Vaisseau de 74 canons vu par Nicolas Ozanne vers 1764

''Palmier'' 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 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 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 ...

History

Built by Joseph Véronique-Charles Chapelle, her keel was laid down 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, ...

on 14 November 1750 as part of the shipbuilding boom between the end of the

War of the Austrian Succession The War of the Austrian Succession () was a European conflict that took place between 1740 and 1748. Fought primarily in Central Europe, the Austrian Netherlands, Italy, the Atlantic and Mediterranean, related conflicts included King George's W ...

in 1748 and the start of the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754� ...

in 1755. She was built to the norms set for ships of the line by French shipbuilders in the 1740s to try to match the cost, armament and manouvrability of their British counterparts, since the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

had had a greater number of ships than the French since the end of the wars of

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 ...

.Martine Acerra and André Zysberg, ''L’essor des marines de guerre européennes : 1680–1790'', Paris, éditions SEDES, coll. « Regards sur l'histoire », 1997, 298 p. (), pages 90–91 She was launched on 21 July 1752 and completed in October of the same year. She was commanded by

Joseph de Bauffremont Joseph de Bauffremont, Prince of Listenois (1714–1781), was a member of the Bauffremont family, and a French Navy officer under Louis XIV. He was a commander in the Seven Years' War. On 16 March 1757 his squadron captured the 50-gun , commanded ...

during the Canadian campaign by Rémy-Claude de Bullion's fleet in May 1755 at the start of the Seven Years' War. She did not fight at

Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the List of cities in Africa by population, second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national ca ...

Quiberon Bay Quiberon Bay (french: Baie de Quiberon) is an area of sheltered water on the south coast of Brittany. The bay is in the Morbihan département. Geography The bay is roughly triangular in shape, open to the south with the Gulf of Morbihan to t ...

, in which the Toulon and Brest fleets were defeated in a new attempt at an invasion of Britain. In June 1766 it was ordered that she should be rebuilt at Brest because her timbers were so rotten that it was not possible to save any for a refit. Taken in hand at Brest Dockyard, she was re-launched in December 1766 and emerged, essentially as a new ship to the lines of ''Citoyen'', a new 74-gun designed by Joseph-Louis Ollivier. In 1778 ''Palmier'' was under Boscal de Réals as part of the White-and-Blue squadron, the vanguard of the fleet under Orvilliers. She took part in the Battle of Ushant on 27 July 1778. In 1780 she was sent to the

Antilles The Antilles (; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Antiy; es, Antillas; french: Antilles; nl, Antillen; ht, Antiy; pap, Antias; Jamaican Patois: ''Antiliiz'') is an archipelago bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the south and west, the Gulf of Mex ...

as part of de Guichen's fleet. There she fought in the Battle of Martinique on 16 April and in two other indecisive encounters against Rodney's forces. In May 1781 she served as

François-Aymar de Monteil François-Aymar de Monteil (Dauphiné, 1725 — Galluis, 10 September 1787) was a French Navy Officer, Navy officer. He served in the War of American Independence, earning membership in the Society of the Cincinnati. He was also a member and ...

's flagship in the Franco-Spanish attack on Pensacola in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. The ''Palmier'' then joined de Grasse's fleet, which had just arrived from France, and returned with it to the Antilles. On 12 September 1781 she was in the midst of the

battle of 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 17 ...

, a decisive French victory which lead to the British defeat in the

Siege of Yorktown The Siege of Yorktown, also known as the Battle of Yorktown, the surrender at Yorktown, or the German battle (from the presence of Germans in all three armies), beginning on September 28, 1781, and ending on October 19, 1781, at Yorktown, Virgi ...

. Still stationed in the Antilles, she took part in the

Battle of St Kitts The Battle of Saint Kitts, also known as the Battle of Frigate Bay, was a naval battle fought on 25 and 26 January 1782 during the American Revolutionary War between a British fleet under Rear Admiral Sir Samuel Hood and a larger French fleet u ...

in January 1782. On 12 April she was part of the rearguard at the French defeat 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 ...

. She was retired from the fleet the same year when it was ordered back to France, but was sunk by a major storm off the Bermudas on 24 October 1782.

Sources and references

Notes Citations References * * * * * * * (1671-1870) * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Palmier (1752) Ships of the line of the French Navy 1752 ships