The view from Lady Juliana on the morning after the hurricane, featuring Centaur along with HMS Glorieux and HMS Ville de Paris
History
French Royal Navy EnsignFrance
NameCentaure
Ordered1755
BuilderJoseph-Marie-Blaise Coulomb, Toulon Dockyard
Laid downFebruary 1756
Launched17 March 1757
CommissionedOctober 1757
Captured18 August 1759, by Royal Navy
General characteristics In French service[1]
Class and type74-gun second-rank ship of the line
Tons burthen1450
Length164 French feet[2]
Beam43 French feet
Draught19 French feet 11 inches
Depth of hold20½ French feet
PropulsionSails
Sail planFull-rigged ship
Complement620 men, +6/10 officers
Armament74 guns of various weights of shot
Great Britain
NameHMS Centaur
Acquired18 August 1759
FateWrecked, 24 September 1782
General characteristics In British service[3]
Class and type74-gun third-rate ship of the line
Tons burthen1739
Length175 ft 8 in (53.54 m) (gundeck)
Beam47 ft 5 in (14.45 m)
Depth of hold20 ft (6.1 m)
PropulsionSails
Sail planFull-rigged ship
Armament74 guns of various weights of shot

Centaure was a 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, launched at Toulon in 1757. She was designed by Joseph-Marie-Blaise Coulomb and named on 25 October 1755, and built under his supervision at Toulon. In French service she carried 74 cannon, comprising: 28 x 36-pounders on the lower deck, 30 x 18-pounders on the upper deck, 10 x 8-pounders on the quarterdeck, 6 x 8-pounders on the forecastle.

The Royal Navy captured Centaure at the Battle of Lagos[4] on 18 August 1759, and commissioned her as the third-rate HMS Centaur.[3]

Career in British service

She had a skirmish with the French ships Vaillant and Amethyste, in January 1760.[5] In the War of American Independence, Centaur served continuously on the North America/West Indies station, taking part in all the major battles including Admiral Rodney's victory at the Saintes.

Loss

In September 1782, Centaur was one of the ships escorting prizes and a large trade convoy back to Britain from Jamaica, when she foundered due to damage received in the 1782 Central Atlantic hurricane near the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. Captain John Nicholson Inglefield, along with eleven of his crew, survived the wreck in one of the ship's pinnaces, arriving at the Azores after sailing in an open boat for 16 days without compass quadrant or sail, and only two quart bottles of water; some 400 of her crew perished.[4]

See also

Citations

  1. ↑ Winfield & Roberts, French Warships in the Age of Sail 1626-1786, p. 106-107.
  2. ↑ The pre-metric French foot or pied was 6.575% longer than the equivalent British unit of measurement of the same name.
  3. 1 2 Lavery, Ships of the Line vol. 1, p. 178.
  4. 1 2 Ships of the Old Navy, Centaur.
  5. ↑ "HMS Centaur chasing the Vaillant and Amethyste, January 1760". Royal Museums Greenwich. Retrieved 13 April 2018.

References


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