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French ship Commerce de Marseille (1788)
Commerce de Marseille-IMG 5773
1/48th scale model on display at Marseille naval harbour
Career (France) French Navy Ensign
Name: Commerce de Marseille
Namesake: Marseille
Builder: Arsenal de Toulon
Laid down: 9-1786
Launched: 7-9-1788
Completed: 10-1790
Out of service: 2-8-1850
Struck: 1802
Captured: Seized as prize by Great Britain--29 August 1793
Fate: Broken up in 1856
General characteristics
Class & type: Océan class ship of the line
Type: Three deck ship of the line
Displacement: 5,098 tonnes
Tons burthen: 2,746 tonnes
Length: 65,18 metres (196,6 French feet)
Beam: 16,24 metres (50 French feet)
Draught: 8,12 metres (25 French feet)
Depth: 25.04 feet
Decks: Three gun decks
Propulsion: sail, 3 265 m²
Complement: 1 079 men
Armament:

Lower deck:
lower deck: 32 36-pound guns
middle deck: 34 24-pound guns
upper deck: 34 12-pound guns

forecastle: 18 8-pound guns, 6 36-pound carronades
Notes:

Length of gun deck 208 feet 4 inches, the longest of any 3-decker ever built.

She was 2746 tonnes burthen, also a record.

The Commerce de Marseille was a 118-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, lead ship of the Océan class. She was funded by a don des vaisseaux donation from chamber of commerce of Marseille.

Built on state-of-the-art plans by Sané, she was dubbed the "finest ship of the century". Her construction was difficult because of a lack of wood, and soon after her completion, she was disarmed, in March 1791.

Commerce de Marseille came under British control during the Siege of Toulon. When the city fell to the French, she evacuated the harbour for Portsmouth. She was briefly used as a store-ship, but on a journey to the Caribbean, in 1795, she was badly damaged in a storm and had to limp back to Portsmouth. She remained there as a hulk until she was broken up in 1856.

References[]

  • Dictionnaire de la flotte de guerre française, Jean-Michel Roche
All or a portion of this article consists of text from Wikipedia, and is therefore Creative Commons Licensed under GFDL.
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