''Victoire'' was a ''Bien-Aimé''-class

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

In July 1778, ''Victore'' departed Toulon, bound for the Mediterranean, in the context of 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 ...

, under Captain d'Albert Saint Hippolyte. On 12 August, she captured the sloop HMS ''Industry'', and on 28 August, the 10-gun ''Levant'' (?). On 1 May 1779, ''Victoire'' took part in the capture of HMS ''Montreal'', along with ''Bourgogne''. The next day she confronted off Gibraltar.Department of National Defence Canada
History of HMCS Montreal
(Retrieved 18 September 2010)
Archives navales de Brest (Retrieved 18 September 2010)Roche states that ''Victoire'' captured ''Thetis'' and brought her to Malaga. Other sources state that ''Thetis'' escaped. British records largely agree. When ''Thetis'' and ''Montreal'' saw two large ships approaching under Dutch colours, they suspected that the strange ships were French and attempted to sail away. ''Thetis'' succeeded, but at 9p.m., ''Bourgogne'' and ''Victoire'' caught up with ''Montreal'', came alongside, and ordered Douglas to send over a boat. Captain Douglas sent over Lieutenant John Douglas, whom the French ordered to Douglas to hail ''Montreal'' and instruct her 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 ...

. Captain Douglas attempted to escape, but after the French had fired several broadsides into ''Montreal'' he struck.Hepper (1994), p. 55. ''Victoire'' took part in the Battle of Martinique and the

Battle of the 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 ...

. ''Victoire'' was eventually decommissioned in Brest in 1782, and broken up in 1792.

Career

Notes and references

Notes

Citations

References