The ''Annibal'' class was a class of two

74-gun The "seventy-four" was a type of two- decked sailing ship of the line, which nominally carried 74 guns. It was developed by the French navy in the 1740s, replacing earlier classes of 60- and 62-gun ships, as a larger complement to the recently de ...

ships of the

French Navy The French Navy (, , ), informally (, ), is the Navy, maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the four military service branches of History of France, France. It is among the largest and most powerful List of navies, naval forces i ...

. The type was one of the first achievements of

Jacques-Noël Sané Jacques-Noël Sané (18 February 1740 – 22 August 1831) was a French shipwright. He was the creator of standardised designs for ship of the line, ships of the line and frigates fielded by the French Navy in the 1780s, which served during the Fr ...

. His first design - on 24 November 1777 - was for a ship of 166 ''pieds'' (176 feet 11 inches) length, but he produced an amended design on 10 January 1779 for the ''Annibal'', and a further amended design on 3 March 1780 for her near-sister ''Northumberland''. Both ships were captured during the Fourth Battle of Ushant ("Bataille du 13 prairial an II" or "Glorious First of June") on 1 June 1794 off

Ushant Ushant (; , ; , ) is a French island at the southwestern end of the English Channel which marks the westernmost point of metropolitan France. It belongs to Brittany and in medieval times, Léon. In lower tiers of government, it is a commune in t ...

, and were added to but never commissioned into the British Navy. * :Builder: Brest Dockyard :Ordered: 20 February 1778 :Launched: 5 October 1778 :Fate: Captured by the Royal Navy on 1 June 1794 and renamed HMS ''Achille'', but broken up at Plymouth in February 1796. * :Builder: Brest Dockyard :Ordered: :Launched: 3 May 1780 :Fate: Captured by the Royal Navy on 1 June 1794 and named HMS ''Northumberland'', but broken up at Plymouth in November 1795.

Citations

References

*Winfield, Rif and Roberts, Stephen S. (2017) ''French Warships in the Age of Sail 1626–1786: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates.''. Seaforth Publishing. . *Winfield, Rif and Roberts, Stephen S. (2015) ''French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786-1861: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates.'' Seaforth Publishing. . 74-gun ship of the line classes Ship of the line classes from France Ship classes of the French Navy {{France-mil-ship-stub