The Redoubtable (1791)
Names:Suffren
History
Served in:French Navy Flag
Launched:31 May 1791
Sunk 22 October 1805 during the Battle of Trafalgar
Technical characteristics
Type:74-gun vessel
Displacement:1,630 tons
Military characteristics
Armour:6
Armament:28 cannons of 16 kg, 30 of 11 kg, 16 of 3.6 kg, 4 carronades of 16 kg
Other characteristics
Crew:690 men
Building site:Brest
Built according to the plans of the architect Jacques-Noël Sané, the Redoutable was launched under the name of Suffren on May 31, 1791. Her crew took part in the mutiny of the ship, attached to the squadron of the Vice- Admiral Morard of Wales.
Following this, she was renamed Le Redoutable on May 20, 1794. In March 1802, Le Redoutable was the flagship of a squadron of two ships of the line and 4 frigates under the orders of Admiral Bouvet sent as reinforcements in 1802, in Guadeloupe and Santo Domingo in 1803.
At the Battle of Trafalgar, October 21, 1805, it was commanded by Captain Lucas. Engaged in a fight against the HMS Victory, to relieve the rest of the Franco-Spanish fleet, she was sunk by the latter.
The crew fought fiercely against the Victory, inflicting heavy damage. The crew and soldiers of the Redoutable managed to maintain a heavy fire on the rear deck of the Victory thanks to hand grenades and muskets, a French sniper posted on a mast mortally wounded the British Admiral Horatio Nelson. /P>
The French crew was about to board the Victory when HMS Temeraire intervened, opening fire at close range on the French sailors. At 1.55 p.m., the Redoutable, with Captain Lucas badly wounded, more than 99 men still fit for action out of the 643 departing, beginning to take on water slowly and without hope of reinforcements, surrendered to the English fleet.
The Victory lost 160 men, and the Temeraire, 120 men. The Redoutable sank the next day, with a large number of dead and wounded still on board. The boats sent to bring back the men were only able to evacuate 119 of them before the Redoutable sank.