''Bordelois'' was a 56-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 ...

, lead ship of her class. She was funded by a

don des vaisseaux The ''don des vaisseaux'' (lit. "gift of ships of the line") was a subscription effort launched by Étienne François de Choiseul, Duke of Choiseul and secretary of State to the Navy in 1761 as an effort to rebuild the French naval power, diminis ...

donation from the city of Bordeaux, and built by engineer Léon Guignace on a design by

Antoine Groignard Antoine Groignard (4 February 1727 – 26 July 1799), was a French naval constructor who developed standard designs for French war ships, and built and improved the dry docks at the French naval bases in Toulon and Brest. Family Groignard was so ...

. Complete too late to serve in 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 (175 ...

, she was

razé A razee or razée is a sailing ship that has been cut down (''razeed'') to reduce the number of decks. The word is derived from the French ''vaisseau rasé'', meaning a razed (in the sense of shaved down) ship. Seventeenth century During the ...

ed into a frigate and used as an East Indiaman. She was rebuilt into a frigate to serve in the

War of American Independence 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 ...

. Captured by HMS ''Romney'', she was brought into British service as HMS ''Artois''.

Career

''Bordelois'' was commissioned in July 1763 under Captain Charles de Cornick-Duchène, arriving in Rochefort on 6 September after the end of the

. In 1768, she was razéed to a large frigate, while her spare timber was used to rebuild . From 1776 to 1778, ''Bordelois'' was used as an East Indiaman, after which she became a hulk in Lorient. In 1779, on the background of the Franco-American alliance, ''Bordelois'' was sold and razéed into a 40-gun frigate; her refitting having been financed by the States of Artois, she was renamed to ''États d'Artois'' . She entered

drydock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

in June 1779, to be launched in January 1780 and commissioned in May 1780. On 1 July 1780 ''Artois'' was captured by , and brought into British service as HMS ''Artois''. She participated in the Battle of Dogger Bank. "Artois was the finest frigate then known; had 28 18-pounders on her main deck with in addition to her complement of guns, heavy carronades on the quarterdeck and forecastle; Manned by 300 men".

Notes and references

Notes

References

External links

* Ships of the line of the French Navy Frigates of the French Navy 1763 ships Don des vaisseaux Bordelois-class ships of the line {{France-line-ship-stub