![]() 1⁄48th scale model on display at Marseille maritime museum
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History | |
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Name | Commerce de Marseille |
Namesake | Marseille |
Ordered | 1786[2] |
Builder | Arsenal de Toulon |
Laid down | September 1786[1] or April 1787[3] |
Launched | 7 August 1788[1] |
Completed | October 1790 |
Out of service | 2 August 1850 |
Stricken | 1802 |
Captured | Seized as prize by Great Britain on 29 August 1793 |
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Name | HMS Commerce de Marseille |
Fate | Broken up 1802 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Océan-class ship of the line |
Displacement | 5,098 tonnes |
Tons burthen | 2,746 tonnes |
Length | 65.18 m (213 ft 10 in) (196.6 French feet) |
Beam | 16.24 m (53 ft 3 in) (50 French feet) |
Draught | 8.12 m (26 ft 8 in) (25 French feet) |
Propulsion | sail, 3,265 m2 (35,140 sq ft) |
Complement | 1,079 |
Armament |
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Notes | Length of gun deck was 208 ft 4 in (63.50 m), the longest of any 3-decker ever built. She was 2,746 tonnes burthen, also a record. |
Commerce de Marseille was a 118-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, lead ship[note 1] of the Océan class. She was funded by a don des vaisseaux donation from the chamber of commerce of Marseille.
Career
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.
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cf/Commerce-de-marseille-2.jpg/220px-Commerce-de-marseille-2.jpg)
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 stores ship, but on a journey to the Caribbean Sea, 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 1802.
Notes
- ^ Commerce de Marseille was ordered after États de Bourgogne (which was later renamed Océan), but launched before her; therefore, the ship type is alternatively called Commerce de Marseille class or Océan class
Citations
References
- "Le vaisseau trois-ponts l’Océan", Jean Boudriot, in Neptunia n° 102 (1971), page 21.
- Demerliac, Alain (2004). La Marine de Louis XVI: Nomenclature des Navires Français de 1774 à 1792 (in French). Éditions Ancre. ISBN 2-906381-23-3.
- Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours. Vol. 1. Group Retozel-Maury Millau. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922. (1671-1870)