Thémistocle was a 74-gun built for the French Navy during the 1780s. Completed in 1792, she played a minor role in the French Revolutionary Wars.
Description The Téméraire-class ships had a length of , a beam of and a depth of hold of . The ships displaced 3,069 tonneaux and had a mean draught of . They had a tonnage of 1,537 port tonneaux. Their crew numbered 705 officers and ratings during wartime. They were fitted with three masts and ship rigged.Winfield & Roberts, p. 87
The muzzle-loading, smoothbore armament of the Téméraire class consisted of twenty-eight 36-pounder long guns on the lower gun deck, thirty 18-pounder long guns and thirty 18-pounder long guns on the upper gun deck. On the quarterdeck and forecastle were a total of sixteen 8-pounder long guns. Beginning with the ships completed after 1787, the armament of the Téméraires began to change with the addition of four 36-pounder obusiers on the poop deck (). Some ships had instead twenty 8-pounders.Winfield & Roberts, pp. 87–88
Construction and career Thémistocle was ordered on 19 October 1787 and was laid down at the Arsenal de Lorient on 1 June 1789. The ship was launched on 12 September 1791 and completed in September 1792.Winfield & Roberts, p. 89 The ship was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet soon after her commissioned to reinforce the squadron under Admiral Truguet.
After Toulon was surrendered by Royalist sympathisers in October 1793, Thémistocle was seized by the British. The ship was used as a prison ship during the Siege of Toulon. At the fall of the city, Captain Sidney Smith of the Royal Navy had her scuttled by fire on 18 December, along with her sister ship Héros. The wreck was refloated in 1804 and broken up.Roche, p. 435
Citations
References
Winfield, Rif and Roberts, Stephen S. (2015) French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786-1861: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing.