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.
Armament
As built, the first two ships of this class carried the same 80-gun armament as their predecessors of the Tonnant class - thirty 36-livre guns on the lower deck, thirty-two 24-livre guns on the upper deck, and eighteen 12-livre guns plus six 36-livre obusiers (howitzers) on the spar deck above (the French livre was about 8% greater than the British pound weight, so that the 36-livre round equated to 38lbs 13.6oz).
Under the 1806 règlement, the spar deck ordnance was altered to fourteen 12-livre guns plus ten 36-livre carronades. Subsequently, additional 36-livre carronades were carried by most later ships of the class, raising them to 86-gun ships (with variations in actual numbers).
Ships in class
- Builder: Toulon
- Ordered: 16 September 1802
- Begun: 22 November 1802
- Launched: 13 July 1803
- Completed: January 1804
- Fate: Captured by the Royal Navy on 21 October 1805 following Trafalgar. Was briefly recaptured but was then wrecked on 23 October 1805.
- Neptune (i)
- Builder: Toulon
- Ordered: 16 September 1802
- Begun: 4 January 1803
- Launched: 15 August 1803
- Completed: April 1804
- Fate: Captured by the Spanish Navy in June 1808, renamed Neptuno, deleted 1820.
- Builder: Toulon
- Ordered: 26 March 1805
- Begun: May 1805
- Launched: 30 October 1806
- Completed: May 1807
- Fate: Scuttled and burnt on 26 October 1809.
- Builder: Rochefort
- Ordered: 30 April 1804
- Begun: 22 March 1805 as Tonnant, renamed 14 May 1807
- Launched: 10 May 1808
- Completed: July 1808
- Fate: Captured and burnt by the British in April 1809.
- Builder: Toulon
- Ordered: 11 August 1806
- Begun: December 1806
- Launched: 4 July 1808
- Completed: October 1808
- Fate: Broken up 1824.
- Builder: Lorient
- Begun: September 1805
- Launched: 19 November 1808
- Completed: May 1809
- Fate: Condemned 1829 and broken up.
- Builder: Antwerp
- Begun: July 1807
- Launched: 2 May 1810
- Completed: May 1811
- Fate: Handed over to the Netherlands on 1 August 1814 and renamed Vlaming. Broken up 1823.
- Builder: Toulon
- Ordered: 126 December 1808
- Begun: March 1809
- Launched: 15 August 1810
- Completed: March 1811
- Fate: Condemned 1828 and hulked.
- Builder: Antwerp
- Begun: September 1807
- Launched: 15 August 1810
- Completed: May 1811
- Fate: Handed over to the Netherlands on 1 August 1814 and renamed Neptunus. Condemned and broken up 1818.
- Builder: Antwerp
- Begun: October 1807
- Launched: 25 April 1811
- Completed: July 1811
- Fate: Handed over to the Netherlands on 1 August 1814 but returned to France in September and renamed Illustre. Condemned and broken up 1827.
- Builder: Antwerp
- Begun: September 1807
- Launched: 22 May 1811
- Completed: August 1811
- Fate: Condemned 1823.
- Builder: Antwerp
- Begun: August 1807
- Launched: 9 June 1811
- Completed: October 1811
- Fate: Handed over to the Netherlands on 1 August 1814 and renamed Prins van Oranje. Sold 1825 and broken up.
- Builder: Lorient
- Begun: November 1807
- Launched: 1 December 1811
- Completed: March 1812
- Fate: Condemned 1856 and broken up 1868.
- Builder: Antwerp
- Begun: December 1808
- Launched: 27 April 1812
- Completed: September 1812
- Fate: Condemned 1831.
- Builder: Cherbourg
- Begun: October 1810
- Launched: 12 October 1813
- Completed: March 1814
- Fate: Condemned 1836 and hulked. Broken up 1858.
- Builder: Lorient
- Begun: December 1809
- Launched: 29 October 1814
- Completed: November 1814
- Fate: Condemned 1837.
- Builder: Cherbourg
- Begun: November 1811
- Launched: 8 January 1818
- Completed: April 1818
- Fate: Renamed Santi Pietri in October 1823. Hulked 1849, burnt by accident 1862.
- Neptune (ii)
- Builder: Lorient
- Begun: December 1810
- Launched: 21 March 1818
- Completed: June 1818
- Fate: Hulked 1858, broken up 1868.
- Builder: Lorient
- Begun: April 1812
- Launched: 21 August 1823
- Completed: April 1824
- Fate: Hulked 1846.
- Builder: Cherbourg
- Begun: November 1811
- Launched: 22 October 1831
- Completed: September 1833
- Fate: hulked 1863.
- Builder: Castellammare di Stabia
- Begun: August 1812
- Launched: 2 December 1824
- Completed: 1825
- Fate: Not launched as French warship; became Neapolitan ship in December 1813.
No other vessels of this design were completed, the following were begun at Antwerp, but taken over in 1814 by the Netherlands, and broken up on the stocks.
- Mars
- Begun: April 1811
- Alexandre
- Begun: June 1811
- Tibre
- Begun: June 1811
- Atlas
- Begun: September 1811
- Fougueux
- Begun: July 1812
A further ship to this same design was begun as Saturno in May 1812 at Venice, and was renamed Emo by the Austrians following their seizure of that city, but was broken up on the stocks in 1818–19. A second ship was ordered at Venice in 1813, but was never laid down. Finally a further ship of this class was ordered in 1812 at Rochefort, but was never laid down or even assigned a name.
References
- Demerliac, Alain. Nomenclature des Navires Français de 1774 a 1792. Nice: Editions Omega.
- Demerliac, Alain. Nomenclature des Navires Français de 1792 a 1799. Nice: Editions Omega.
- Demerliac, Alain. Nomenclature des Navires Français de 1799 a 1815. Nice: Editions Omega.
- Demerliac, Alain. Nomenclature des Navires Français de 1814 a 1848. Nice: Editions Omega.
- Winfield, Rif and Roberts, Stephen S. (2015) French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786-1861: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-204-2.