''Séduisant'' 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 ...

, lead ship of her class. She was renamed ''Pelletier'' on 30 September 1793, in honour of

Louis Michel le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau Louis-Michel le Peletier, Marquis of Saint-Fargeau (sometimes spelled Lepeletier; 29 May 176020 January 1793) was a French politician and martyr of the French Revolution. Career Born in Paris, he belonged to a well-known family, his great-gran ...

. Under Savary, she was one of the last ships of the line at the

Glorious First of June 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 ...

. On 30 May 1795 her name was changed back to ''Séduisant''. She sank accidentally on 16 December 1796 while leaving Brest for the

Expédition d'Irlande The French expedition to Ireland, known in French as the ''Expédition d'Irlande'' ("Expedition to Ireland"), was an unsuccessful attempt by the French Republic to assist the outlawed Society of United Irishmen, a popular rebel Irish republica ...

. Out of 600 crew and 610 soldiers, only 60 survived. Other sources speak of 650–680 survivors. The wreck was rediscovered in 1986.

Notes

Citations

References

*Demerliac, Cmdt. Alain, ''Nomenclature des navires français de 1774 a 1792''. Editions ANCRE, Nice. *Winfield, Rif and Roberts, Stephen (2015) ''French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786-1861: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates.'' Seaforth Publishing. .

External links

''Guerre sur mer pendant la révolution et l'empire''. Episode XXXII.
Ships of the line of the French Navy Séduisant-class ships of the line Shipwrecks in the Bay of Biscay 1783 ships Maritime incidents in 1796 {{France-line-ship-stub