Vengeur du Peuple ("Avenger of the People") was a 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy. Funded by a don des vaisseaux donation from the chamber of commerce of Marseille, she was launched in 1762 as Marseillois.
She took part in the naval operations in the American Revolutionary War in Admiral d'Estaing's squadron, duelling Preston in a single-ship action on 11 August 1778, taking part in the Battle of the Chesapeake where she duelled HMS Intrepid, and supporting the flagship Ville de Paris at the Battle of the Saintes. She also took part in the Battle of Saint Kitts.
After the French Revolution, she was renamed Vengeur du Peuple and took part in the Glorious First of June. There, she was disabled after a furious duel with HMS Brunswick and surrendered after losing hope of being rescued by a French ship. After a few hours, as British ships were beginning rescue operations, she listed and foundered, taking almost half her crew with her.
The sinking of Vengeur du Peuple was used as propaganda by the National Convention and Bertrand Barère, who gave birth to the legend that the crew had gone down with the ship fighting, rather than surrender. The Scottish historian Thomas Carlyle repeated the tale in his The French Revolution: A History, yielding a rebuttal by Rear-Admiral John Griffiths, who had witnessed the events. Although discredited in naval history circles, the legend lived on as a folk tale, inspiring numerous representations and a fictional account by Jules Verne in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea.
Career
The French Navy had lost 29 ships during the Seven Years' War, casualties being particularly high at the Battle of Lagos and the Battle of Quiberon Bay. To replace these losses, in 1761 the Duke of Choiseul launched subscriptions, called don des vaisseaux, whereby French individuals and organisations could donate to the Crown the funds necessary to build and equip a warship. 13 million livres were raised and 18 ships, including two three-deckers, were built and named after their patrons. The Marseillois was funded by the chamber of commerce of Marseille, for 500,000 livres.
Marseillois was ordered on 16 January 1762, to be built in Toulon on a design by the engineer Coulomb, and named the same day by Louis XV, following the request of her patrons. The chamber of commerce of Marseille further requested that the ship be built in Marseille, but Coulomb determined that the harbour there was too shallow for the launch of a 74-gun ship, and the order for Marseillois was eventually confirmed at Toulon. There, lack of timber in the shipyards, that were already busy building Languedoc, Zélé and Bourgogne, delayed the construction of Marseillois until 1764. Her building was directed by the engineer Chapelle.
She was launched on 16 July 1766, and completed quickly, decorated by sculptures carved by Pierre Audibert. After her completion, she was put in reserve, where she would remain for 11 years. On 1 February 1778, Marseillois was hove down for maintenance and repairs of her hull, which was found to be in "very good shape", although her keel had hogged by ; maintenance completed two days later, and she was commissioned under Captain Louis-Armand de La Poype de Vertrieu.
American Revolutionary War
The outbreak of the American War of Independence had caused relations between France and Great Britain to deteriorate, and diplomatic ties were broken on 16 March 1778. Admiral d'Estaing took command of a squadron of thirteen ships of the line and four frigates in Toulon. Marseillois was assigned to this fleet, the first active service she would see. The fleet set sail on 18 April 1778, crossed Gibraltar on 16 May, and arrived at the mouth of the Delaware River on 8 July.