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, and died on 20 March 1717 at
Toulon
Toulon (, , ; , , ) is a city in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the French Riviera and the historical Provence, it is the prefecture of the Var (department), Var department.
The Commune of Toulon h ...
. 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, 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 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 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
Order of Saint John of Jerusalem (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
feluccas ''Félouque'' (1691), ''Légère'' (1694) and ''Ferme'' (1695); the
barque
A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel with three or more mast (sailing), masts of which the fore mast, mainmast, and any additional masts are Square rig, rigged square, and only the aftmost mast (mizzen in three-maste ...
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