Le PROTECTEUR, 64 GUNS

 

The Ship

Although the French Navy was generally unsuccessful in its contests with the British Navy over the 140-year period 1675-1815, it was very successful in designing ships of war that were equal to and quite often superior to their English equivalents.  Frequently, the British Admiralty would take a captured French ship into its active service and these ships proved very useful.  When doing so, and the practice was followed for ships of other nationalities as well, the lines and details of the ship were taken off and actual plans were made up.  These sometimes led to modifications in English design of their own ships.  These plans, along with other ship plans of the British Navy and others, are now housed in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, England.

 

All of this is incidental to Le Protecteur since the Museum does not have a set of its plans, but a set of plans does exist in the Musee de la Marine, Paris.  That Museum also has a 21-foot model of a 74-gun ship called Le Protecteur, which is reported to have sailed with Comte d’Estaing and de Grasse, the latter of whom met Admiral Rodney in the Battle of the Saintes shortly after leaving Yorktown and returning to the Caribbean.  After extensive research, none of this can be verified.  A 64-gun Le Protecteur was thought to be part of the Bordeaux Fleet, but this also cannot be confirmed.

 

This model won a second-place prize in a prestigious model show in Kent, England, in 1993.

 

The Model

Plank on frame construction by an unknown builder

Scale: 1:75   Case: H 34 ¼’  L 42”  W 17”