''Sévère'' was a 64-gun
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
Built as an
Indiaman
East Indiaman was a general name for any sailing ship operating under charter or licence to any of the East India trading companies of the major European trading powers of the 17th through the 19th centuries. The term is used to refer to vesse ...
by Roth on the lines of a previous ship, ''Superbe'', that had been sold to the
Austrian East India Company
Austrian East India Company (german: Österreichische Ostindien-Kompanie) is a catchall term referring to a series of Austrian trading companies based in Ostend and Trieste. The Imperial Asiatic Company of Trieste and Antwerp (french: Société i ...
, ''Sévère'' was purchased by the Crown in November 1778 and commissioned for the
American Revolutionary War
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 ...
.
She was incorporated into
Suffren's squadron. She took part in the
Battle of Negapatam in 1782, under Captain
Villeneuve-Cillart; during the battle, Cillart panicked and attempted to
strike
Strike may refer to:
People
* Strike (surname)
Physical confrontation or removal
*Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm
*Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...
, but was prevented from doing so by officers Dieu and Kerlero de Rosbo. ''Sévère'' ended up causing damage to
HMS ''Sultan''.
In July 1782, in the wake of the Battle of Negapatam, Suffren relieved Cillart from duty and sent him to France to be
Court-martialled, replacing him with Lieutenant
Maurville de Langle. Maureville de Langle then captained ''Sévère'' during the
Battle of Trincomalee
A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...
between 25 August and 3 September 1782, and during the
Battle of Cuddalore on 20 June 1783.
Fate
''Sévère'' was later armed
en flûte
''En flûte'' (French: "as a fluyt") is a French naval expression of the Age of Sail to designate the use of a warship as a transport with reduced armament.Willaumez, p. 294
Some warships, ships of the line or frigates, were occasionally used wit ...
, and was wrecked on 26 January 1784 at the
Cape of Good Hope. Consequently, Maurville de Langle was retired from the Navy on 25 July.
Notes
Citations
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Severe (1778)
Ships of the line of the French Navy
1775 ships