French ship Zélé (1763)

History
France
Name	Zélé
Namesake	"Zealous"
Ordered	9 December 1761
Builder	Toulon (plans by Coulomb)
Laid down	February 1762
Launched	1 July 1763
In service	1764
Out of service	1806
Notes	Offered by the receveurs généraux des finances
General characteristics
Displacement	2,900 tonnes
Length	55.39 m (181.7 ft)
Beam	14.13 m (46.4 ft)
Draught	6.71 m (22.0 ft)
Depth of hold	6.98 m (22.9 ft)
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
Armour	Timber

The Zélé was a 74-gun ship of the line of the French Royal Navy. She was funded by a don des vaisseaux donation from the Régisseur général des finances.

On 6 July 1779, she participated in the Battle of Grenada as a member of the Vanguard. In 1781 and 1782, she took part in the naval operations in the American Revolutionary War, under Admiral de Grasse. She fought at the Battle of the Chesapeake. It was by wishing to help this ship that the "Ville de Paris" of Admiral de Grasse was captured during the "Battle of the Saintes" in April 1782. She was broken up in May 1806.

External links

• 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. p. 223. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922.
• Nomenclature des navires français de 1715 á 1774. Alain Demerliac (Editions Omega, Nice – 1995). ISBN 2-906381-19-5.
• Winfield, Rif and Roberts, Stephen (2017) French Warships in the Age of Sail 1626-1786: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4738-9351-1.