French ship Ville de Paris (1764)
Ville de Paris in Rochefort, 1764
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History | |
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France | |
Name | Impétueux |
Ordered | as Impétueux |
Builder | Rochefort harbour |
Laid down | 1757 |
Launched | 19 January 1764 |
Commissioned | 1764 |
Renamed | Ville de Paris in 1762 |
Fate | Sank during 1782 Central Atlantic hurricane in September 1782 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | First-rate ship of the line |
Length | 54 m (177 ft) |
Beam | 14.6 m (48 ft) |
Draught | 6.7 m (22 ft) |
Propulsion | Sail |
Armament |
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Armour | Timber |
Ville de Paris was a large three-decker French ship of the line that became famous as the flagship of De Grasse during the American Revolutionary War.
Career
Originally laid down in 1757 as the 90-gun Impétueux, she was funded by the City of Paris and renamed Ville de Paris in 1762 as a result of the
She was completed in 1764 as a 90-gun first rate, just too late to serve in the Seven Years' War. She was one of the first three-deckers to be completed for the French navy since the 1720s.
In 1778, on the French entry into the American Revolutionary War she was commissioned at Brest, joining the fleet as the flagship of
At some point during the next two years, she had an additional 14 small guns mounted on her previously unarmed quarterdeck, making her a 104-gun ship.
In 1779, she was the flagship of a division under Duchaffault, part of the Armada of 1779.[1]
In March 1781 she sailed for the West Indies as flagship of a fleet of 20 ships of the line under De Grasse. She then fought at the Battle of Fort Royal and the Battle of the Chesapeake, under Captain Cresp de Saint-Césaire.[2][3]
In 1782, she fought in the
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The Battle of the Saintes, 12 April 1782: surrender of the Ville de Paris by Thomas Whitcombe, painted 1783, shows Hood's Barfleur, centre, attacking the French flagship Ville de Paris, right.
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The Ville de Paris, foundering in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean
At the
The ship sank in September 1782 with other ships, including
A ship of the line of the Royal Navy was named after her: HMS Ville de Paris, launched in 1795.
Legacy
Two of her guns were retained in Jamaica, they now flank the
Citations
- ^ Taillemite (2002), p. 149.
- ^ Musée de la Marine (2019), p. 87.
- ^ Lacour-Gayet (1910), p. 648.
- ISBN 9780333747605.
- ^ Famous Fighters of the Fleet, Edward Fraser, 1904, p.160
- ^ Famous Fighters of the Fleet, Edward Fraser, 1904, p.164
- ^ Aspinall, Algernon E. (1907). The pocket guide to the West Indies, British Guiana, British Honduras, the Bermudas, the Spanish Main, and the Panama canal (New and revised 1914 ed.). Rand, McNally & Company. pp. 188–189. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
References
- Lacour-Gayet, Georges (1910). La marine militaire de la France sous le règne de Louis XVI. Paris: Honoré Champion. pp. 431–434.
- Musée de la Marine (2019). Mémorial de Grasse (in French). Grasse: Sud Graphique.
- 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. 469. OCLC 165892922.
- OCLC 606770323.