Scipion-class ship of the line

Scipion raking HMS London during the Action of 18 October 1782.
Class overview
Name:	Scipion
Operators:	French Navy
Completed:	3
General characteristics
Class and type:	Scipion class
Tons burthen:	1500 tonnes
Length:	53.8 metres
Beam:	14.1 metres
Draught:	7.3 metres
Propulsion:	Sails
Armament:	74 to 78 guns of various weights of shot

The Scipion class was a class of three 74-gun ships built to a design by François-Guillaume Clairin-Deslauriers, the ingénieur-constructeur en chef at Rochefort Dockyard. These were the shortest 74-gun ships built by France since the 1750s, and they were found to lack stability as a consequence. The third ship - originally the Pluton - was 'girdled' (sheathed) with 32 cm of pine at Rochefort in 1799 to overcome her instability, and the design of two further ships ordered at the same dockyard in 1779 were lengthened.