Aft view of Louis Quinze - contemporary model - (cropped)

François Coulomb the Elder was a French naval architect and builder of warships (''ingénieur-constructeur''), the son of Laurent Coulomb. François Coulomb was born on 24 January 1654 at

La Ciotat La Ciotat (; oc, label= Provençal Occitan, La Ciutat ; in Mistralian spelling ''La Ciéutat''; 'the City') is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southern France. It is the southeasternmost ...

, and died on 20 March 1717 at

Toulon Toulon (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Tolon , , ) is a city on the French Riviera and a large port on the Mediterranean coast, with a major naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, and the Provence province, Toulon is th ...

. He was first known on the archives under the name of "Coulomb fils" because he collaborated with his father, Laurent Coulomb, in constructing naval ships; then he became "François père" because his own son, also named

François François () is a French masculine given name and surname, equivalent to the English name Francis. People with the given name * Francis I of France, King of France (), known as "the Father and Restorer of Letters" * Francis II of France, Kin ...

, worked in collaboration with him. In 1680, he occupied himself with the school of construction at Toulon, and wrote a manual of construction. He took the place of his father at Toulon, when the latter was named constructor at

Lorient Lorient (; ) is a town ('' commune'') and seaport in the Morbihan department of Brittany in western France. History Prehistory and classical antiquity Beginning around 3000 BC, settlements in the area of Lorient are attested by the presen ...

in 1690. In the course of his career he designed and built at Toulon 34 ships for the King of France, plus 2 ships for the

Order of Saint John of Jerusalem The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headqu ...

(the Knights of Malta).

Ships of the line designed and built by François Coulomb the Elder

In addition, two ships of 64 guns each were built between 1702 and 1704 for the

(the Knights of Malta); these ships were the ''San Giovanni Battista'' and the ''San Giacomo''.

Lesser warships designed and built by François Coulomb the Elder

The above list does not include a variety of small craft designed and built by François Coulomb - the three

felucca A felucca ( ar, فلوكة, falawaka, possibly originally from Greek , ) is a traditional wooden sailing boat used in the eastern Mediterranean—including around Malta and Tunisia—in Egypt and Sudan (particularly along the Nile and in protect ...

s ''Félouque'' (1691), ''Légère'' (1694) and ''Ferme'' (1695); the

barque A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts having the fore- and mainmasts rigged square and only the mizzen (the aftmost mast) rigged fore and aft. Sometimes, the mizzen is only partly fore-and-aft rigged, b ...

s ''Légère'' (1703), ''Prompte'' (1703), ''Sainte Claire'' (1703), ''Subtile'' (1703) and ''Vigilante'' (1703); the

brigantine A brigantine is a two-masted sailing vessel with a fully square-rigged foremast and at least two sails on the main mast: a square topsail and a gaff sail mainsail (behind the mast). The main mast is the second and taller of the two masts. Ol ...

s ''Fidèle'' (1705) and ''Ferme'' (1705); also the cargo ships (''gabarres'') ''Caillé'', ''Perdrix'', ''Alouette'' and ''Fauvette'', all four launched in 1717 to a design by Coulomb but not built by him.

References

Bibliography

* *''Nomenclature des Vaisseaux du Roi-Soleil de 1661 a 1715''. Alain Demerliac (Editions Omega, Nice – various dates). *''The Sun King's Vessels'' (2015) - Jean-Claude Lemineur; English translation by François Fougerat. Editions ANCRE. *Winfield, Rif and Roberts, Stephen (2017) ''French Warships in the Age of Sail 1626-1786: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates.'' Seaforth Publishing. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Coulomb, Francois French naval architects 1654 births 1717 deaths