French ship Brutus (1798)

Scale model of Achille, sister ship of French ship Brutus (1803), on display at the Musée de la Marine in Paris.
History
France
Name:	Brutus
Namesake:	Brutus
Ordered:	31 May 1798
Builder:	Lorient
Laid down:	22 September 1798
Launched:	24 January 1803
Commissioned:	March 1803
Decommissioned:	14 September 1806
Renamed:	Impétueux on 5 February 1803
Fate:	Beached and set ablaze by the British in Chesapeake on 14 September 1806
General characteristics
Class and type:	Téméraire-class ship of the line
Displacement:	2,966 tonnes 5,260 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 m2 (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

Brutus was a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy. Launched on 24 January 1803, she was renamed Impétueux on 5 February 1803.

She served in the Caribbean under Willaumez during the Atlantic campaign of 1806.

On 19 August 1806, she was dismasted in a tempest and drifted until 10 September. On the 14th, she was chased by Strachan's squadron comprising Belleisle, Bellona and Melampus; unable to fight, she beached herself in Chesapeake Bay. The wreck was set ablaze by the British and the crew was taken prisoner.