Vengeur (1762)
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 Battle between the French Vengeur (right) and the HMS Brunswick (center). On the left the French Annibal |
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| Ship data | ||
| Surname: | Vengeur du Peuple , previously Le Marseillois | |
| Keel laying : | February 1767 | |
| Launching ( ship christening ): | July 16, 1767 | |
| Completion: | November 1767 | |
| Builder: | Naval shipyard in Toulon , France | |
| Fate: | In the third on June 1, 1794 naval battle on 13 Prairial dropped | |
| Technical specifications | ||
| Type: | Battery ship (timber construction) | |
| Length over all: | 55 m | |
| Width: | 14.1 m | |
| Drive: | sail | |
| Displacement : | approx. 1550 t | |
| Draft: | 6.7 m | |
| Armor system: | without | |
| Armament | ||
| Armament: | 74 cannons | |
The Marseillois or Vengeur was a French ship of the line with 74 cannons that was built in Toulon in 1767 under the name Le Marseillois .
history
Kingdom of France
The Le Marseillois was used in the American War of Independence .
On August 13, 1778, she fought against the British HMS Preston . On July 11, 1779, she was involved with the squadron of Admiral d'Estaing in the conquest of Grenada . On September 5, 1781 she took part in the Battle of Chesapeake by Count de Grasse in the Chesapeake Bay .
French Republic
In 1794 the new French Republic gave it the name Vengeur or Vengeur du Peuple (Eng. Avengers or Avengers of the People ).
On April 16 of the same year, outside Brest , she joined the Villaret-Joyeuse squadron , which was escorting a cargo of grain from America. On the 11th and 12th Prairial of year II, this squadron met with English ships. In the battle 13 Prairial (June 1, 1794) which had Vengeur a lasting 4 hours fierce battle against the HMS Brunswick to 47 ° 24 ' N , 17 ° 28' W . In the end she had lost all three masts and water ingress in all rooms; in addition, a third of their team was incapacitated.
She surrendered and British ships salvaged around 400 sailors and officers, including their captain Jean-Françcois Renaudin .
The injured and some sailors who wanted to stay on the ship went down with the Vengeur .
The first reports sent to the members of the National Convention in Paris reported the loss of a ship, the Vengeur , which, with her entire crew, shouted “Vive la Patrie, vive la République!” (“Long live the fatherland, long live the Republic! ”) Would have perished.
With the previously poor performance of the French Revolutionary Navy, this promptly arose a myth. A model of the Vengeur was hung in the Panthéon , and a ship that was already under construction in Brest was named Vengeur in memory of its “famous” predecessor .
The theme also inspired artists: the poet André Chénier wrote praising verses, the composer Charles Simon Catel and the lyric poet Ponce-Denis Écouchard-Lebrun made an ode for baritone and orchestra, and the downfall was thematized by numerous painters.
literature
- Réimpression de l'ancien Moniteur: seule histoire authentique et inaltérée de la révolution française depuis la réunion des États-généraux jusqu'au Consulat (May 1789-November 1799). Vol. 21, pp. 173–175 Report of the debate in the National Convention (French)
- Ollivier-Zabulon Diaz de Soria: Le Marseillais, devenu plus tard le Vengeur du peuple: vaisseau de 74 canons, 1766-1794, l'histoire et la légende . Chambre de Commerce de Marseille, Marseille 1954.
- Herbert Schneider: Le mythe du vaisseau Le Vengeur de 1794 à 1951 . In: Acta Musicologica , Vol. 77, No. 1, 2005, ISSN 0001-6241 , pp. 71-121.