''Neptune'' was a

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 of the

French 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 ...

Career

''Neptune'' captured a 30-gun British

privateer A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...

named ''Hercules'' on 28 October 1778. On 2 May 1780, she departed Brest with a 7-ship and 3-frigate

Expédition Particulière ''Expédition Particulière'' (English: Special Expedition) was the codename given by the Kingdom of France for the plan to sail French land forces to North America to support the colonists against Britain in the American Revolutionary War. Numberi ...

under Admiral Ternay, escorting 36 transports carrying troops to support the Continental Army in the

War of American Independence The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

. The squadron comprised the 80-gun ''Duc de Bourgogne'', under Ternay d'Arsac (admiral) and Médine (

flag captain In the Royal Navy, a flag captain was the captain of an admiral's flagship. During the 18th and 19th centuries, this ship might also have a "captain of the fleet", who would be ranked between the admiral and the "flag captain" as the ship's "First ...

); the

''Neptune'', under Sochet Des Touches, and ''Conquérant'', under La Grandière; and the 64-gun ''Provence'' under Lombard, ''Ardent'' under Bernard de Marigny, ''Jason'' under La Clocheterie and ''Éveillé'' under Le Gardeur de Tilly, and the frigates ''Surveillante'' under Villeneuve Cillart, ''Amazone'' under La Pérouse, and ''Bellone''. ''Amazone'', which constituted the vanguard of the fleet, arrived at Boston on 11 June 1780. In 1782, she was part of de Grasse's squadron. ''Neptune'' engaged and in 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 ...

, under Renaud d'Aleins. Decommissioned, she was reactivated to take part in the

Bataille du 13 prairial an 2 The Glorious First of June (1 June 1794), also known as the Fourth Battle of Ushant, (known in France as the or ) was the first and largest fleet action of the naval conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the First French Republic ...

and in the Croisière du Grand Hiver. She ran aground and was destroyed on 28 December 1794, with the loss of 50.

Notes, citations, and references

Notes Citations Bibliography * * * * * External links
Ships of the line
Ships of the line of the French Navy Shipwrecks in the Bay of Biscay Maritime incidents in 1794 {{France-line-ship-stub