French ship Duc d'Aquitaine (1754)

History
France
Name: Duc d'Aquitaine
Launched: 1754
Captured: 30 May 1757
Great Britain
Name: Duc D'Aquitaine
Acquired: 30 May 1757
Fate: Wrecked, 1761
General characteristics [1]
Class and type: 64-gun third rate ship of the line
Tons burthen: 1358 (bm)
Length: 159 ft 5 in (48.59 m) (gundeck)
Beam: 44 ft 4 in (13.51 m)
Depth of hold: 19 ft 5 in (5.92 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Armament: 64 guns of various weights of shot

Duc d'Aquitaine was a 64-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, launched in 1754.

On 30 May 1757 she was captured by the Royal Navy and commissioned as the third rate HMS Duc D'Aquitaine. She foundered in 1761 and was lost.

Fate

On 1 January 1761, Duc D'Aquitaine was caught in a cyclone off Pondicherry, India, and foundered. She had been anchored and attempted to go out to sea, but was unable to and so reanchored. The storm overwhelmed her and she foundered; only 19 men out of a crew of about 400 survived. The same storm claimed four other warships as well. HMS Sunderland foundered in much the same manner as Duc D'Aquitaine, and with a similar outcome. HMS Newcastle (1750), HMS Queenborough, and HMS Protector were all driven onshore and wrecked.[2]

Notes

  1. Lavery, Ships of the Line, vol. 1, p. 178.
  2. Hepper (1994), p.44-5.

References

  • Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650–1859. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot. ISBN 0-948864-30-3. 
  • Lavery, Brian (2003) The Ship of the Line - Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850. Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-252-8.
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