French ship Vétéran (1803)

Vétéran escaping into the shallow waters of Concarneau harbour. Painting by Michel Bouquet, on display at Brest Fine arts museum.
History
France
Name	Vétéran
Namesake	Veteran
Builder	Brest
Laid down	10 November 1794
Launched	18 July 1803
In service	December 1803
Out of service	26 October 1833
General characteristics
Class and type	Development of Téméraire class
Displacement	2966 tonnes 5260 tonnes fully loaded
Length	56.47 metres (185.3 ft) (174 pied)
Beam	15.05 metres (49.4 ft)
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 × 24-pounder long guns Forecastle and Quarter deck: 16 × 8-pounder long guns 4 × 36-pounder carronades
Armour	Timber

The Vétéran was a 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy. She was a development of the Téméraire class, joining Cassard in a two-ship sub-class. The pair, both built by Pierre Ozanne at Brest to the plans of Jacques-Noël Sané, were enlarged to carry an upper deck battery of 24-pounder long guns instead of the 18-pounderss used on the standard ships of the Téméraire class.

Ordered as Magnanime, she was renamed Quatorze Juillet on 7 May 1798, and Vétéran on 6 December 1802.

On 13 December 1805, she departed Brest under captain Jérôme Bonaparte, as part of Willaumez division, to participate in what became the Atlantic campaign of 1806.

The 1806 Great Coastal hurricane scattered the division and Vétéran found herself isolated. She cruised off Quebec, destroying merchantmen and skirmishing with Royal Navy forces. She eventually returned to France and evaded the British blockade, entering Concarneau thanks to the experience of a sailor who had been a fisherman in the region. However, she ended up trapped, unable to leave the harbour for years. At some point before 1812 she fled to Lorient.

In 1812, she took part in Allemand's escape from Lorient. She then sailed to Brest under Captain Jurien de Lagravière.

She was decommissioned in 1833, and broken up in 1842.

Sources and references

• Ships of the line
• Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours 1 1671–1870. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922.