Téméraire-class ship of the line

The Téméraire-class ships of the line were a class of a hundred and twenty 74-gun ships of the line ordered between 1782 and 1813 for the French navy or its attached navies in dependent (French-occupied) territories. Although a few of these were cancelled, the type was and remains the most numerous class of capital ship ever built to a single design.

The class was designed by Jacques-Noël Sané in 1782 as a development of the Annibal and her near-sister Northumberland, both of which had been designed by him and built at Brest during the 1777-1780 period. Some thirteen ships were ordered and built to this new design from 1782 to 1785, and then the same design was adopted as a standard for all subsequent 74-gun ships (the most common type of ship of the line throughout the period from ca. 1750 to 1830) built for the French Navy during the next three decades as part of the fleet expansion programme instituted by Jean-Charles de Borda in 1786.

The design was appreciated in Britain, which eagerly commissioned captured ships (18 in total) and even copied the design with the Pompée-class ship of the line and America-class ship of the line.

After Napoleon's fall in November 1813 the new Dutch navy was formed, and by the powers closing the Treaty of Paris in May 1814 eight ships from the Pluton (or 'Small Model') group were ceded to the Netherlands. Some of these ships served this new navy until after 1830. Even after 1825 Dutch naval yards continued to build another six ships based on the original design, but with modifications according to Seppings like a rounded transom and closed bow. The last of these was struck off charge as late as 1913: the Piet Heyn of 1833, which was heavily modified as the steam frigate Admiraal van Wassenaer after 1856.

Variants from basic design
While all the French 74-gun ships from the mid-1780s until the close of the Napoleonic Wars were to the Téméraire design, there were three variants of the basic design which Sané developed with the same hull form of Téméraire. In 1793 two ships were laid down at Brest to an enlarged design; in 1801 two ships were commenced at Lorient with a slightly shorter length than the standard design (with a third ship commenced at Brest but never completed); and in 1803 two ships were commenced at Toulon to a smaller version (many more ships to this 'small(er) model' were then built in the shipyards controlled by France in Italy and the Netherlands) - these are detailed separately below.

Danube Group (26 ships)
Three further ships to this design were begun at Castellammare di Stabia for the "puppet" Neapolitan Navy of Joachim Murat. Two were launched but the third ship, laid down at Castellammare di Stabia in September 1812, was never named, let alone launched, as its construction was abandoned following the defection of the Kingdom of Naples from the Napoleonic cause in November 1813.

Large Variant (Cassard group – 2 ships launched)
Two ships were laid down in 1793–1794 at Brest to a variant of Sané's design with the aim of carrying 24-pounder guns on the upper deck instead of the 18-pounders carried by the Téméraire. These ships were two feet longer than the standard 74s, and half a foot wider. The first was begun as the Lion, but was renamed Glorieux in 1795 and Cassard in 1798. The second was begun as the Magnanime, but was renamed Quatorze Juillet in 1798 and Vétéran in 1802. Unlike the main sequence, construction proceeded slowly. By 1816 the 24-pounders aboard these two ships had been replaced by 18-pounders, and no further ships to this variant design were produced, so indicating that it was not judged successful.

Short Variant (Suffren group – 2 ships launched)
Two ships were begun in 1801 to a variation of the standard Téméraire design by Sané to meet the demands of Pierre-Alexandre Forfait. The length of these ships were reduced by 65 cm from the standard design. A third ship to this variant design begun at Brest was cancelled in 1804. After Forfait left the Ministry of the Marine in October 1801, no further vessels were ordered to this variant design.

Small Variant (Pluton group – 24 ships launched)
Starting with the prototypes Pluton and Borée in 1803, a smaller version of the Téméraire class, officially named petit modèle, was designed by Jacques-Noël Sané to be produced in shipyards having a lesser depth of water than the principal French shipyards, primarily those in neighbouring states under French control and in foreign ports which had been absorbed into the French Empire such as Antwerp. The revised design measured 177 feet 7 inches on the waterline, 180 feet 1 inch on the deck, and 46 feet 11 inches moulded breadth. The depth of hull was 9 inches less than that in the "regular" Téméraire design. In addition to those below, two more 74s to the "petit modèle" design were ordered in June 1803, one at Marseille and the other at Bordeaux, but these were not built.