Pégase-class ship of the line

Foudroyant and Pégase entering Portsmouth Harbour, 1782. Painting by Dominic Serres
Class overview
Name:	Pégase
Operators:	French Navy  Royal Navy
Completed:	6 [1]
General characteristics
Class and type:	Pégase class
Tons burthen:	1500 tonnes[2]
Length:	55.2 metres[2]
Beam:	14.3 metres[2]
Draught:	6.8 metres[2]
Propulsion:	Sails
Armament:	74 to 78 guns of various weights of shot 28 36-pounder long guns[2]

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.^[3]

The name-ship of the class - Pégase - was captured by the British Navy just two months after her completion; the other five ships were all at Toulon in August 1793 when that port was handed over by French Royalists to the occupying Anglo-Spanish forces, and they were seized by the British Navy. When French Republican forces forced the evacuation of the Allies in December, the Puissant was sailed to England (and - like the Pégase - was used as a harbour hulk there until the end of the Napoleonic Wars), and the Liberté (ex-Dictateur) and Suffisant were destroyed during the evacuation of the port; the remaining pair were recovered by the French Navy - see their respective individual histories below.

Ships

• Pégase^[2]

Builder: Brest Dockyard

Ordered: June 1781

Begun: June 1781

Launched: 5 October 1781

Completed: February 1782

Fate: Captured by HMS Foudroyant in the Bay of Biscay on 21 April 1782 (with 80 men of her crew killed); renamed HMS Pegase; hulked 1794 at Plymouth, until broken up in 1815.

• Puissant ^[4]

Builder: Lorient Dockyard

Ordered: 13 July 1781

Begun: August 1781

Launched: 13 March 1782

Completed: June 1782

Fate: Surrendered to the British by her Royalist crew during the Siege of Toulon on 29 September 1793; removed to England at the evacuation of the city; became a hulk in Portsmouth 1796; broken up in 1816.

• Dictateur ^[5]

Builder: Toulon Dockyard

Ordered: 13 July 1781

Begun: July 1781

Launched: 16 February 1782

Completed: August 1782

Fate: Renamed Liberté on 29 September 1792. Burnt at the end of the Siege of Toulon on 18 December 1793. Raised in 1805 and scrapped in 1808.

• Suffisant ^[6]

Builder: Toulon Dockyard

Ordered: 13 July 1781

Begun: July 1781

Launched: 6 March 1782

Completed: August 1782

Fate: Burnt at the end of the Siege of Toulon 18 December 1793. Raised in 1805 and scrapped in 1806.

• Alcide ^[7]

Builder: Rochefort Dockyard

Ordered: 13 July 1781

Begun: July 1781

Launched: 25 May 1782

Completed: January 1783

Fate: Burnt during the Battle of Hyères Islands on 18 July 1795 by her own heated shots, and exploded.

• Censeur ^[8]

Builder: Rochefort Dockyard

Ordered: 13 July 1781

Begun: August 1781

Launched: 24 July 1782

Completed: October 1783

Fate: Captured by the British at the Battle of Cape Noli 14 March 1795; retaken in the Action of 7 October 1795 by de Richery's squadron off Cape St Vincent; sold at Cadiz to Spain in June 1799 in exchange for the Spanish San Sebastián.

Notes and References

Notes

References

Bibliography

• Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours. 1. Group Retozel-Maury Millau. p. 280. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922. 
• Winfield, Rif and Roberts, Stephen (2015) French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786-1861: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-204-2.