![]() Scale model of Achille, sister ship of French ship Constitution (1795), on display at the Musée national de la Marine in Paris. | |
History | |
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Name | Viala |
Namesake | Joseph Agricol Viala |
Builder | Lorient |
Launched | 28 September 1795 |
Renamed | Voltaire in 1795 Constitution in 1795 Jupiter in 1803 |
Captured | 6 February 1806 |
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Name | Maida |
Namesake | Battle of Maida |
Fate | Broken up in June 1817 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Téméraire-class ship of the line |
Displacement | 2900 tonnes |
Tons burthen | 1,899 (bm) |
Length | 55.87 m (183.3 ft) (172 French feet) |
Beam | 14.90 m (48.9 ft) (44' 6; French) |
Draught | 7.26 m (23.8 ft) (22 French feet) |
Sail plan | Full-rigged ship (sail area up to 2485 m2) |
General characteristics (French service) | |
Complement | 3 officers + 690 men |
Armament |
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General characteristics (British service [1] ) | |
Complement | 121 officers and men |
Armament |
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Constitution was a 74-gun Téméraire-class ship of the line of the French Navy launched as Viala (or Vialla) in 1795. The Royal Navy captured her in 1806 and sold her in 1814.
Between 1794 and 1795, the French successively named her Viala (in honour of Joseph Agricol Viala), Voltaire (in honour of François-Marie Arouet), and Constitution (after the Constitution of the National Convention). [2]
In the winter of 1796–1797, she took part in the Expédition d'Irlande. She managed to reach Bantry Bay, where on 22 December 1797 she was damaged in a collision with Révolution. [2]
Between 29 September 1800 and 18 June 1802, she underwent fitting at Toulon. In 1802, she was recommissioned in Toulon, under Captain Faure. [2]
On 5 February 1803, she was renamed again to Jupiter. [2] On 13 December 1805 she joined Vice-Admiral Corentin Urbain Leissègues's squadron bound for Santo Domingo, under Captain Laignel. On 27 December she separated from the squadron in a gale. She rejoined the squadron on 24 January 1806 at Saint Domingue. [2]
Donegal, while serving in a Royal Navy squadron under the command of Vice Admiral Duckworth, captured her at the Battle of San Domingo (6 February 1806). In the battle, Jupiter lost some 200 men killed and wounded; Donegal had 12 men killed and 33 wounded. [3] [lower-alpha 1]
Jupiter arrived in Portsmouth on 6 May 1806. [1] The Royal Navy then commissioned her as Maida, in honour of the Battle of Maida, the name Jupiter being already used for the 50-gun fourth rate Jupiter.
She was commissioned in February 1807 under Captain Samuel Hood Linzee. [1]
Maida was one of the vessels at the Second Battle of Copenhagen. There she landed a party of seamen who manned the breaching battery before the city. Because she was one of the vessels present at the seizure of the Danish fleet on 7 September, her officers and crew were entitled to share in the prize money. [lower-alpha 2] By the end of the year she was back in Portsmouth.
On 26 October 1807, Tsar Alexander I of Russia declared war on Great Britain. The official news did not arrive there until 2 December, at which time the British declared an embargo on all Russian vessels in British ports. Maida was one of some 70 vessels that shared in the proceeds of the seizure of the 44-gun Russian frigate Speshnoy (Speshnyy), and the Russian storeship Wilhelmina (or Vilghemina) then in Portsmouth harbour. [6] The Russian vessels were carrying the payroll for Vice-Admiral Dmitry Senyavin’s squadron in the Mediterranean. [7] [lower-alpha 3]
Maida was paid off at Portsmouth on 9 March 1808 and placed into ordinary. In 1813 she came under the command of Captain John Hayes. She remained in ordinary, i.e., she was not recommissioned, but served as flagship at Portsmouth to Rear-Admiral Edward Griffith Colpoys. [1]
On 25 July 1814 the Principal Officers and Commissioners of His Majesty's Navy put her up for sale. The conditions of sale included that the purchaser was to give a bond, with two sureties for £3000, that they would not sell or otherwise dispose of the ship but that they would break her up within twelve months from the date of sale. [9] She was sold on 11 August 1814 for £4,700. [1]
HMS Tonnant was an 80-gun ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She had previously been Tonnant of the French Navy and the lead ship of the Tonnant class. The British captured her in August 1793 during the Siege of Toulon but the French recaptured her when the siege was broken in December. Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson captured her at Aboukir Bay off the coast of Egypt at the Battle of the Nile on 1 August 1798. She was taken into British service as HMS Tonnant. She went on to fight at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, during the Napoleonic Wars.
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HMS Polyphemus, a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 27 April 1782 at Sheerness. She participated in the 1801 Battle of Copenhagen, the Battle of Trafalgar, and the Siege of Santo Domingo. In 1813 she became a powder hulk and was broken up in 1827.
HMS Boadicea was a frigate of the Royal Navy. She served in the Channel and in the East Indies during which service she captured many prizes. She participated in one action for which the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal. She was broken up in 1858.
HMS Donegal was launched in 1794 as Barra, a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy. She was renamed Pégase in October 1795, and Hoche in December 1797. The British Royal Navy captured her at the Battle of Tory Island on 12 October 1798 and recommissioned her as HMS Donegal.
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