French ship Lune (1641) explained
The
Lune was a 38-gun
ship of the line of the
French Royal Navy, the first ship of the line to be built at the new state dockyard at
Île d'Indret near
Nantes, designed by Deviot and constructed by the Dutch shipwright Jan Gron (usually called Jean de Werth in French). She and her sister
Soleil were
two-deckers, with a mixture of bronze guns on both gun decks. The
Lune took part in the
Battle of Orbetello on 14 June 1646, as the flagship of
Vice-amiral Louis Foucault de Saint-Germain-Beaupré, Comte de Daugnon, in the Battle of Castellammare on 21/22 December 1647, and in the Battle of Pertuis d'Antioche on 8 August 1652. She sailed on 9 November 1664 from
Toulon for the Hyères Islands while carrying troops of the 1st Regiment of Picardy, but a half-hour after sailing she suddenly broke apart at the head and sank "like a marble", with only 60 survivors from over 600 aboard.The wreck of Lune was rediscovered by
Paul-Henri Nargeolet on 15 May 1993.
References
- Book: Roche, Jean-Michel . 2005 . Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours 1 1671 - 1870 . 978-2-9525917-0-6 . 165892922 . 223.
- Nomenclature des Vaisseaux de Louis XIII et de la régence d'Anne d'Autriche, 1610 a 1661. Alain Demerliac (Editions Omega, Nice – 2004).
- The Sun King's Vessels (2015) – Jean-Claude Lemineur; English translation by François Fougerat. Editions ANCRE.
- Winfield, Rif and Roberts, Stephen (2017) French Warships in the Age of Sail 1626-1786: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. .
- Vaisseaux de Ligne Français de 1682 à 1780 1