French ship Soleil-Royal (1692)

The Soleil Royal (Regal Sun) was a First Rank ship of the line of the French Royal Navy.

For other ships with the same name, see French ship Soleil Royal and French ship Foudroyant.

History
Kingdom of France
Namesake: "Regal Sun" (a synonym for the Sun King, Louis XIV)
Laid down: June 1692
Launched: 24 December 1692
Completed: April 1693
Commissioned: March 1693 as Soleil-Royal
Fate: Taken to pieces, 1714
General characteristics
Tonnage: 2,400
Length: 170 French feet[1] (55.22 m)[2]
Beam: 46 French feet (14.94 m)
Draught: 24½ French feet
Depth of hold: 22 French feet
Complement: 900 (950 from 1694), + 17 officers
Armament: 104 guns

This ship was originally planned to be a 2nd Rank two-decker to be built at Brest, but - following the loss of fifteen major French warships by Anglo-Dutch attacks at Cherbourg and La Hogue during the first few days of June, 1692 (N.S.) - she was ordered in the same week to be built instead as a First Rank three-decker of 104 guns. On 21 June she was given the name Foudroyant to replace the previous ship bearing that name (destroyed at La Hogue). She was designed by Étienne Hubac and laid down the same month at Brest Dockyard, and launched on 24 December 1692.

Two more three-deckers were ordered and begun at Brest during June (as Merveilleux) and August 1692 (as Terrible, and a further three-decker was ordered there on 20 January 1693, which Louis XIV ordered should bear the name Soleil Royal to replace the previous ship bearing that name (destroyed at Cherbourg). All three ships were to be designed and built by Blaise Pangalo. However, Étienne Hubac begged the King that that name should be given to the ship he was building instead, because the previous Soleil Royal had been built by his own father, Laurent Hubac, and - as he himself had rebuilt that ship from the keel up at Brest in 1689 - he still possessed the moulds for that ship. Moreover, he pointed out to the King that his own ship would be some 4 feet longer and some 200 tons larger than Pangalo's new ship, so would be more deserving of the name that honoured Louis XIV himself. On 1 March 1693, the King agreed to Hubac's proposal and the names of the two ships were exchanged. Hubac's ship was thus completed under the name Soleil Royal in April 1693 and brought into service.

The new ship took part in the Battle of Lagos on 28 June 1693, and subsequently in the Battle of Vélez-Málaga on 24 August 1704, where she was the flagship of Lieut-Général Joseph Andrault, Marquis de Langeron. She was scuttled in Toulon on Louis's orders in July 1707 to avoid being set alight by the bombardment by the English fleet. She was later put back afloat, but in October 1713 she was judged unfit for service, and was taken to pieces during 1714.

References
  • Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours 1 1671 - 1870. p. 223. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922.
  • Nomenclature des Vaisseaux du Roi-Soleil de 1661 a 1715. Alain Demerliac (Editions Omega, Nice – various dates).
  • The Sun King's Vessels (2015) - Jean-Claude Lemineur; English translation by François Fougerat. Editions ANCRE. ISBN 978-2903179885
  • Winfield, Rif and Roberts, Stephen (2017) French Warships in the Age of Sail 1626-1786: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4738-9351-1.
  1. The French foot (pre-metric) was 6.575% longer than the equivalent English foot.
  2. http://www.kylesconverter.com/length/feet-(french-measure)-to-meters
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