Depictions of the ships behind the SoG-miniatures

[Bligh]

Duguay-Trouin.

Part 1 (In French Service.)





Originally named Duguay-Trouin after René Trouin, Sieur du Gué who was a famous Breton corsair of Saint-Malo. He had a brilliant privateering and naval career and eventually became "Lieutenant-General of the Naval Armies of the King."





Construction, to a plan by Rolland but updated to a plan by Sané, began in 1794 but was interrupted in 1795. She was finally laid down in 1797, and launched at Rochefort in 1800.

On 22 November 1802, under Captain Claude Touffet, she departed Toulon as part of a squadron commanded by Commodore Quérangal, also comprising the frigate Guerrière and the flagship Duquesne, a sister Téméraire-class vessel armed en flûte. Bound for Santo Domingo, the squadron found itself blockaded in Cap Français during the Blockade of Saint-Domingue by HMS Elephant, Bellerophon, Theseus and Vanguard. After a successful sortie in the dark, the squadron split up. Guerrière and Duguay-Trouin managed to escape but Vanguard, with Tartar, captured Duquesne.

Under Capitaine de Vaisseau Lhermite she participated in an action at Cap Français.




On 21 October 1805, Duguay-Trouin took part in the Battle of Trafalgar, where she was part of the vanguard of the French fleet under Contre-amiral Pierre Dumanoir le Pelley, and was one of four French ships that escaped capture that day.



On 3 November 1805, British Captain Sir Richard Strachan, with Caesar, Hero, Courageux, Namur and four frigates, defeated and captured what remained of the Franco-Spanish fleet. In the battle, the captain of Duguay-Trouin, Claude Touffet, was killed, her masts were shot away, and she was eventually captured.

The Royal Navy commissioned her as a third rate under the name HMS Implacable.




Implacable served with the Royal Navy for the rest of the Napoleonic Wars.

Rob.