French ship Téméraire (1749)

For other ships with the same name, see French ship Téméraire and HMS Temeraire.

History
France
Name	Téméraire
Ordered	18 December 1747
Builder	Pierre-Blaise Coulomb, Toulon Dockyard
Laid down	August 1748
Launched	24 December 1749
Commissioned	1750
Captured	18 August 1759, by Royal Navy
Great Britain
Name	Temeraire
Acquired	18 August 1759
Fate	Sold, June 1784
General characteristics
Class and type	74-gun third rate ship of the line
Tonnage	1580
Displacement	2800
Tons burthen	1685 tons
Length	161¾ French feet
Beam	43½ French feet
Draught	19 French feet
Depth of hold	21 French feet
Propulsion	Sails
Sail plan	Full-rigged ship
Complement	680, + 6/13 officers
Armament	74 guns of various weights of shot

Téméraire was a 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, ordered in December 1747 to a design by François Coulomb, and built at Toulon by his cousin, the constructor Pierre-Blaise Coulomb; she was launched on 24 December 1749. Her 74 guns comprised:
28 × 36-pounders on the lower deck
30 × 18-pounders on the upper deck
10 × 8-pounders on the quarterdeck
6 × 8-pounders on the forecastle.

HMS Warspite under Admiral Boscawen captured Téméraire at the Battle of Lagos on 18 August 1759. She was thus taken into the Royal Navy and recommissioned as the Third Rate HMS Temeraire.

By 1780 she was used as a floating battery used to protect the harbour at Plymouth. She was sold in 1783.

Fate

Temeraire was sold out of the navy in 1784.

See also

• List of ships captured in the 18th century

References

• 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.
• Winfield, Rif and Roberts, Stephen S., French Warships in the Age of Sail 1626-1786: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. (Seaforth Publishing, 2017) ISBN 978-1-4738-9351-1.