French ship Provence (1763)
| History | |
|---|---|
 France
| |
| Name: | Provence |
| Namesake: | Estates of Provence |
| Builder: | Toulon |
| Laid down: | May 1762 |
| Launched: | 29 April 1763 |
| In service: | June 1763 |
| Out of service: | 1785 |
| Notes: | Offered by the Estates of Provence |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 1150 tonnes |
| Length: | 59.7 metres |
| Beam: | 13.2 metres |
| Draught: | 6.9 metres |
| Propulsion: | Sail, full rigged ship |
| Complement: | 556 men |
| Armament: | 64 guns |
| Armour: | Timber |
The Provence was a 64-gun ship of the line of the French Navy. She was funded by a don des vaisseaux donation from the Estates of Provence.
Ordered as Union in February 1762, the ship was renamed Provence on 17 March, and begun in May on plans by engineer Gauthier.
After an uneventful career, she was decommissioned in February 1769, but reactivated in April of the next year and commissioned under Captain Moriès-Castellet. She was appointed to a three-ship squadron under Captain de Broves and departed Toulon on 16 May, bound for Tunisia, where she blockaded the harbours of Sousse and Bizerte, and took part in the bombardment of the cities in late June.[1]
In 1778, she took part in the naval operations in the American Revolutionary War under Captain Desmichel-Champorcin. She took part in the Battle of Grenada, where Desmichel-Champorcin was killed. In December 1779, she had returned to brest, where she was decommissioned.
Between 1783 and 1785, she sailed as a merchantman for the Compagnie de Chine, before being struck in Rochefort and brocken up in 1786.
External links
- Ships of the line
- 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. 365. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922.