The flagship was always the most powerful ship present in Toulon. Under Louis XIV this was the either 110-gun Royal Louis constructed in 1667 and destroyed in 1690[2] or her successor, also named Royal Louis, constructed in 1692.[3] The gun decks of these vessels were painted red, upper decks in blue, picked out with gilding. Under Louis XVI the flagships were the 110-gun Majestueux constructed in 1780[4] and then the 118-gun Océan-classCommerce de Marseille constructed in 1788.
Vice admirals
The command of the Levant and the Ponant fleets were entrusted on 12 November 1669 to two vice-admirals. The first vice-admiral of the Levant was Anne Hilarion de Costentin, Comte de Tourville, designated as such in 1669. Louis XIV had intended to appoint Abraham Duquesne to share the post, but he died in 1688, and the Comte de Tourville continued in the post until 1701.
Although Tourville commanded the fleet during the battles of the reign of Louis XIV, his successors were too old to have likely served at sea. In practice, the squadrons at sea were under officers with the rank of Lieutenant général des Armées navales.
The term "Fleet of the Levant" was temporary readopted after the French Restoration and the July Monarchy.
References
^Par maître Rodolphe, in Histoire de la Marine française illustrée, Larousse, 1934.
^Royal-Louis (1668), the first of the 15 Royal-Louis was destroyed in 1690.
^Royal-Louis 1692, the second of the 15 Royal-Louis was disarmed in 1716 and destroyed in 1727.
^Majestueux was renamed Républicain (Republican) in 1797; destroyed in 1808.
Bibliography
Rémi Monaque, Une histoire de la marine de guerre française, Paris, éditions Perrin, 2016, total pages 526 ISBN978-2-262-03715-4
Michel Vergé-Franceschi, La marine française au XVIII, guerres, administration, exploration, Regards sur l'histoire, Paris, SEDES editions, 1996, total pages 451 ISBN2-7181-9503-7.
Michel Vergé-Franceschi, Toulon: port royal, 1481–1789, Tallandier, 2002 – 329 pages