''Scipion'' 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 ...

French ship of the line, built at Lorient to a design by Jacques Noel Sane. She was laid down as ''Orient'' in late 1798, and renamed ''Scipion'' in 1801. She was first commissioned in 1802 and joined the French Mediterranean fleet based 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 ...

, in the squadron of Admiral Leissègues. Consequently she was one of the ships afloat in that port when war with England reopened in May 1803.Goodwin (1805), p.195 She participated in the Battle of Cape Finisterre and the

Battle of Trafalgar The Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) was a naval engagement between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies during the War of the Third Coalition (August–December 1805) of the Napoleonic Wars (180 ...

. The British captured her in the subsequent

Battle of Cape Ortegal The Battle of Cape Ortegal was the final action of the Trafalgar campaign, and was fought between a squadron of the Royal Navy and a remnant of the fleet that had been defeated earlier at the Battle of Trafalgar. It took place on 4 November 180 ...

. In 1810 she participated in the Java campaign, which in 1847 earned her surviving crew the Naval General Service Medal. She participated in the blockade of Toulon in 1813 and was

paid off Ship commissioning is the act or ceremony of placing a ship in active service and may be regarded as a particular application of the general concepts and practices of project commissioning. The term is most commonly applied to placing a warship in ...

in 1814. She was broken up in 1819.

French Navy service

In 1805, she was part of Admiral Villeneuve's fleet. She took part in the Battle of Cape Finisterre and was one of Rear Admiral

Pierre Dumanoir le Pelley Vice-Admiral Count Pierre Étienne René Marie Dumanoir Le Pelley (2 August 1770 in Granville – 7 July 1829 in Paris) was a French Navy officer, best known for commanding the vanguard of the French fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar. His conduct d ...

's ships at the

. Dumanoir commanded the six-ship

vanguard The vanguard (also called the advance guard) is the leading part of an advancing military formation. It has a number of functions, including seeking out the enemy and securing ground in advance of the main force. History The vanguard derives fr ...

of the French fleet, with ''Formidable'', ''Scipion'', ''Duguay-Trouin'', , and .

Nelson Nelson may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Nelson'' (1918 film), a historical film directed by Maurice Elvey * ''Nelson'' (1926 film), a historical film directed by Walter Summers * ''Nelson'' (opera), an opera by Lennox Berkeley to a lib ...

's attacks left these ships downwind of the main confrontation and Dumanoir did not immediately obey Villeneuve's orders to return to the battle. When the ships did turn back, most of them only exchanged a few shots before retiring. On 4 November 1805, in the

, Admiral Sir Richard Strachan, with , , , and four frigates, defeated and captured what remained of the squadron. and took ''Scipion'', which the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

commissioned as HMS ''Scipion''.

Royal Navy service

''Scipion'' arrived in Plymouth on 4 November 1805 and was laid up.Winfield (2008), pp.87 & 89. She underwent repairs between June 1808 and November 1809, being commissioned under for the Channel in July 1809. Captain Charles Phillips Butler Bateman took command on 25 September 1809. She became the flagship of Rear Admiral the Hon.

Robert Stopford Robert Wright Stopford, (20 February 1901 – 13 August 1976) was a British Anglican bishop. Early life and education Stopford was born in Garston, Merseyside (then in Lancashire), and educated at Coatham School in Redcar and Liverpool Coll ...

in 1810. Bateman and Stopford sailed her in the Bay of Biscay. On 8 October she sailed for the Cape of Good Hope and then the

East Indies The East Indies (or simply the Indies), is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The Indies refers to various lands in the East or the Eastern hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainlands found in and around ...

. In 1811 Captain James Johnson took command. Stopford's fleet consisted of four sail of the line (including ''Scipion''), thirteen frigates, seven

sloops A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular ...

and eight cruisers of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

, captured the island of Java on 18 September 1811. In 1847, the surviving members of the expedition were awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Java". Blockade of Toulon, 1810-1814

Captain Henry Heathcote took command on 28 April 1812. He then sailed ''Scipion'' for the Mediterranean on 20 July 1812. Here she participated in the blockade of Toulon, including Admiral

Edward Pellew Admiral Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth, GCB (19 April 1757 – 23 January 1833) was a British naval officer. He fought during the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary Wars, and the Napoleonic Wars. His younger brother ...

's skirmish with the French fleet on 5 November 1813.

Fate

''Scipion'' was paid off at Portsmouth on 29 October 1814. She underwent a Middling Repair in September 1818, but then was broken up in January 1819.

Citations

References

* Goodwin, Peter ''The Ships of Trafalgar, the British, French and Spanish Fleets October 1805'' pub Conway, 2005. * Lavery, Brian (2003) The Ship of the Line - Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850. Conway Maritime Press. . * {{DEFAULTSORT:Scipion (1801) Ships of the line of the French Navy Ships of the line of the Royal Navy Téméraire-class ships of the line Ships built in France 1801 ships Captured ships