''Victoire'' was a
''Bien-Aimé''-class 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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
.
Career
In July 1778, ''Victore'' departed Toulon, bound for the Mediterranean, in the context of the
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...
, under Captain
d'Albert Saint Hippolyte. On 12 August, she captured the sloop
HMS ''Industry'', and on 28 August, the 10-gun ''Levant'' (?).
On 1 May 1779, ''Victoire'' took part in the capture of
HMS ''Montreal'', along with
''Bourgogne''. The next day she confronted off Gibraltar.
[Department of National Defence Canada]
History of HMCS Montreal
(Retrieved 18 September 2010)
Archives navales de Brest (Retrieved 18 September 2010)[Roche states that ''Victoire'' captured ''Thetis'' and brought her to Malaga. Other sources state that ''Thetis'' escaped.]
British records largely agree. When ''Thetis'' and ''Montreal'' saw two large ships approaching under Dutch colours, they suspected that the strange ships were French and attempted to sail away. ''Thetis'' succeeded, but at 9p.m., ''Bourgogne'' and ''Victoire'' caught up with ''Montreal'', came alongside, and ordered Douglas to send over a boat. Captain Douglas sent over Lieutenant John Douglas, whom the French ordered to Douglas to hail ''Montreal'' and instruct her to
strike
Strike may refer to:
People
*Strike (surname)
* Hobart Huson, author of several drug related books
Physical confrontation or removal
*Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm
* Airstrike, ...
. Captain Douglas attempted to escape, but after the French had fired several broadsides into ''Montreal'' he struck.
[Hepper (1994), p. 55.]
''Victoire'' took part in the
Battle of Martinique 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 ...
.
''Victoire'' was eventually decommissioned in Brest in 1782, and broken up in 1792.
Notes
Citations
References
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Ships of the line of the French Navy
1770 ships
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