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The ''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''.〔The name is sometimes written ''Marseillais'', which is the modern orthography. See (The dictionary of French naval fighting ships - General remarks ) for details.〕 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''〔The name is often shortened to ''Vengeur''. See French ship ''Vengeur'' for details.〕 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.〔〔Under Louis XVI, a French livre contained 0.29 grammes of pure gold (); this puts ''Marseillois'' worth at of gold. For a 110-gun ship like ''Bretagne'', the raw wood was already worth 490,000 livres, and the total construction cost amounted to 1,150,000 livres (see ''Les Européens et les espaces océaniques au XVIIIe siècle'', (p.17 ))〕 ''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.〔Diaz de Soria, ''Le Marseillois'', p. 10.〕〔Deschênes〕 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 ;〔not an uncommon figure for ships of the era〕 maintenance completed two days later, and she was commissioned under Captain Louis-Armand de La Poype de Vertrieu.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「French ship Vengeur du Peuple」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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