French ship Duquesne (1787)

Gaspar Vence on Duquesne reaches Toulon with a convoy of food and drives three British ships away, 2 April 1794
History
France
Name:	Duquesne
Namesake:	Abraham Duquesne
Laid down:	January 1788
Launched:	2 September 1788
In service:	1789
Captured:	24 July 1803
United Kingdom
Name:	Duquesne[1]
Acquired:	Captured on 24 July 1803
Fate:	Broken up in 1805
General characteristics [2]
Class & type:	Téméraire-class ship of the line
Tonnage:	1,901 bm[3]
Displacement:	2,966 tonnes 5,260 tonnes fully loaded
Length:	55.87 metres (183.3 ft) (172 pied)
Beam:	14.90 metres (48 ft 11 in)
Draught:	7.26 metres (23.8 ft) (22 pied)
Propulsion:	Up to 2,485 m^2 (26,750 sq ft) of sails
Armament:	74 guns: Lower gundeck: 28 × 36-pounder long guns Upper gundeck: 30 × 18-pounder long guns Forecastle and Quarter deck: 16 × 8-pounder long guns 4 × 36-pounder carronades
Armour:	Timber

Duquesne was a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy. She was captured by the British in 1803, and broken up in 1805.

French service

In 1793, under Captain Vence, she escorted an important convoy to the Levant, and then escaped a watching Anglo-Spanish squadron.^[4]

In 1795, under Captain Allemand, she took part in the Battle of Cape Noli, and in the Battle of Hyères Islands.^[4]

From mid-1801, she was armed en flûte and used as a troop ship. On 22 November 1802, she departed Toulon, bound to Saint-Domingue under Commodore Quérangal,^[1] along with Guerrière and Duguay-Trouin.

The flotilla found itself caught in the Blockade of Saint-Domingue by the British ships Elephant, Bellerophon, Theseus, Vanguard, and Tartar. Guerrière and Duguay-Trouin managed to escape, and Duquesne, separated from the squadron, attempted to flee in the night. She was discovered by Tartar and Vanguard the next afternoon, and after a short artillery duel, Duquesne, outnumbered by her opponents, struck her colours.

Fate

Duquesne was incorporated in the Royal Navy as HMS Duquesne. In 1804, she ran aground on the Morant Cays. She was refloated in 1805, and sailed to England to be broken up.

Models

A large scale model of Duquesne, built in 1788, is on display at the Naval Museum in Toulon. Another, of more reduced size, is with the Museum of Tonnerre.

• 

  Scale model of the Duquesne, on display at the Musée de la Marine in Toulon

See also

• List of ships of the line of France

References

Notes

1. Benyon, P. (2011). "HMS Duquesne". Index of 19th Century Naval Vessels. Retrieved 3 April 2013.
2. Clouet, Alain (2007). "La marine de Napoléon III : classe Téméraire - caractéristiques". dossiersmarine.free.fr (in French). Retrieved 4 April 2013.
3. Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475. P. 106.
4. "Les bâtiments ayant porté le nom de Duquesne". netmarine.net (in French). 2012. Retrieved 3 April 2013.

Bibliography

• Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours 1 1671 - 1870. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922.

External links

• "Plan of Duquesne". National Maritime Museum. 1805.