Téméraire-Class Two-Deckers — French Naval Doctrine

Generated illustration. Not a historical photograph. A two-decker of the line. Not a named Téméraire-class portrait.

Overview

The French Téméraire-class was an 80-gun two-decker class, designed by Jacques-Noël Sané. Bucentaure — Overview is the vault’s filled example: launched July 1803 at Toulon and completed 1804.¹

Doctrine

This note covers that class doctrine only. Class size stays off this note. A British namesake and a full class catalogue stay on RESEARCH_QUEUE.

French doctrine in this period preferred the heavy 80-gun two-decker over the British three-decker First Rate Ship of the Line — Class Overview, holding that two decks gave better seakeeping and a more reliable lower battery in heavy weather than a three-decker’s high freeboard allowed. Treat that doctrinal claim as status/draft — French archival sources beyond Adkin are not yet consulted.²

Redoutable — French 74-gun Ship is a French two-decker of the line, but a 74, not this class’s 80.³

Sources

• @adkin2005trafalgar — pp. 76–82, 78 (doctrine and class); pp. 286–290 (Bucentaure construction window, already used on that note)
• @knight2005pursuit
• Bucentaure — Overview

Related

Navigation

• MOC_Ships_Maritime
• Warship_Classes_Index

Filled Example and Contrast

• Bucentaure — Overview — filled Téméraire-class 80
• First Rate Ship of the Line — Class Overview — British three-decker first-rate
• Redoutable — French 74-gun Ship — two-decker, not this class’s 80
• HMS Victory — Overview — British first-rate three-decker
• Villeneuve Pierre-Charles — French Admiral — Bucentaure’s flag officer at Trafalgar

Cross-Domain

• Battle of Trafalgar 1805 — Overview
• Age of Sail — Era Overview

Footnotes

1. Téméraire-class 80-gun two-decker; design by Jacques-Noël Sané; Bucentaure launched July 1803 at Toulon, completed 1804: Bucentaure — Overview, citing @adkin2005trafalgar pp. 76–82, 78 and 286–290. ↩

2. Preference for the heavy 80-gun two-decker over the British three-decker first-rate (seakeeping / lower battery): Bucentaure note, Adkin pp. 76–82. Do not invent a class size. ↩

3. Redoutable as a 74-gun two-decker, not a first-rate and not this class’s 80: Redoutable — French 74-gun Ship and First Rate Ship of the Line — Class Overview. ↩