The Citoyen class consisted of four 74-gun ships of the line all built at Brest Naval Dockyard to a design by Joseph-Louis Ollivier. The first ship (Citoyen, originally to have been named Cimeterre) was newly built there from 1761 to 1764, and the other three were rebuilt to her design from earlier ships.
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name | Citoyen |
| Builders | Joseph-Louis Ollivier, Brest |
| Operators |  French Navy |
| Completed | 4 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Ship of the line |
| Tonnage | 1500 tonnes |
| Displacement | 3000 tonnes |
| Length | 169½ French feet[1] (55.06 metres) |
| Beam | 43 French feet (13.97 metres) |
| Draught | 21 French feet (6.82 metres) |
| Depth of hold | 20¾ French feet (6.74 metres) |
| Propulsion | Sail |
| Complement | 715 men in wartime, 650 men in peacetime; + 6/12 officers |
| Armament |
|
| Armour | Timber |
| Notes | Ships in class include: Citoyen, Conquérant, Palmier, Actif |
- Built at: Brest
- Keel laid: July 1761
- Launched: 27 August 1764
- Completed: December 1764
- Fate: decommissioned in 1783 and taken to pieces in 1792
- Originally built at: Toulon
- Ordered: 5 March 1743
- Originally launched: 9 March 1746
- Rebuilt: from January 1765 at Brest to the draught of the Citoyen, re-launched 29 November 1765 and completed in December 1765
- Fate: Condemned in May 1796 but put back into service in March 1798, captured by the British on 2 August 1798 at the Battle of the Nile, broken up in Plymouth in January 1803
- Originally built at: Brest
- Keel laid: November 1750
- Originally launched 21 July 1752
- Rebuilt: from 23 May 1766 at Brest to the draught of the Citoyen, re-launched in December 1766 and completed in the same month
- Fate: Rebuilt again at Brest in 1776. Abandoned and foundered off Bermuda in the Atlantic Ocean on 24 October 1782
- Originally built at: Brest (as a 64-gun ship)
- Keel laid: 1750
- Originally launched: 15 December 1752
- Rebuilt at: from April 1767 at Brest to the draught of the Citoyen, re-launched on 5 October 1767 and completed in April 1768
- Fate: Rebuilt again at Brest in 1774. Condemned in August 1783, sold 1784
Sources and references
edit- Demerliac, Alain (1995). La Marine de Louis XV - Nomenclature des navires francais de 1715 à 1774. pp. 39–41. ISBN 2-906381-19-5.
- 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.
- ^ Note that the French (pre-metric) foot was 6.575% longer than the equivalent British unit of measurement of the same name.
- ^ Note that the French (pre-metric) pound was about 7.9% heavier than the equivalent British unit of measurement of the same name. Thus the French 36-pounder equated to about 38 lb 13.6 oz in British measurement.