Droits de l'Homme

Wrecked

Type	Ship of the line
Rate	Third rate
Guns	74 guns
War	French Revolutionary Wars

Ship of the line carrying General Humbert and his troops home from the failed expedition to Ireland. Caught by Indefatigable and Amazon in a gale on 13 January 1797, with her lower gunports closed by the heavy seas, she fought them through the night, lost her masts and was driven onto the sands at Plozévet. Several hundred of the 1,300 aboard were drowned.

Battle between the French warship Droits de l'Homme and the frigates HMS Amazon and Indefatigable, 13 & 14 January 1797. (Indefatigable on the left, Droits de l'Homme at the centre, Amazon on the right.) Photo: Léopold Le Guen, Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Armament and specifications

Armament

74 guns

Lower gundeck: 28 × 36-pounder long guns
Upper gundeck: 30 × 18-pounder long guns

Forecastle and Quarter deck

16 × 8-pounder long guns
4 × 36-pounder carronades

Armour

Timber

Builder	Port-Liberté (now Lorient) Naval Dockyard
Laid down	May 1793
Launched	29 May 1794
Displacement	3,069 tonneaux
Length	55.87 metres (183.3 ft) (172 pied)

As built, from the ship's Wikipedia article. Figures there may cover later refits too.

Career

Launched

29 May 1794

Action of 13 January 1797

Wrecked

13–14 January 1797

Commodore Jean-Baptiste Raymond de Lacrosse