French ship Utile (1764)

For other ships with the same name, see Utile (disambiguation).

Utile was a 56-gun Bordelois-class ship of the line of the French Navy. She was funded by a don des vaisseaux donation from the States of Flander, and built by engineer Léon Guignace on a design by Antoine Groignard. Completed too late to serve in the Seven Years' War, she served in the Mediterranean before becoming a junk in Rochefort.^[1]

Watercolour portrait of sister-ship Flamand, by François Roux, commissioned by Willaumez
History
France
Name	Utile
Namesake	"Useful"
Builder	Bordeaux[1]
Laid down	May 1763[1]
Launched	11 August 1764[1]
In service	18 October 1764[1]
Out of service	1771[1]
Fate	Broken up 1793
General characteristics
Displacement	1,100 tonnes[1]
Length	50.7 m (166 ft 4 in)[1]
Beam	13.8 m (45 ft 3 in)[1]
Draught	6.3 m (20 ft 8 in)[1]
Propulsion	Sail, full-rigged ship
Complement	560 men[1]
Armament	56 guns: 24 × 36-pounder long guns 26 × 18-pounder long guns 6 × 8-pounder long guns[1]

Career

From April to October 1765, Utile campaigned under Captain Duchaffault against privateers off Morocco. She took part in the 1765 Bombardment of Salé and in the Bombardment of Larache.^[1]

From 1772, she was reduced to a hulk in Rochfort and used as a masting machine. She was eventually broken up around 1793.^[1]