French ship Algésiras (1804)

For other ships with the same name, see French ship Algésiras.

Algésiras was a Téméraire class 74-gun French ship of the line built at Lorient in 1804, named after the Battle of Algeciras.

Scale model of Achille, sister ship of French ship Algésiras (1804), on display at the Musée national de la Marine in Paris.
History
France
Name	Algésiras
Namesake	Battle of Algeciras
Builder	Lorient
Laid down	1804
Launched	8 July 1804
Captured	By the Royal Navy, 21 October 1805 By the French Navy, 22 October 1805 By Spain, 14 June 1808
Spain
Name	Algeciras
Captured	14 June 1808
Fate	Broken up in 1826
General characteristics [1]
Class and type	Téméraire-class ship of the line
Displacement	2,900 tonnes
Length	55.87 m (183 ft 4 in) (172 French feet)
Beam	14.90 m (48 ft 11 in) (44' 6")
Draught	7.26 m (23 ft 10 in) (22 French feet)
Propulsion	Up to 2485 m² of sails
Complement	3 officers + 690 men
Armament	74 guns: 28 × 36-pounder (16 kg) 30 × 24-pounder (11 kg) 16 × 8-pounder (3.6 kg) 4 × 36-pounder (16 kg) carronades
Armour	Timber

In 1805 she sailed to the West Indies with Aigle where they joined a French fleet under Vice-Admiral Villeneuve.

In October 1805 she took part in the Battle of Trafalgar, under Rear Admiral Charles Magon. She was engaged by HMS Tonnant at point-blank range, and Magon attempted a boarding, but the boarding party was annihilated by British fire which killed all but one of the party, who was made prisoner. Magon was killed. The fight went on for an hour with Tonnant's starboard guns duelling with the Algésiras, the port guns with Pluton, and the forward guns aimed at the San Juan Nepomuceno. Algésiras finally surrendered to Tonnant at around 14:30.

During the storm after the battle, her crew rose up against the British prize crew, and recaptured the ship. She sailed to Cádiz flying French colours.

On 14 June 1808 she was captured by the Spanish along with all the other French ships in Cadiz.

See also

• List of ships captured in the 19th century

Citations

1. Clouet, Alain (2007). "La marine de Napoléon III : classe Téméraire – caractéristiques". dossiersmarine.free.fr. Archived from the original on 23 March 2013. Retrieved 4 April 2013.

References

• Winfield, Rif; Roberts, Stephen S (2015). French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786–1862: Design Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 978-1-84832-204-2.