French ship Conquérant (1747)
| History | |
|---|---|
   France
| |
| Name: | Conquérant |
| Namesake: | "Conqueror" |
| Ordered: | 5 March 1743 |
| Builder: | Toulon |
| Laid down: | February 1745 |
| Launched: | 9 March 1746 |
| In service: | January 1747 |
| Captured: | 2 August 1798 |
 United Kingdom
| |
| Name: | Conquerant |
| Acquired: | 2 August 1798 |
| Fate: | BU Jan 1803 Plymouth |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type: | Citoyen class ship of the line |
| Displacement: | 1500 tonnes |
| Length: | 55.1 m (181 ft) |
| Beam: | 14.1 m (46 ft) |
| Draught: | 6.8 m (22 ft) |
| Propulsion: | Sail |
| Armament: |
|
| Armour: | Timber |
The Conquérant was originally launched in 1746 on a design by François Coulomb the Younger. She was taken out of service in March 1764 & rebuilt at Brest as a Citoyen class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.
She took part in the Battle of the Nile, where she was armed with only 18- and 12-pounders, and crewed by a mere 400 men, under captain Dalbarade.[1] Second ship in the vanguard of her line, Conquérant sustained fire from the passing British ships sailing to attack the centre of the French fleet. She was particularly targeted by HMS Audacious and Goliath, who reduced her to a hulk before 19:00. Immobilised, hopelessly overgunned and undermanned, her captain mortally wounded, Conquérant struck her colours and was seized by a boarding party from Audacious.
She was subsequently recommissioned in the Royal Navy under the same name.
External links
- Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours, 1671 - 1870. Group Retozel-Maury Millau. p. 124. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922.
- Naval Database