 1830.
Builder: Rochefort
Ordered:
Begun: January 1812
Launched: 18 June 1818
Completed: July 1818
Fate: renamed Minerve in January 1832; cut down to a frigate of 58 guns in 1834.
Builder: Lorient-Caudan
Ordered:
Begun: July 1811
Launched: 25 August 1820
Completed December 1820
Fate:
Builder: Rochefort
Ordered:
Begun: April 1813
Launched: 22 September 1823
Completed: December 1824
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Builder: Brest
Ordered:
Begun: October 1813
Launched: 26 August 1824
Completed: 1825
Fate: renamed Duperré in December 1849.
Builder: Cherbourg
Ordered:
Begun: July 1813
Launched: 23 September 1831
Completed: 1832
Fate:

Three further ships to this design were begun at Castellammare di Stabia for the "puppet" Neapolitan Navy of Joachim Murat:

Begun: end 1808
Launched: 21 August 1810
Completed: January 1812
Begun: September 1810
Launched: 1 August 1812
Completed: May 1813
  • The third ship, laid down in September 1812, was never named, let alone launched, as its construction was abandoned following the defection of the Kingdom of Naples from the Napoléonic cause in November 1813.

Large Variant (Cassard group - 2 ships launched)

Two ships were laid down in 1793-94 at Brest to a variant of Sané's design with the aim of carrying 24-pounder guns on the upper deck instead of the 18-pounders carried by the Téméraire. These shipswere 2 feet longer than the standard 74s, and half a foot wider. The first was begun as the Lion, but was renamed Glorieux in 1795 and Cassard in 1798. The second was begun as the Magnanime, but was renamed Quatorze Juillet in 1798 and Vétéran in 1802. Unlike the main sequence, construction proceeded slowly. By 1816 the 24-pounders had been replaced by 18-pounders, and no further ships to this variant design were produced, so indicating that it was not judged successful.

Builder: Brest shipyard
Begun: November 1794
Launched: 18 July 1803
Completed: December 1803
Fate: Condemned 1833
Builder: Brest shipyard
Begun: August 1793
Launched: 24 September 1803
Completed: December 1803
Fate: Condemned 1818

Short Variant (Suffren group - 2 ships launched)

Two ships were begun in 1801 to a variation of the standard Téméraire design by Sane to meet the demands of Pierre-Alexandre Forfait. The length of these ships were reduced by 65 cm from the standard design. A third ship to this variant design begun at Brest was cancelled in 1804. After Forfait left the Ministry of the Marine in October 1801, no further vessels were ordered to this variant design.

Builder: Lorient shipyard
Begun: August 1801
Launched: 17 September 1803
Completed: October 1803
Fate: Condemned 1815
Builder: Lorient shipyard
Begun: August 1801
Launched: 8 July 1804
Completed: September 1804
Fate: Captured 1805 by the British at Trafalgar, but retaken. Captured 1808 by the Spanish at Cadiz.
Builder: Brest shipyard
Begun: May 1801
Launched: never launched
Completed: -
Fate: Cancelled February 1804

Small Variant (Pluton group - 24 ships launched)

Starting with the prototypes Pluton and Borée in 1803, a smaller version of the Téméraire class, officially named petit modèle, was designed by Jacques-Noël Sané to be produced in shipyards having a lesser depth of water than the principal French shipyards, primarily those in neighbouring states under French control and in foreign ports which had been absorbed into the French Empire such as Antwerp. The revised design measured 177 feet 7 inches on the waterline, 180 feet 1 inch on the deck, and 46 feet 11 inches moulded breadth. The depth if hull was 9 inches less than that in the "regular" Téméraire design.

Builder: Toulon shipyard
Ordered: June 1803
Laid down: August 1803
Launched: 17 January 1805
Completed: March 1805.
Fate: Captured by the Spanish at Cadiz in June 1808.
Builder: Toulon shipyard
Ordered: June 1803
Laid down: August 1803
Launched: 27 June 1805
Completed: August 1805
Fate: Condemned at Toulon in 1827.
  • Two more 74s to the "petit modèle" design were ordered in June 1803, one at Marseille and the other at Bordeaux, but these were not built.
Builder: Genoa shipyard
Ordered:
Laid down: July 1803
Launched: 17 August 1805
Completed: November 1805
Fate: Condemned at Rochefort in August 1821, ad broken up there by October 1821.
Builder: Flushing shipyard
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Builder: Antwerp shipyard
Ordered:
Laid down: November 1803
Launched: 9 April 1807
Completed: March 1808
Fate: Condemned at Brest in February 1819, and broken up there in December 1819.
Builder: Antwerp shipyard
Ordered:
Laid down: April 1804
Launched: 8 April 1807
Completed: March 1808
Fate: Ceded to the new Dutch Navy 1 August 1814, renamed Nassau.
  • Anversois (renamed Éole in August 1814, then Anversois in March 1815 and back to Éole in July 1815)
Builder: Antwerp shipyard
Ordered:
Laid down: June 1804
Launched: 7 June 1807
Completed: March 1808
Fate: Condemned at Brest in February 1819 and broken up there in December 1819.
Builder: Antwerp shipyard
Ordered:
Laid down: July 1804
Launched: 20 June 1807
Completed: March 1808
Fate: Condemned at Lorient in June 1818, and broken up there in January 1820.
Builder: Antwerp shipyard
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Begun: April 1807
Launched: 2 October 1808
Completed: April 1809
Fate:
Builder: Genoa shipyard
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Builder: Antwerp shipyard
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Begun: August 1806
Launched: 21 August 1808
Completed: April 1809
Fate:
Builder: Venice shipyard
Ordered:
Launched: 6 September 1810
Fate: captured in the Action of 22 February 1812.
Builder: Venice shipyard
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Builder: Amsterdam shipyard
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Builder: Venice shipyard
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Builder: Amsterdam shipyard
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Launched: July 1817
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Builder: Venice shipyard
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Builder: Amsterdam shipyard
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Builder: Rotterdam shipyard
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Builder: Venice shipyard
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Launched: not launched
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Builder: Venice shipyard
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Launched: not launched
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Builder: Venice shipyard
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Launched: not launched
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Builder: Venice shipyard
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Launched: not launched
Fate:
Builder: Trieste shipyard
Ordered: December 1811
Launched: not launched
Fate: Cancelled 1812.

See also

External links

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fr:Classe Téméraire ja:テメレール級戦列艦