French ship Saint-Esprit (1766)

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Career (France) French Navy Ensign French Navy Ensign French Navy Ensign
Name: Saint-Esprit
Namesake: Order of the Holy Spirit
Ordered: 11 January 1762
Builder: Arsenal of Brest
Laid down: May 1762
Launched: 12 October 1765
Christened: 20 January 1762
Commissioned: 1766
Decommissioned: 26 January 1795
Renamed: Scipion in April 1794
Fate: Wrecked off Brest on 26 January 1795
General characteristics
Class and type: Saint-Esprit class ship of the line
Displacement: 1754 tonnes
Length: 59.8 metres
Beam: 14.9 metres
Draught: 7.5 metres
Complement: 970
Armament:

80 guns:

  • 30 x 36-pounder long guns
  • 23 x 24-pounder long guns
  • 18 X 18-pounder long guns

The Saint-Esprit ("Holy Ghost") was a 80-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, lead ship of her class. She was offered by the Order of the Holy Spirit, and named in its honour.

She took part in the Battle of Ushant under La Motte-Picquet, and to the Armada of 1779.

She was renamed Scipion in April 1794, and took part in the Bataille du 13 prairial an 2 under Huguet, where she was totally dismasted. She was wrecked on 30 January 1795, during the Croisière du Grand Hiver. Most of her crew was rescued by Trente-et-un Mai.