French ship Argonaute (1798)

For other ships with the same name, see French ship Argonaute.

Scale model of Achille, sister ship of French ship Argonaute (1798), on display at the Musée national de la Marine in Paris.
History
France
Name	Argonaute
Namesake	Argonauts
Ordered	10 July 1794
Builder	Lorient shipyard
Laid down	10 July 1794
Launched	22 December 1798
Commissioned	September 1799
Decommissioned	1805
Fate	Exchanged with Spain, 1806
Spain
Name	Argonauta
Acquired	1806
Fate	Broken up
General characteristics
Class and type	Téméraire-class ship of the line
Displacement	2,966 tonnes 5,260 tonnes fully loaded
Length	55.87 metres (183.3 ft) (172 pied)
Beam	14.90 metres (48 ft 11 in)
Draught	7.26 metres (23.8 ft) (22 pied)
Propulsion	Up to 2,485 m2 (26,750 sq ft) of sails
Armament	74 guns: Lower gundeck: 28 × 36-pounder long guns Upper gundeck: 30 × 18-pounder long guns Forecastle and Quarter deck: 16 × 8-pounder long guns 4 × 36-pounder carronades
Armour	Timber

Argonaute was a 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.

The Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October. On the left the French Swiftsure, next to her the Spanish Bahama, then HMS Colossus firing into the French Argonaute. Painting by Richard Henry Nibbs

Under Vice-amiral Villaret de Joyeuse, she took part in the Saint-Domingue expedition in 1802. She took part in the Battle of Trafalgar in October 1805, and managed to return to Cádiz. Unable to leave the harbour because of the British blockade and damage, she was exchanged for the Vencedor in December 1806. She was renamed Argonauta, but was never recommissioned.

See also

• Jacques Bedout
• List of ships of the line of France

References

• Winfield, Rif; Roberts, Stephen S (2015). French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786—1862: Design Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 978-1-84832-204-2.