French ship Éole (1789)

Éole was a 74-gun built for the French Navy during the 1780s. Completed in 1790, she played a minor role in the French Revolutionary Wars.

Description

The Téméraire-class ships had a length of, a beam of and a depth of hold of. The ships displaced 3,069 tonneaux and had a mean draught of. They had a tonnage of 1,537 port tonneaux. Their crew numbered 705 officers and ratings during wartime. They were fitted with three masts and ship rigged.
The muzzle-loading, smoothbore armament of the Téméraire class consisted of twenty-eight 36-pounder long guns on the lower gun deck, thirty 18-pounder long guns and thirty 18-pounder long guns on the upper gun deck. On the quarterdeck and forecastle were a total of sixteen 8-pounder long guns. Beginning with the ships completed after 1787, the armament of the Téméraires began to change with the addition of four 36-pounder obusiers on the poop deck. Some ships had instead twenty 8-pounders.

Éole was laid down at the Arsenal de Lorient on 2 June 1787 and named 25 August. The ship was launched on 15 November 1789 and completed in August 1790. Between 1791 and 1793, she was based in Saint-Domingue. Éole took part in the Glorious First of June in 1794, where she and dismasted. The ship later took part in the French expedition to Ireland in 1796. On 19 August 1806, during the Atlantic campaign of 1806, she was dismasted by a tempest off Martinique, and had to be taken in tow by American ships to Annapolis. She was eventually condemned in 1811, and sold for scrap.