French ship Cassard (1803)

For other ships of the same name, see French ship Cassard.

File:Veteran mg 8190c.jpeg Vétéran (sister-ship of Cassard) escaping into the shallow waters of Concarneau harbour. Painting by Michel Bouquet, on display at Brest Fine arts museum.
Career (France)
Name:	Cassard; also Lion and Glorieux
Namesake:	Jacques Cassard
Ordered:	May 1795
Builder:	Brest
Laid down:	26 August 1793
Launched:	24 September 1793
In service:	December 1803
Struck:	1815
General characteristics
Class and type:	Téméraire class ship of the line
Displacement:	2 966 tonnes 5 260 tonnes fully loaded
Length:	55.87 metres (172 French feet)
Beam:	14.90 metres (44' 6)
Draught:	7.26 metres (22 French feet)
Propulsion:	Up to 2 485 m² of sails
Complement:	678 men
Armament:	86 guns: Lower gundeck: 28 x 36-pdr long guns Upper gundeck: 30 x 24-pdr long guns Forecastle and Quarter deck: 16 x 8-pdr long guns 4 x 36-pdr carronades
Armour:	Timber

The Cassard was an improved Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy. Along with her sister-ship Vétéran, she carried 24-pounders on her upper deck, a featured normally reserved for larger three-deckers.

Completed as Lion, she took part in the Expédition d'Irlande. On 24 February 1798, she was renamed to Glorieux, and eventually to Cassard the next month.

Under Commodore Gilbert-Amable Faure, she took part in the Atlantic campaign of 1806 in Willaumez' squadron, taking two prizes on the way. She was separated from the rest of the fleet in the August hurricane, and returned to Brest on 13 October.

She took part in Willaumez' attempt to rescue blockaded ships from Lorient and anchored in Rochefort, where she took part in the Battle of the Basque Roads. During the battle, she attempted to escape into Rochefort harbour, ran aground, and was refloated by throwing part of her guns overboard. She remained desactivated in Rochefort.

She was eventually condemned in May 1818, and used as a coal hulk in Rochefort, before being broken up in 1832.

Sources and references

• Ships of the line
• Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours 1 1671 - 1870. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922.