French ship Conquérant (1746)

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

History
France
Name	Conquérant
Namesake	"Conqueror"
Ordered	5 March 1743
Builder	Toulon
Laid down	February 1745
Launched	9 March 1746
In service	January 1747
Captured	2 August 1798
United Kingdom
Name	Conquerant
Acquired	2 August 1798
Fate	BU Jan 1803 Plymouth
General characteristics
Class and type	Citoyen class ship of the line
Displacement	1500 tonnes
Length	55.1 m (181 ft)
Beam	14.1 m (46 ft)
Draught	6.8 m (22 ft)
Propulsion	Sail
Armament	74 guns: Lower battery: 28 × 36-pounders Upper battery: 30 × 18-pounders Forecastle and quarterdeck: 16 × 8-pounders
Armour	Timber

The Conquérant was originally launched in 1746 on a design by François Coulomb the Younger. She was taken out of service in March 1764 & rebuilt at Brest as a Citoyen class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.

She took part in the Battle of the Nile, where she was armed with only 18- and 12-pounders, and crewed by a mere 400 men, under captain Dalbarade. Second ship in the vanguard of her line, Conquérant sustained fire from the passing British ships sailing to attack the centre of the French fleet. She was particularly targeted by HMS Audacious and Goliath, who reduced her to a hulk before 19:00. Immobilised, hopelessly overgunned and undermanned, her captain mortally wounded, Conquérant struck her colours and was seized by a boarding party from Audacious.

She was subsequently recommissioned in the Royal Navy under the same name.

External links

• 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. 124. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922.
• Naval Database