Hercule-class ship of the line

Model workshop of Brest arsenal for the Tage, circa 1847
Class overview
Name:	Hercule
Builders:	Toulon, Brest
Operators:	French Navy
Preceded by:	Suffren class
Succeeded by:	Napoléon class Algésiras class
Completed:	13
Cancelled:	2
General characteristics
Class and type:	Hercule class
Displacement:	4440 tonnes
Length:	62.50 m (205 ft 1 in)
Beam:	16.20 m (53 ft 2 in)
Draught:	8.23 m (27 ft 0 in)
Propulsion:	3,150 m2 (33,900 sq ft) of sails
Complement:	955 men
Armament:	100 guns, including: 32 × long 30-pounders (lower deck) 30 × short 30-pounders (middle deck) 30 × 30-pounder carronades (upper deck) 4 × long 18-pounders (upper deck)
Armour:	Timber

The Hercule class was a late type of 100-gun ships of the line of the French Navy. While the first units were classical straight-walled ships of the line, next ones were gradually converted to steam, and the last one was built with an engine.

Design

The Hercule class evolved as an enlargement of the straight-walled, 90-gun Suffren class, suggested by Jean Tupinier.^[1]

With the Henry IV, a rounded stern was introduced. The next ships were built with the rounded stern, and it was retrofitted on the early units of the class.

Units

• Hercule (1836)

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• Jemmapes (1840)

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• Tage

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• Henry IV

Builder:Cherbourg

Begun:1829

Launched:1848

Completed:1850

Fate: Bombardment at Odessa (1854). Lost in a storm at Eupatoria in the Crimea (14.11.1854)

• Austerlitz

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• Fleurus

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• Annibal, renamed Prince Jérôme

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• Dugay Trouin

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• Turenne

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• Ulm, Lys renamed 1830

Builder:Rochefort

Begun:1825

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Fate: Bombardment at Kinburn (1855)

• Wagram, Bucentaure renamed 1839

Builder:Lorient

Begun:1833

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Fate: Bombardment at Kinburn (1855)

• Navarin

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• Eylau

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References

• Jean-Michel Roche, Dictionnaire des Bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours, tome I