1/40th-scale model of the 100-gun Hercule on display at the Musée national de la Marine. | |
Class overview | |
---|---|
Name | Hercule |
Builders | Toulon, Brest |
Operators | French Navy |
Preceded by | Suffrenclass |
Succeeded by | |
Completed | 13 |
Cancelled | 2 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Hercule class |
Displacement | 4440 tonnes |
Length | 62.50 m (205 ft 1 in) |
Beam | 16.20 m (53 ft 2 in) |
Draught | 8.23 m (27 ft 0 in) |
Propulsion | 3,150 m2 (33,900 sq ft) of sails |
Complement | 955 men |
Armament |
|
Armour | Timber |
The Hercule class was a late type of 100-gun ships of the line of the French Navy. They were the second strongest of four ranks of ships of the line designed by the Commission de Paris. While the first units were classical straight-walled ships of the line, next ones were gradually converted to steam, and the last one was built with an engine.
The Hercule class evolved as an enlargement of the straight-walled, 90-gun Suffrenclass, suggested by Jean Tupinier. [1]
With the Henri IV, a rounded stern was introduced. The next ships were built with the rounded stern, and it was retrofitted on the early units of the class.
Six ships of the French navy have borne the name Annibal in honour of Hannibal
The Océan-class ships of the line were a series of 118-gun three-decker ships of the line of the French Navy, designed by engineer Jacques-Noël Sané. Fifteen were completed from 1788 on, with the last one entering service in 1854; a sixteenth was never completed, and four more were never laid down.
The Bretagne was a fast 130-gun three-deck ship of the French Navy, designed by engineer Jules Marielle. Built as a new capital ship meant to improve on the very successful Océan class, while avoiding the weaknesses found on Valmy, she retained most of the Océan's design, and incorporated the philosophy of "fast ship of the line" pioneered by Napoléon, with a rounded stern and a two-cylinder, 8-boiler steam engine allowing her a speed of 13.5 knots. The propeller could be retracted to streamline the hull when sailing under sail only.
The Battle of Kinburn, a combined land-naval engagement during the final stage of the Crimean War, took place on the tip of the Kinburn Peninsula on 17 October 1855. During the battle a combined fleet of vessels from the French Navy and the British Royal Navy bombarded Russian coastal fortifications after an Anglo-French ground force had besieged them. Three French ironclad batteries carried out the main attack, which saw the main Russian fortress destroyed in an action that lasted about three hours.
The Commerce de Paris class were a series of ships of the line of the French Navy, designed in 1804 by Jacques-Noël Sané as a shortened version of his 118-gun Océan-class three-deckers, achieved by removing a pair of guns from each deck so that they became 110-gun ships. Two ships were built to this design in France. Four more were begun at Antwerp in 1810–1811, but these were never completed and were broken up on the ways; three more were ordered in Holland, but these were never laid down.
The Black Prince-class ships of the line were a class of four 74-gun third rates built for the Royal Navy in the closing years of the Napoleonic War. The draught for this class of ship was essentially a reduced version of the captured Danish ship Christian VII.
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 Tonnant class was a series of eight 80-gun ships of the line designed in 1787 by Jacques-Noël Sané, whose plans for the prototype were approved on 29 September 1787. With sixteen gunports on the lower deck on each side these were the most effective two-deckers of their era. Their broadside of 1,102 livres equated to 1,190 British pounds weight, over 50% more than the standard British 74-gun ship, and even greater than that of a British 100-gun three-decker.
The Bucentaure class was a class of 80-gun French ships of the line built to a design by Jacques-Noël Sané from 1802 onwards, of which at least 29 were ordered but only 21 ships were launched. They were a development from his earlier Tonnant class.
The Scipion class was a class of three 74-gun ships built to a design by François-Guillaume Clairin-Deslauriers, the ingénieur-constructeur en chef at Rochefort Dockyard. These were the shortest 74-gun ships built by France since the 1750s, and they were found to lack stability as a consequence. The third ship - originally the Pluton - was 'girdled' (sheathed) with 32 cm of pine at Rochefort in 1799 to overcome her instability, and the design of two further ships ordered at the same dockyard in 1779 were lengthened.
The Suffren class was a late type of 90-gun ships of the line of the French Navy.
The Surveillante class was a type of sixty-gun frigate of the French Navy, designed in 1823 by Mathurin-François Boucher.
The Etna class was a class of six 16 or 18-gun corvettes with a flat hull, designed by Pierre-Alexandre-Laurent Forfait and his pupil Charles-Henri Tellier. Four separate commercial shipbuilders were involved in their construction by contract - including André-François Normand, Courtois and Denise at Honfleur, and Fouache at Le Havre, while the sixth vessel was built by Pierre Ozanne at Cherbourg Dockyard. The vessels were flush-decked and originally designed to carry a 12-inch mortar. However, as the British navy captured Etna within a year and a half of her launch at which time she was not carrying any mortar, it is possible that the design was modified quite early to delete the mortar.
The Pégase class was a class of 74-gun ships of the French Navy, built to a common design by naval constructor Antoine Groignard. It comprised six ships, all ordered during 1781 and all named on 13 July 1781.
Prince Jérôme was a late ship of the line of the French Navy. Started in 1827 as the Hercule-classHannibal, she was abandoned for nearly thirty years before being completed under the Second French Empire as a steam-powered ship of the line, under the name Prince Jérôme. Obsolete at the rise of the French Third Republic, she was renamed Hoche and struck shortly after. She was recommissioned in 1872 as a transport under the name Loire, and ended her career in 1885 as a hulk in Saigon.
The Artésien class was a type of 64-gun ships of the line of the French Navy. A highly detailed and accurate model of Artésien, lead ship of the class, was part of the Trianon model collection and is now on display at Paris naval museum.
Ulm was a 100-gun Hercule-class ship of the line of the French Navy. She was transformed into a steam and sail ship while on keel and launched as an 82-gun ship.
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