French ship Rivoli (1810)

1/40th scale model of Rivoli fitted with seacamels.
History
France
Name:	Rivoli
Namesake:	Battle of Rivoli
Builder:	Venice
Laid down:	1807
Launched:	6 September 1810
Great Britain
Name:	Rivoli
Acquired:	Captured from the French on 22 February 1812
General characteristics
Class & type:	Seventy-four Téméraire class ship of the line
Displacement:	1 630 tonnes
Length:	52 m (171 ft)
Beam:	14 m (46 ft)
Draught:	7 m (23 ft)
Complement:	3 officers + 690 men
Armament:	74 guns: 28 × 36-pounder long guns 30 × 18-pounder long guns 14 × 8-pounder long guns 10 × 36-pounder carronades[1]

The Rivoli was a Téméraire class ship of the line of the French Navy.

Rivoli was built in Venice, whose harbour was too shallow for a 74-gun to exit. To allow her to depart, she was fitted with seacamels.^{[note 1]}

On her maiden journey, under Jean-Baptiste Barré, the British 74-gun third rate HMS Victorious intercepted her on 22 February 1812. Her crew was inexperienced, and in the ensuing Battle of Pirano, the British captured Rivoli after some 400 men of her crew of over 800 were killed or wounded.^[2]

The Royal Navy subsequently recommissioned her as HMS Rivoli. On 30 May 1815, under Captain Edward Stirling Dickson, she destroyed the frigate Melpomène off Naples.

Sources and references

Notes

1. Rivoli and Mont Saint-Bernard were the only two French ships of the line to use this system.

Notes

1. Troude, op. cit., p. 157
2. The London Gazette: no. 16600. pp. 851–852. 5 May 1812.

Bibliography

• HMS Rivoli
• Troude, Onésime-Joachim (1867). Batailles navales de la France 4. Challamel ainé. pp. 152–153.