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

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.

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

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

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 August 1793; removed to England at the evacuation of the city; became a hulk in Portsmouth 1796; broken up in 1816.

• Dictateur

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

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

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

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.

Citations

1. Roche, p.508
2. ^ Roche, p.344
3. Winfield & Roberts, French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786-1861, p.86.
4. Roche, p.368
5. Roche, p.150
6. Roche, p.424
7. Roche, p.30-31
8. Roche, p.103

References

• Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours. Vol. 1. Group Retozel-Maury Millau. p. 280. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922.
• Winfield, Rif and Roberts, Stephen S. (2017) French Warships in the Age of Sail 1626–1786: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates.. Seaforth Publishing, 2017. ISBN 978-1-4738-9351-1.
• 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.

• Pégase-class ships of the line
• Ship of the line classes from France
• Ship classes of the French Navy