The Téméraire-class ships of the line were a class of a hundred and twenty 74-gun ships of the line ordered between 1782 and 1813 for the French navy or its attached navies in dependent territories. Although a few of these were cancelled, the type was and remains the most numerous class of capital ship ever built to a single design. The class was designed by Jacques-Noël Sané in 1782 as a development of the Annibal and her near-sister Northumberland, both of which had been designed by him and built at Brest during the 1777-1780 period. Some thirteen ships were ordered and built to this new design from 1782 to 1785, and then the same design was adopted as a standard for all subsequent 74-gun ships built for the French Navy during the next three decades as part of the fleet expansion programme instituted by Jean-Charles de Borda in 1786. The design was appreciated in Britain, which eagerly commissioned captured ships and even copied the design with the and.
While all the French 74-gun ships from the mid-1780s until the close of the Napoleonic Wars were to the Téméraire design, there were three variants of the basic design which Sané developed with the same hull form of Téméraire. In 1793 two ships were laid down at Brest to an enlarged design; in 1801 two ships were commenced at Lorient with a slightly shorter length than the standard design ; and in 1803 two ships were commenced at Toulon to a smaller version - these are detailed separately below.
Ships in class
''Téméraire'' group (18 ships)
, renamed Bonnet Rouge in January 1794 and then Timoléon in February 1794.
, renamed Phocion in October 1792.
, renamed Lys in July 1786 and then Tricolore in October 1792.
, renamed Ça Ira in April 1794 and then Agricola in June 1794.
, renamed Mucius Scaevola in November 1793, then Mucius in same month.
, renamed Gasparin in February 1794, reverted to Apollon in May 1794; renamed Marceau in December 1797.
''Duquesne'' group (46 ships)
, renamed Montagnard in March 1794, Démocrate on 18 May 1795, then back to Jupiter again on 30 May 1795, and to Batave in December 1797.
, renamed Provence in July 1815, then Alger in July 1830.
, renamed Glorieux before launch, Minerve in 1834, Aber Wrac'h in 1865.
, renamed Duperré in December 1849.
Three further ships to this design were begun at Castellammare di Stabia for the "puppet" Neapolitan Navy of Joachim Murat:
The third ship, laid down in September 1812, was never named, let alone launched, as its construction was abandoned following the defection of the Kingdom of Naples from the Napoleonic cause in November 1813.
Large Variant (''Cassard'' group – 2 ships launched)
Two ships were laid down in 1793-94 at Brest to a variant of Sané's design with the aim of carrying 24-pounder guns on the upper deck instead of the 18-pounders carried by the Téméraire. These ships were 2 feet longer than the standard 74s, and half a foot wider. The first was begun as the Lion, but was renamed Glorieux in 1795 and Cassard in 1798. The second was begun as the Magnanime, but was renamed Quatorze Juillet in 1798 and Vétéran in 1802. Unlike the main sequence, construction proceeded slowly. By 1816 the 24-pounders aboard these two ships had been replaced by 18-pounders, and no further ships to this variant design were produced, so indicating that it was not judged successful.
Short Variant (''Suffren'' group – 2 ships launched)
Two ships were begun in 1801 to a variation of the standard Téméraire design by Sané to meet the demands of Pierre-Alexandre Forfait. The length of these ships were reduced by 65 cm from the standard design. A third ship to this variant design begun at Brest was cancelled in 1804. After Forfait left the Ministry of the Marine in October 1801, no further vessels were ordered to this variant design.
Small Variant (''Pluton'' group – 24 ships launched)
Starting with the prototypes Pluton and Borée in 1803, a smaller version of the Téméraire class, officially named petit modèle, was designed by Jacques-Noël Sané to be produced in shipyards having a lesser depth of water than the principal French shipyards, primarily those in neighbouring states under French control and in foreign ports which had been absorbed into the French Empire such as Antwerp. The revised design measured 177 feet 7 inches on the waterline, 180 feet 1 inch on the deck, and 46 feet 11 inches moulded breadth. The depth of hull was 9 inches less than that in the "regular" Téméraire design.
Two more 74s to the "petit modèle" design were ordered in June 1803, one at Marseille and the other at Bordeaux, but these were not built.
, renamed Éole in August 1814, then Anversois in March 1815 and back to Éole in July 1815.
, renamed Thésée before launch, renamed Atlas after 1814.
, originally Audacieux, renamed before launch.
, named Illustre before launching, and renamed Achille in 1814 during the First Restoration. In 1815, during the Hundred Days, reverted to Dantzig, but returned to Achille on the Second Restoration.
, renamed Hector in 1814 during the First Restoration. In 1815, during the Hundred Days, reverted to Dalmate, but returned to Hector on the Second Restoration.
