French_ship_Fougueux_(1785)
French ship Fougueux (1785)
Ship of the line of the French Navy
Fougueux was a Téméraire-class 74-gun French ship of the line built at Lorient from 1784 to 1785 by engineer Segondat.
Scale model of Achille, sister ship of French ship Fougueux (1785), on display at the Musée national de la Marine in Paris. | |
| History | |
|---|---|
   France | |
| Name | Fougueux |
| Namesake | "Impetuous" |
| Builder | Lorient shipyard |
| Laid down | 1784 |
| Launched | 19 September 1785 |
| Fate | Wrecked 22 October 1805 |
| General characteristics [1] | |
| Class and type | Téméraire-class ship of the line |
| Displacement |
|
| Length | 55.87 metres (183 ft 4 in) (172 pied) |
| Beam | 14.90 metres (48 ft 11 in) |
| Draught | 7.26 metres (23 ft 10 in) (22 pied) |
| Propulsion | Up to 2,485 m2 (26,750 sq ft) of sails |
| Armament |
|
| Armour | Timber |
In 1796, she took part in the Expédition d'Irlande under Esprit-Tranquille Maistral.
She took part in the Battle of Trafalgar, firing the first shot of the battle upon HMS Royal Sovereign. She later attempted to come to the aid of the Redoutable by engaging HMS Temeraire. After badly damaging the Fougueux with broadsides, Temeraire's first-lieutenant, Thomas Fortescue Kennedy, led a boarding party onto Fougueux, entering the French ship via her main deck ports and chains.[2][3] The French tried to defend the decks port by port, but were steadily overwhelmed. Fougueux's captain, Louis Alexis Baudoin, had suffered a fatal wound earlier in the fighting, leaving Commander François Bazin in charge. On learning that nearly all of the officers were dead or wounded and that most of the guns were out of action, Bazin surrendered the ship to Kennedy.[4][5]
According to the report of Captain Lucas of the Redoutable,
the Fougueux, which, having fought against several of the enemy's ships, had been left by them without having lowered her flag. She was dismasted and unrigged, and floating an unmanageable hulk. On fouling the group of ships she was boarded by the Temeraire. The Fougueux was, however, beyond making serious resistance. Her brave captain, Baudouin, though, even then made an effort, but in vain. He was killed at the outset, and his second in command was wounded at the same moment; whereupon some men of the Temeraire sprang on board and took possession.
On the day after the battle a severe storm battered the surviving ships. Fougueux was driven ashore near Torre Bermeja on the coast of Spain and was wrecked. Only 25 men aboard, British prize crew and French prisoners, survived.[6]
- Clouet, Alain (2007). "La marine de Napoléon III : classe Téméraire - caractéristiques". dossiersmarine.free.fr (in French). Archived from the original on 23 March 2013. Retrieved 4 April 2013.
- Willis. The Fighting Temeraire. p. 193.
- Adkin. The Trafalgar Companion. p. 508.
- Willis. The Fighting Temeraire. p. 194.
- Clayton & Craig. Trafalgar. p. 210.
- Clowes (1900), p.163
- Adkin, Mark (2007). The Trafalgar Companion: A Guide to History's Most Famous Sea Battle and the Life of Admiral Lord Nelson. London: Aurum Press. ISBN 978-1-84513-018-3.
- Clayton, Tim; Craig, Phil (2005). Trafalgar: The Men, the Battle, the Storm. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-83028-X.
- Clowes, William Laird (1900). The Royal Navy: A History From the Earliest Times to the Present. Vol. V. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company.
- Willis, Sam (2010). The Fighting Temeraire: Legend of Trafalgar. Quercus. ISBN 978-1-84916-261-6.
Media related to Fougueux (ship, 1785) at Wikimedia Commons- The Redoutable at Trafalgar
