French cutter Téméraire (1780)

For other ships with the same name, see French ship Téméraire.

History
Kingdom of France
Name	Téméraire
Namesake	Temerarious
Laid down	July 1780[1]
Launched	13 November 1780[1]
Commissioned	December 1780[1]
Fate	Stricken 1784
General characteristics
Class and type	Facteur-class cutter
Displacement	150 tonnes[1]
Length	26 metres[1]
Beam	6.5 metres[1]
Draught	2.5 metres[1]
Sail plan	Xebec
Armament	2 × 4-pounder + 8 × swivel guns Later: 4 × 3-pounders[2]

Téméraire was a cutter aviso of the French Navy, commissioned in Lorient in December 1780.

Career

Built by engineer Arnous-Dessaulsays after plans by Charles Segondat-Duvernet, Téméraire was started in July 1780 in Lorient, and commissioned in December.

In July 1782, HMS Cormorant captured her off Brest. (British sources give the place of capture as 8–9 leagues WSW of Cape Clear.) Téméraire was armed with ten 6-pounder guns and had a crew of 50 men under the command of lieutenant de frégate Le Fer. She was nine days out of Brest and taking dispatches to the combined fleets. Before he struck Le Fer, her commander, threw overboard the dispatches, her logbook and papers, and eight guns.^[3] She then arrived at Cork.^[4]

The French recaptured her in 1783 and recommissioned her in the French Royal Navy.

Fate

Téméraire was struck from the Navy lists in 1784; at that time, she was either in Toulon or in Brest.

Citations

1. Roche, p.432
2. Demerliac (2004), n°596, p.89.
3. "No. 12322". The London Gazette. 13 August 1782. p. 1.
4. Lloyd's List №1386.

References

• Demerliac, Alain (2004). La Marine de Louis XVI: Nomenclature des Navires Français de 1774 à 1792 (in French). Éditions Ancre. ISBN 2-906381-23-3.
• Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours. Vol. 1. Group Retozel-Maury Millau. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922. (1671-1870)