1809 - Courageux Lineage

Courageux was a French 74, designed by Jean Geffroy, launched at Brest dockyard in 1753. Battered by raking broadsides at point-blank, having 240 men killed and 110 ones wounded on a complement of 650, she surrendered in 1761 off Vigo to the British 74 Bellona after a short duel.

¤ Both ships were excellent. French guns were excellent as well, perhaps better than the British ones. During the approach, the French achieved to damage Bellona's mizzen mast and part of her rigging. Yet British captain, Robert Faulknor, had held fire and outmanoeuvered the French one, which permitted him to come to close quarters and to rake Courageux' hull without respite. High rate of fire, thanks to constant drill, made the difference : three hundreds and fifty casualties against 34 in twenty minutes.

¤ There is no technical difference in loading and firing between French and Britons. As usual, the French fired early to dismast Bellona, which partly succeeded, while the Britons awaited to deliver a fatal blow. The British ship quickly took the upper hand through expert handling and well-trained gunnery. That was the typical script fifty years ago.

¤ The gunlock appeared in 1779 aboard British ships and in 1786 aboard French ones. By the 1790s, the whole fleet British gunnery was upgraded while many French ships were still using linstock to fire guns. This makes a huge difference in fire timing so in accuracy, especially decisive in high seas when the ship rolls. At Trafalgar, the British rate of fire was thrice the French or Spanish one, thanks to constant drill and to overall use of gunlock.

Courageux was metered at 1,720 tons against 1,600 for Bellona, designed by Thomas Slade, who was also Victory's designer. She was 172¼-foot long at the gun deck, against 168 for Bellona, 140 at the keel against 138, 48-foot broad against 46¾, 20¾-foot deep against 19¾. She carried twenty-eight 36-pounders, thirty 18-pounders, and sixteen 8-pounders, to compare to the twenty-eight 32-pounders, twenty-eight 18-pounders and eighteen 9-pounders of her British counterpart. After repair, she was regarded as a very fine ship for her astounding sailing qualities, her strong hull, and her stability, praised by her captains and admirals. She remained continuously in sea service until her loss due to a storm in 1796.

Courageux was copied in a series of four replicas in 1783-93. Afterwards, she was adapted by John Henslow to produce a new Courageux (1800). Two lengthened variants keeping the same draught have been launched a year ago, as two other units of the new Courageux-class by Henslow. Since then, three other lengthened ships on the same draught have been launched and twenty-seven laid down. It is likely that the series will go on as these ships are the perfect warhorses the navy needs. So far, there are twelve descendants of Courageux in the battlefleet and twenty-seven are under construction.

It is nevertheless a strange situation which leads the navy to use a fifty-five-year-old design, yet sound, to build thirty new ships, maybe thirty-five or forty in total, that will last fifty years. This is the rule of necessity.

¤ France is in possession of the Texel, Antwerp, Brest, L'Orient, Rochefort, Toulon, Port Espezia, Genoa, Venice, with the extensive forests within water carriages of these places, and possess the means of building many ships of the line. Last year, one 118, three 80s and six 74s have been launched ; this year, four 74s. Two 118s, seven 80s and six 74s are under construction and many more are to follow. We can understand that the British navy cannot rest on the laurels won at Trafalgar and Santo Domingo, even if the cost of construction has risen to £36 per ton from £21 six years ago.

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LINK WITH A PREVIOUS CHRONICLE

1739 - Birth in France of a new Man-of-War, the 74

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IN RETROSPECT FROM TODAY

Note - on the lineage

In spite of blatant qualities, Courageux was not copied immediately. Thomas Slade was still improving the British 74, which was his creation, starting with Dublin (1757), with a new series of excellent ships. Slate, who died in 1771, designed twelve classes of 74s, each one improving on the previous one. The lineage of Courageux started afterwards. She will count 49 ships in total, the last one being launched in 1822.

Unfortunately, ship quality turns not to be constant from an unit to the other. Actually, the ships built sixty years after the model were inferior to her in almost every respect for a huge amount of money.