''La Réale'' ("the royal") was a

galley A galley is a type of ship that is propelled mainly by oars. The galley is characterized by its long, slender hull, shallow draft, and low freeboard (clearance between sea and gunwale). Virtually all types of galleys had sails that could be used ...

of the French galley corps, and the

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...

of the French galley fleet under

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Vers ...

. She was designed by Jean-Baptiste Chabert, and built in Marseille between 1692 and 1694.

Status

''La Réale'' was termed a ''galère extraordinaire'' ("extraordinary galley") since she had a larger crew than normal fleet galleys.In the French nomenclature for galleys, "ordinary galleys" had 26 pairs of oars with 6 oarsmen per bank; "extraordinary" ones had 29, 30 or 32 banks with 6 or 7 oarsmen. The status of ''Réale'' was thus defined:

Legacy

The decorations of the

stern The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Ori ...

are on display at the Musée de la Marine in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. The museum also features a contemporary model of an ordinary galley modified to look like the ''Réale''.

Notes

External links

*
Les galères du Roi-Soleil
*
Ornements de poupe de la galère ''Réale''
{{DEFAULTSORT:La Reale (1694) Ships built in France 1690s ships Galleys of the French Navy

Status

Legacy

See also

Notes

External links