French ship Ville de Paris (1764)

Ville de Paris was a large three-decker French ship of the line that became famous as the flagship of Admiral De Grasse during the American Revolutionary War.

Career
Originally laid down in 1757 as the 90-gun Impétueux, she was renamed Ville de Paris in 1762 in recognition of her construction being paid for by the city of Paris as part of the don des vaisseaux, Duc de Choiseul’s campaign to solicit donations for the navy from the cities and provinces of France. She was completed in 1764, just too late to serve in the Seven Years' War and was placed into reserve. Ville de Paris was one of the first three-deckers to be completed for the French navy since the 1720s.

In 1778, on the French entry into the American Revolutionary War, she was formally commissioned at Brest and assigned as the flagship of Admiral Guichen. In July, she saw one of her first actions fighting in the indecisive Battle of Ushant.

At some point during the next two years, she underwent renovations to have her previously unmanned quarterdeck fitted with fourteen small guns that could be manned by individual sailors, thus making her a 104-gun ship.

In 1779, she joined the fleet of Commander Duchaffault as part of the Armada of 1779.

In March 1781, she sailed for the West Indies, this time as part of a fleet of twenty ships of the line under De Grasse. She then fought at the Battle of Fort Royal and the Battle of the Chesapeake, under Captain Cresp de Saint-Césaire.

In 1782, she saw action at the Battle of St. Kitts, this time as De Grasse's flagship.

At the Battle of the Saintes on 12 April 1782, the British fleet under Admiral Sir George Rodney defeated the French ships of De Grasse and captured the badly damaged Ville de Paris. No longer capable of sailing with her masts and rudder shot away, the stricken ship was towed by HMS Namur (1756) after the battle enroute to Port Royal, Jamaica, where she was repaired and prepped for sail back to England to be put into British service.

The ship sank in September 1782 with other vessels, including HMS Glorieux, when the 1782 Central Atlantic hurricane hit the fleet off Newfoundland under the command of De Grasse's enemy, Admiral Graves. Ville de Paris sank with the loss of all 500 hands but one, thereafter known as "Wilson of the Ville de Paris".

A ship of the line of the Royal Navy was later given her name: HMS Ville de Paris, launched in 1795.

Legacy
Two of her guns were left in Jamaica during repairs; they now flank the Rodney memorial in Spanish Town, Jamaica.