Téméraire-class ship of the line
The Téméraire-class ships of the line were a class of a hundred and twenty 74-gun ships of the line ordered between 1782 and 1813 for the French navy or its attached navies in dependent (French-occupied) territories. Although a few of these were cancelled, the type was and remains the most numerous class of capital ship ever built to a single design.
Scale model of 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 | |
| Preceded by | Centaure class |
| Succeeded by | Tonnant class |
| Subclasses |
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| In commission | 1782 (Téméraire)–1862 (Couronne) |
| Planned | 120 |
| Completed | 107 |
| Cancelled | 13 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Ship of the line |
| Displacement | 1,900 tonnes |
| Length | 55.87 metres (183.3 ft) (172 pied) |
| Beam | 14.90 metres (48 ft 11 in) (44.5 pied) |
| Draught | 7.26 metres (23.8 ft) (22 pied) |
| Propulsion | Up to 2,485 m2 (26,750 sq ft) of sails |
| Complement | 700 men |
| Armament |
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The class was designed by Jacques-Noël Sané in 1782 as a development of the Annibal and her near-sister Northumberland, both of which had been designed by him and built at Brest during the 1777-1780 period. Some thirteen ships were ordered and built to this new design from 1782 to 1785, and then the same design was adopted as a standard for all subsequent 74-gun ships (the most common type of ship of the line throughout the period from ca. 1750 to 1830) built for the French Navy during the next three decades as part of the fleet expansion programme instituted by Jean-Charles de Borda in 1786.
The design was appreciated in Britain, which eagerly commissioned captured ships (18 in total) and even copied the design with the Pompée and America class.
After Napoleon's fall in November 1813 the new Dutch navy was formed, and by the powers closing the Treaty of Paris in May 1814 eight ships from the Pluton (or 'Small Model') group were ceded to the Netherlands. Some of these ships served this new navy until after 1830. Even after 1825 Dutch naval yards continued to build another six ships based on the original design, but with modifications according to Seppings like a rounded transom and closed bow. The last of these was struck off charge as late as 1913: the Piet Heyn of 1833, which was heavily modified as the steam frigate Admiraal van Wassenaer after 1856.