Séduisant-class ship of the line

The Séduisant class was a sub-class of 74-gun ships of the line of the French Navy, comprising two ships built at Toulon Dockyard to a design by Joseph-Marie-Blaise Coulomb in the year immediately following the close of the American Revolutionary War. In reality these two ships followed his design for the Centaure Class, but were completed with a length greater by 5¼ feet, and had also slightly less breadth and depth in hold.

• Séduisant

Builder: Toulon

Ordered: 1 June 1782

Begun: August 1782

Launched: 5 July 1783

Completed: 1783

Fate: Wrecked, 16 December 1796

• Mercure

Builder: Toulon

Ordered: 1 June 1782

Begun: August 1782

Launched: 4 August 1783

Completed: 1783

Fate: Burnt by the British after the Battle of the Nile, 2 August 1798

Class overview
Name	Séduisant
Builders	Toulon
Operators	French Navy
In service	1783-1798
Completed	2
General characteristics
Type	Ship of the line
Displacement	1550 tonnes
Length	173 pieds 3 pouces[1] (56.3 metres)
Beam	14.2 metres
Draught	7.4 metres
Propulsion	Sail
Complement	17 officers and 690 men
Armament	74 guns
Armour	Timber
Notes	Ships in class include: Séduisant, Mercure

References

1. The units of measurement pieds (feet) and pouces (inches) were Units of measurement in France before the French Revolution; they were slightly larger than the equivalent British feet and inches.

• Demerliac, Cmdt. Alain, Nomenclature des navires français de 1774 a 1792. Editions ANCRE, Nice.
• Winfield, Rif and Roberts, Stephen (2015) French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786-1861: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-204-2.