The ''Foudroyant'' was a
First Rank 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 tactic known as the line of battle, which depended on the two colu ...
of the
French Royal Navy
The French Navy (french: Marine nationale, lit=National Navy), informally , is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the five military service branches of France. It is among the largest and most powerful naval forces in t ...
, the lead vessel in the two-ship ''Foudroyant'' Class (her sister being the
''Merveilleux'').
This ship was ordered in January 1690 to be built at
Brest
Brest may refer to:
Places
*Brest, Belarus
**Brest Region
**Brest Airport
**Brest Fortress
*Brest, Kyustendil Province, Bulgaria
*Břest, Czech Republic
*Brest, France
**Arrondissement of Brest
**Brest Bretagne Airport
** Château de Brest
*Brest, ...
Dockyard, and on 9 July she was allotted the name ''Foudroyant''. The designer and builder of both ships was Blaise Pangalo. They were three-decker ships without forecastles. The ''Foudroyant'' was launched on 5 March 1691 and completed in June of the same year.
She was initially armed with 90 guns, comprising twenty-eight 36-pounders on the lower deck, twenty-eight 18-pounders on the middle deck, twenty-four 12-pounders on the upper deck, and ten 6-pounders on the quarterdeck. However she was reduced to 84 guns before the end of 1691.
The new ship took part in the
Battle of Barfleur
The action at Barfleur was part of the battle of Barfleur-La Hougue during the War of the Grand Alliance. A French fleet under Anne Hilarion de Tourville was seeking to cover an invasion of England by a French army to restore James II to the ...
on 29 May 1692, where she was the flagship of ''Chef d'Escadre'' Ferdinand, Comte de Relingue. Following the battle she and her sister ''Merveilleux'' put into
La Hogue
Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue is a commune in the Manche department in Normandy in north-western France.
Toponymy
Saint-Vaast is the Norman name of Saint Vedast and Hougue is a Norman language word meaning a "mound" or "loaf" and comes from the Old Nors ...
on the east coast of the
Cotentin Peninsula
The Cotentin Peninsula (, ; nrf, Cotentîn ), also known as the Cherbourg Peninsula, is a peninsula in Normandy that forms part of the northwest coast of France. It extends north-westward into the English Channel, towards Great Britain. To its w ...
where they were attacked and burnt by Anglo-Dutch naval forces on 2 June 1692.
A
new ship was immediately ordered to be built at Brest and given the same name; this was launched in December 1692. However, in March 1693 this ship exchanged names with the
ship ordered at Brest in January 1693, so it was the latter which bore the name ''Foudroyant'' when launched in November 1693.
Notes
References
*
*''Nomenclature des Vaisseaux du Roi-Soleil de 1661 a 1715''. Alain Demerliac (Editions Omega, Nice – various dates).
*''The Sun King's Vessels'' (2015) - Jean-Claude Lemineur; English translation by François Fougerat. Editions ANCRE.
*Winfield, Rif and Roberts, Stephen (2017) ''French Warships in the Age of Sail 1626-1786: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates.'' Seaforth Publishing. .
{{DEFAULTSORT:Foudroyant (1691)
Ships of the line of the French Navy
1690s ships