French ship Aigle (1800)

Drawing of the main features of Aigle
History
France
NameAigle
NamesakeEagle
BuilderRochefort
Laid down1794
Launched6 July 1800
Captured
FateWrecked 23 October 1805
General characteristics [1]
Class and typeTéméraire-class ship of the line
Displacement
  • 2,966 tonnes
  • 5,260 tonnes fully loaded
Length55.87 metres (183.3 ft) (172 pied)
Beam14.90 metres (48 ft 11 in)
Draught7.26 metres (23.8 ft) (22 pied)
PropulsionUp to 2,485 m2 (26,750 sq ft) of sails
Armament
ArmourTimber

Aigle was a 74-gun French ship of the line built at Rochefort in 1800.

In 1805 she sailed to the West Indies with Algésiras where they joined a French fleet under Vice-Admiral Villeneuve.

In October 1805, Aigle took part in the Battle of Trafalgar. She was captured during the battle by a boarding party from HMS Defiance.[2]

On the following day, her crew rose up against the British prize crew, and recaptured the ship. However, she was wrecked in the storm of 23 October 1805.[3]

  1. ^ Clouet, Alain (2007), "La marine de Napoléon III : classe Téméraire - caractéristiques", dossiersmarine.free.fr, archived from the original on 23 March 2013, retrieved 4 April 2013
  2. ^ Stewart, William (2014), "Durham, Sir Philip Charles Henderson Calderwood, (1763–1845) (Britain)", Admirals of the World: A Biographical Dictionary, 1500 to the Present, McFarland, p. 114, ISBN 978-0-7864-8288-7
  3. ^ Adkins, Roy (2011), Trafalgar: The Biography of a Battle, Little, Brown Book Group, p. 88, ISBN 978-1-4055-1344-9