French ship Sans Pareil (1793)

History
France
Name:	Sans Pareil
Builder:	Brest
Laid down:	August 1790
Launched:	8 June 1793
Captured:	1 June 1794, by the Royal Navy
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Sans Pareil
Acquired:	1 June 1794
Reclassified:	Prison hulk, 1807 Sheer hulk, 1810
Fate:	Broken up, October 1842
General characteristics
Class and type:	Tonnant-class 80-gun ship of the line
Displacement:	1800 tonnes
Tons burthen:	2190 (bm)
Length:	59.3 metres (197 ft 6 in, gun deck length)
Beam:	15.3 metres 5(0 ft 7 in)
Draught:	7.8 metres
Depth of hold:	7.2 m (23.62 ft)
Propulsion:	Sails
Complement:	738
Armament:	As built 30 × 36-pounder long guns 32 × 24-pounder long guns 18 × 12-pounder long guns 4 × obusiers de vaisseau From 1806 Lower deck: 30 × 24-pounders Upper deck:30 × 24-pounders QD:2 × 24-pounders + 12 × 24-pounder carronades Fc:2 × 24-pounders + 4 × 24-pounder carronades

HMS Sans Pareil ("Without Equal") was an 80-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was formerly the French ship Sans Pareil, but was captured in 1794 and spent the rest of her career in service with the British.

Sans Pareil was built at Brest as a Tonnant-class ship of the line, to a design by Groignard. She was launched on 8 June 1793, but spent less than a year in service with the French navy. She sailed into the Atlantic in May 1794, under the command of Captain Courand, as part of a squadron under Rear-Admiral Joseph-Marie Nielly. She was Nielly's flagship for the operation, which aimed to meet a corn convoy inbound from North America, under Pierre Jean Van Stabel. Neilly initially failed to make contact with the French convoy, but on 9 May 1794 the squadron came across a British one, escorted by HMS Castor, under the command of Captain Thomas Troubridge. The squadron attacked and captured Castor, and a number of the convoy's ships. Castor was only briefly in French hands before HMS Carysfort retook her on 29 May. However, Troubridge remained a prisoner on Sans Pareil until the battle of the Glorious First of June.

Having made contact with the approaching convoy, the squadron began the return voyage. During this, a French fleet under Admiral Louis Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse was intercepted by a British fleet under Lord Howe, and a series of sporadic actions took place on 28 and 29 May. Neilly brought some of his larger ships, including Sans Pareil, to join Villaret, sending the convoy on ahead under the escort of frigates.

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Wikipedia