Séduisant-class ship of the line

The Séduisant class was a sub-class of 74-gun ships of the line of the French Navy, comprising two ships built at Toulon Dockyard to a design by Joseph-Marie-Blaise Coulomb in the year immediately following the close of the American Revolutionary War. In reality these two ships followed his design for the Centaure class, but were completed with a length greater by 5¼ feet, and had also slightly less breadth and depth in hold.

• Séduisant

Builder: Toulon

Ordered: 1 June 1782

Begun: August 1782

Launched: 5 July 1783

Completed: 1783

Fate: Wrecked, 16 December 1796

• Mercure

Builder: Toulon

Ordered: 1 June 1782

Begun: August 1782

Launched: 4 August 1783

Completed: 1783

Fate: Burnt by the British after the Battle of the Nile, 2 August 1798

A 74-gun French ship of the line similar to the Séduisant-class ships of the line
Class overview
Name	Séduisant
Builders	Toulon
Operators	French Navy
In service	1783–1798
Completed	2
General characteristics
Type	Ship of the line
Displacement	3,010 tonneaux
Tons burthen	1,530 port tonneaux
Length	56.3 m (184 ft 9 in)[a]
Beam	14.2 m (46 ft 7 in)
Draught	7.4 m (24 ft 3 in)
Complement	17 officers and 690 men
Armament	74 guns

Notes

1. The ship's measurement in 1783 was 173 pieds 3 pouces. The units of measurement pieds (feet) and pouces (inches) were units of measurement in France before the French Revolution; they were slightly larger than the equivalent British feet and inches.