French ship Orion (1787)

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

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

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.[3]

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.[3]

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.[3]

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.
3. Roche, p.336

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. Vol. 1. Group Retozel-Maury Millau. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922. (1671-1870)