HMS Canopus (1798)

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Canopus.

History
France
NameFranklin
NamesakeBenjamin Franklin
BuilderToulon
Laid downNovember 1794
Launched25 June 1797
CompletedBy March 1798
Captured2 August 1798, by the Royal Navy
Royal Navy EnsignGreat Britain
NameHMS Canopus
NamesakeThe star Alpha Carinae and Canopus, Egypt near Aboukir Bay, site of the Battle of the Nile
Acquired2 August 1798
FateSold for breaking up in October 1887
General characteristics
Class and type84-gun third rate ship of the line
Tons burthen2,258 77/94 bm
Length
  • 193 ft 10 in (59.1 m) (overall)
  • 159 ft 7 in (48.6 m) (keel)
Beam51 ft 6.75 in (15.7 m)
Depth of hold23 ft 4.5 in (7.12 m)
PropulsionSails
Sail planFull-rigged ship
Complement700
Armament

HMS Canopus was an 84-gun third rate ship of the line of the British Royal Navy. She had previously served with the French Navy as the Tonnant-class Franklin, but was captured after less than a year in service by the British fleet under Rear Admiral Horatio Nelson at the Battle of the Nile in 1798. Having served the French for less than six months from her completion in March 1798 to her capture in August 1798, she eventually served the British for 89 years.

Her career began as the flagship of Rear-Admiral Armand Blanquet du Chayla, second in command at the Battle of the Nile, where she distinguished herself with her fierce resistance before being forced to surrender with over half her crew dead or wounded, and most of her guns disabled. Taken into British service she was refitted and served as the flagship of several admirals. Commanded by Francis Austen Canopus was Rear-Admiral Thomas Louis's flagship in the Mediterranean under Nelson, and narrowly missed the fighting at Trafalgar. She saw action with Duckworth's fleet at the Battle of San Domingo, and remained with him during the attempt to force the Dardanelles, and the operations in support of the Alexandria expedition in 1807. She remained active against the French in the Mediterranean for the rest of the Napoleonic Wars, helping to drive ashore two large French ships of the line in a notable incident in 1809. Canopus remained in service after the end of the wars, serving as a flagship into the mid-nineteenth century, but as sail gave way to steam, she was relegated to support duties in Devonport, becoming a receiving ship, tender and a mooring hulk. She was eventually sold for breaking up in 1887, after nearly ninety years in British service.