''Centaure'' was a 74-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 ...

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 ...

, launched at

Toulon Toulon (, , ; , , ) is a city in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the French Riviera and the historical Provence, it is the prefecture of the Var (department), Var department. The Commune of Toulon h ...

in 1757. She was designed by Joseph-Marie-Blaise Coulomb and named on 25 October 1755, and built under his supervision at Toulon. In French service she carried 74 cannon, comprising: 28 × 36-pounders on the lower deck, 30 × 18-pounders on the upper deck, 10 × 8-pounders on the quarterdeck, 6 × 8-pounders on the forecastle. The

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

captured ''Centaure'' at the

Battle of Lagos The Battle of Lagos took place between a British fleet commanded by Edward Boscawen and a French fleet under Jean-François de La Clue-Sabran over two days in 1759 during the Seven Years' War. They fought south west of the Gulf of Cádiz on ...

Ships of the Old Navy, ''Centaur''. on 18 August 1759, and commissioned her as the

third-rate In the rating system of the Royal Navy, a third rate was a ship of the line which from the 1720s mounted between 64 and 80 guns, typically built with two gun decks (thus the related term two-decker). Rating When the rating system was f ...

HMS ''Centaur''.

Career in British service

She had a skirmish with the French ships ''Vaillant'' and ''Amethyste'', in January 1760. In the War of American Independence, ''Centaur'' served continuously on the North America/West Indies station, taking part in all the major battles including Admiral Rodney's victory at the

Saintes Saint is the designation of a holy person. Saint(s) may also refer to: Places Saint *Le Saint, Brittany, France Saints *Saints, Luton, Bedfordshire, England *Saints, Seine-et-Marne, France *Saints-en-Puisaye, formerly Saints, France * The Sa ...

Loss

In September 1782, ''Centaur'' was one of the ships escorting

prizes A prize is an award to be given to a person or a group of people (such as sporting teams and organizations) to recognize and reward their actions and achievements.

and a large trade convoy back to

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

from

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

, when she foundered due to damage received in the

1782 Central Atlantic hurricane The 1782 Central Atlantic hurricane was a hurricane which struck a Kingdom of Great Britain, British fleet under Admiral Thomas Graves, 1st Baron Graves, Thomas Graves off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland in September 1782. It is believed to hav ...

near the

Grand Banks of Newfoundland The Grand Banks of Newfoundland are a series of underwater plateaus south-east of the island of Newfoundland on the North American continental shelf. The Grand Banks are one of the world's richest fishing grounds, supporting Atlantic cod, swordf ...

. Captain

John Nicholson Inglefield Captain (Royal Navy), Captain John Nicholson Inglefield (1748 – 7 February 1828) was an English naval officer in the Royal Navy. Biography John Nicholson Inglefield was the son of a ship's carpenter, Isaac Inglefield, and his wife, a si ...

, along with eleven of his crew, survived the wreck in one of the ship's

pinnaces Pinnace may refer to: * Pinnace (ship's boat), a small vessel used as a tender to larger vessels among other things * Full-rigged pinnace The full-rigged pinnace was the larger of two types of vessel called a pinnace in use from the sixteenth ...

, arriving at the

Azores The Azores ( , , ; , ), officially the Autonomous Region of the Azores (), is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal (along with Madeira). It is an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the Macaronesia region of the North Atl ...

after sailing in an open boat for 16 days without compass quadrant or sail, and only two quart bottles of water; some 400 of her crew perished.

Citations

References

*Lavery, Brian (1983) ''The Ship of the Line – Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650–1850.'' Conway Maritime Press. . *Winfield, Rif and Roberts, Stephen S., ''French Warships in the Age of Sail 1626-1786: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates''. (Seaforth Publishing, 2017) .
John Nicholson Inglefield, ''Captain Inglefield's narrative concerning the loss of the 'Centaur''', 1783

External links

* Centaure (1757) Ships of the line of the Royal Navy Shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean 1757 ships Maritime incidents in 1782 Captured ships {{UK-line-ship-stub

Career in British service

Loss

See also

Citations

References

External links