French ship Orion (1787)

Orion was a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.

For other ships with the same name, see French ship Orion.

Tourville (left) raking HMS Defence (centre) at the Battle of Prairial, while Mucius Scævola (ex-Orion, right) duels with her on her port side. Painting by Nicholas Pocock
History
France
Name:	Orion
Namesake:	Orion Gaius Mucius Scævola
Builder:	Rochefort
Laid down:	October 1784
Launched:	18 April 1787
Completed:	1788
Stricken:	23 March 1804
Fate:	Broken up in 1804
General characteristics [1]
Class and type:	Téméraire-class ship of the line
Displacement:	1,966 tonnes 3,260 tonnes fully loaded
Length:	55.87 metres (183.3 ft) (172 pied)
Beam:	14.90 metres (48 ft 11 in)
Draught:	7.26 metres (23.8 ft) (22 pied)
Propulsion:	Up to 2,485 m^2 (26,750 sq ft) of sails
Armament:	74 guns: Lower gundeck: 28 × 36-pounder long guns Upper gundeck: 30 × 18-pounder long guns Forecastle and Quarter deck: 16 × 8-pounder long guns 4 × 36-pounder carronades
Armour:	Timber

Career

In 1790, Orion was under Buor de La Charoulière.[2]

She took part in fighting on the coast of Italy. In 1793, she was renamed Mucius Scævola, soon shortened to Mucius.

In 1794 she took part in the battle of the Glorious First of June (Combat du 13 prairial an II), helping the Impétueux battling HMS Marlborough, as well as in both the First Battle of Groix and the Battle of Groix in June 1795.

In December 1796 she took part in the Expédition d'Irlande, an attempt at landing an army in Ireland, before being struck and broken up in Brest.

Sources and references

Notes

Citations

1. Clouet, Alain (2007). "La marine de Napoléon III : classe Téméraire - caractéristiques". dossiersmarine.free.fr (in French). Archived from the original on 23 March 2013. Retrieved 14 April 2013.
2. Taillemite (1982), p. 51.

References

• Taillemite, Étienne (1982). Dictionnaire des Marins français. Paris: Éditions maritimes et d'Outre-Mer. ISBN 9782707000316. OCLC 239744936.
• Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours. 1. Group Retozel-Maury Millau. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922. (1671-1870)