Citoyen-class ship of the line

Class overview

Name	Citoyen
Builders	Joseph-Louis Ollivier, Brest
Operators	French Navy
Completed	4
General characteristics
Type	Ship of the line
Tonnage	1500 tonnes
Displacement	3000 tonnes
Length	169½ French feet (55.06 metres)
Beam	43 French feet (13.97 metres)
Draught	21 French feet (6.82 metres)
Depth of hold	20¾ French feet (6.74 metres)
Propulsion	Sail
Complement	715 men in wartime, 650 men in peacetime; + 6/12 officers
Armament	74 guns: Lower battery: 28 × 36-pounders Upper battery: 30 × 18-pounders Forecastle and quarterdeck: 16 × 8-pounders
Armour	Timber
Notes	Ships in class include: Citoyen, Conquérant, Palmier, Actif

The Citoyen class consisted of four 74-gun ships of the line all built at Brest Naval Dockyard to a design by Joseph-Louis Ollivier. The first ship (Citoyen, originally to have been named Cimeterre) was newly built there from 1761 to 1764, and the other three were rebuilt to her design from earlier ships.

Citoyen

Built at: Brest

Keel laid: July 1761

Launched: 27 August 1764

Completed: December 1764

Fate: decommissioned in 1783 and taken to pieces in 1792

Conquérant

Originally built at: Toulon

Ordered: 5 March 1743

Originally launched: 9 March 1746

Rebuilt: from January 1765 at Brest to the draught of the Citoyen, re-launched 29 November 1765 and completed in December 1765

Fate: Condemned in May 1796 but put back into service in March 1798, captured by the British on 2 August 1798 at the Battle of the Nile, broken up in Plymouth in January 1803

Palmier

Originally built at: Brest

Keel laid: November 1750

Originally launched 21 July 1752

Rebuilt: from 23 May 1766 at Brest to the draught of the Citoyen, re-launched in December 1766 and completed in the same month

Fate: Rebuilt again at Brest in 1776. Abandoned and foundered off Bermuda in the Atlantic Ocean on 24 October 1782

Actif

Originally built at: Brest (as a 64-gun ship)

Keel laid: 1750

Originally launched: 15 December 1752

Rebuilt at: from April 1767 at Brest to the draught of the Citoyen, re-launched on 5 October 1767 and completed in April 1768

Fate: Rebuilt again at Brest in 1774. Condemned in August 1783, sold 1784

Sources and references

Demerliac, Alain (1995). La Marine de Louis XV - Nomenclature des navires francais de 1715 à 1774. pp. 39–41. ISBN 2-906381-19-5.
Winfield, Rif and Roberts, Stephen S., French Warships in the Age of Sail 1626-1786: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. (Seaforth Publishing, 2017) ISBN 978-1-4738-9351-1.

Note that the French (pre-metric) foot was 6.575% longer than the equivalent British unit of measurement of the same name.
Note that the French (pre-metric) pound was about 7.9% heavier than the equivalent British unit of measurement of the same name. Thus the French 36-pounder equated to about 38 lb 13.6 oz in British measurement.

French Navy ship of the line classes timeline, 1750s–1900s

Type	1750s–1760s				1770s–1780s				1790s–1800s				1810s–1820s				1830s–1840s				1850s–1860s				1870s–1880s				1890s–1900s
	50	55	60	65	70	75	80	85	90	95	00	05	10	15	20	25	30	35	40	45	50	55	60	65	70	75	80	85	90	95	00	05
130 gun three-decker																						Bretagne
110-120 gun three-decker		Sans-Pareil class						Océan class
				Bretagne																Valmy
							Terrible class						Commerce de Paris class
90-100 gun two-decker																					Napoléon class
																Suffren class
																		Hercule class
80-gun two-decker			Saint-Esprit class
								Deux Frères				Bucentaure class
									Tonnant class
74-gun two-decker	Hector class
	Magnifique class
		Souverain class
		Diadème class
				Citoyen class
				Marseillois
					César class
							Magnanime class
							Annibal class
							Scipion class
							Pégase class
							Téméraire class
								Centaure class

Categories: