French ship Commerce de Marseille (1788)

	1⁄48th scale model on display at Marseille maritime museum
History
France
Name	Commerce de Marseille
Namesake	Marseille
Ordered	1786
Builder	Arsenal de Toulon
Laid down	September 1786 or April 1787
Launched	7 August 1788
Completed	October 1790
Out of service	2 August 1850
Stricken	1802
Captured	Seized as prize by Great Britain on 29 August 1793
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Commerce de Marseille
Fate	Broken up 1802
General characteristics
Class and type	Océan-class ship of the line
Displacement	5,098 tonnes
Tons burthen	2,746 tonnes
Length	65.18 m (213 ft 10 in) (196.6 French feet)
Beam	16.24 m (53 ft 3 in) (50 French feet)
Draught	8.12 m (26 ft 8 in) (25 French feet)
Propulsion	sail, 3,265 m2 (35,140 sq ft)
Complement	1,079
Armament	Lower deck:; lower deck: 32 × 36-pounder guns; middle deck: 34 × 24-pounder guns; upper deck: 34 × 12-pounder guns; Fc: 18 × 8-pounder guns + 6 × 36-pounder carronades;
Notes	Length of gun deck was 208 ft 4 in (63.50 m), the longest of any 3-decker ever built. She was 2,746 tonnes burthen, also a record.

Commerce de Marseille was a 118-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, lead ship^{[note 1]} of the Océan class. She was funded by a don des vaisseaux donation from the chamber of commerce of Marseille.

Career

Built on state-of-the-art plans by Sané, she was dubbed the "finest ship of the century". Her construction was difficult because of a lack of wood, and soon after her completion, she was disarmed, in March 1791.

*Commerce de Marseille* at Toulon in 1788

Commerce de Marseille came under British control during the Siege of Toulon. When the city fell to the French, she evacuated the harbour for Portsmouth. She was briefly used as a stores ship, but on a journey to the Caribbean Sea, in 1795, she was badly damaged in a storm and had to limp back to Portsmouth. She remained there as a hulk until she was broken up in 1802.

Notes

^ Commerce de Marseille was ordered after États de Bourgogne (which was later renamed Océan), but launched before her; therefore, the ship type is alternatively called Commerce de Marseille class or Océan class

Citations

^ ^a ^b Roche, vol.1, Commerce de Marseille
^ Boudriot, p.21
^ Demerliac, 1774 à 1792

References

"Le vaisseau trois-ponts l’Océan", Jean Boudriot, in Neptunia n° 102 (1971), page 21.
Demerliac, Alain (2004). La Marine de Louis XVI: Nomenclature des Navires Français de 1774 à 1792 (in French). Éditions Ancre. ISBN 2-906381-23-3.
Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours. Vol. 1. Group Retozel-Maury Millau. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922. (1671-1870)