''Auguste'' was an 80-gun

ship of the line A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactics in the Age of Sail, naval tactic known as the line of battl ...

in 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 ...

, laid down in 1777 and in active service from 1779. She took part in the Naval operations in the American Revolutionary War and later in the

French Revolutionary Wars The French Revolutionary Wars () were a series of sweeping military conflicts resulting from the French Revolution that lasted from 1792 until 1802. They pitted French First Republic, France against Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain, Habsb ...

, notably fighting at the Combat de Prairial. She was lost with most hands during the Croisière du Grand Hiver in January 1795.

Service

Soon after her commissioning, from June to September 1779, ''Auguste'' patroles the Channel under Captain de Rochechouart. She took part in the Battle of St. Lucia, the Battle of Fort Royal and the

Battle of the Chesapeake The Battle of the Chesapeake, also known as the Battle of the Virginia Capes or simply the Battle of the Capes, was a crucial naval battle in the American Revolutionary War that took place near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay on 5 September 1 ...

under Captain

Castellan A castellan, or constable, was the governor of a castle in medieval Europe. Its surrounding territory was referred to as the castellany. The word stems from . A castellan was almost always male, but could occasionally be female, as when, in 1 ...

, as flagship of the Blue-and-White squadron under

Chef d'Escadre ''Chef d'escadre'' (; literally " squadron commander") was a rank in the French Navy during the Ancien Régime and until the French Revolution. The rank was changed to '' contre-amiral'' by a law passed on 15 May 1791. History The first chef ...

Bougainville. She was also at the

Battle of the Saintes The Battle of the Saintes (known to the French as the Bataille de la Dominique), also known as the Battle of Dominica, was an important naval battle in the Caribbean between the British and the French that took place 9–12 April 1782. The Brit ...

on 12 April 1782. In 1793, she was renamed ''Jacobin'' and was part of the Brest squadron. She was involved in the Quibéron mutinies in September 1793. The next year, she took part in the Combat de Prairial, where she followed the flagship ''Montagne'', and failed to prevent HMS ''Queen Charlotte'' from breaking the French line. In December 1794, she was renamed ''Neuf Thermidor''. On 29 January, as she took part in the Croisière du Grand Hiver, she was caught in a tempest off Brest and wrecked with the loss of most of her crew.

Citations

References

* * Ships of the line of the French Navy Ships built in France Maritime incidents in 1795 Shipwrecks in the Bay of Biscay 1778 ships {{France-mil-ship-stub