“Tigre”- French ship of the line (1793)

[Anatol]

Tigre (1793) was a 74-gun French Temeraire -class battleship . She was launched on May 8, 1793 at the shipyard in Brest .
The ship was commissioned in August 1793 under the command of Captain Pierre Van Stabel. In November of the same year, Van Stabel was promoted to rear admiral, raised his flag on the Tigre and took command of a squadron of six battleships (in addition to the Tigre , it included the 74-gun Jean Bart , Tourville , Impétueux , Aquilon and Révolution ), two frigates, Insurgente and Sémillante , and two brigs, Ballon and Espiègle
On June 16, 1795, Tigre , under the command of Captain Jacques Bedout, as part of Vice-Admiral Villaret de Joyeuse's squadron, consisting of thirteen ships of the line, two frigates, two brigs and a cutter, rushed in pursuit of Vice-Admiral Sir William Cornwallis 's British squadron of five ships of the line ships and two frigates. In view of the greatly superior enemy forces, Cornwallis ordered a retreat.
On 22 June 1795, Tigre , while with a fleet off Belle-Île , came across the British Channel Fleet under Lord Bridport , which gave chase. The British fleet of 14 battleships, 5 frigates and 6 small ships pursued the French (12 battleships) from the southwest for 24 hours and drove it to the island of Groix. There was no room left for retreat, and Villaret-Joyeuse was forced to take the fight.
The British ships attacked the center of the French squadron, where Tigre, among others, was located . It was fired upon first by Queen Charlotte and then by Sans Pareil , and was seriously damaged and fell out of line. after this, two 98-gun ships, Queen and London, joined the attack on Tigre , and Tigre , which by this time had lost 130 people killed and wounded, was forced to surrender .
Upon arrival in England, the ship was accepted into the Royal Navy , retaining its original name. After undergoing repairs, she was commissioned in June 1798 under the command of Captain Sidney Smith and sent to the Mediterranean to join the squadron of the Earl of St. Vincent.
In March–May 1799, Tigre was Commodore William Sidney Smith's flagship during the Siege of Acre . Although the ship itself took little part in fleet operations, its crew, sent to gunboats, helped repel repeated French attacks .
In 1801, Tigre took part in Egyptian operations. On 31 January, she anchored at Marmoris in southwestern Turkey , where a fleet was gathering for an attack on Egypt .
Since Tigre took part in the Egyptian campaign from 8 March to 2 September 1801, her officers and crew were entitled to the medal with the "Egypt" clasp, which the Admiralty awarded in 1850 to all surviving participants .
When Nelson's squadron returned to the Mediterranean, Tigre and other ships joined the British fleet blockading the Franco-Spanish fleet at Cadiz. In early October, Tigre with five more ships was sent to Gibraltar to replenish water and food supplies. He was waiting for a favorable wind to sail towards Cadiz when an important merchant convoy arrived from England and Tigre was ordered to escort it past Cartagena , where nine Spanish battleships were located. [11] The merchant convoy left Gibraltar on the same day that Villeneuve and the combined fleet left Cadiz to suffer a crushing defeat at Cape Trafalgar .
After the Battle of Trafalgar, Tigre continued the blockade of Cadiz. On November 25, 1805, Thunderer detained the ship Nemesis , belonging to the Republic of Dubrovnik , which was sailing from Ile de France to Livorno , with a cargo of spices, indigo dye, and other goods . Zealous shared the prize money with ten other British warships .
On March 22, Tigre , as part of John Duckworth's squadron , arrived at Alexandria, where he took part in the unsuccessful Alexandria Expedition. Although the British squadron remained in the harbor until the end of the expedition, the main action took place on shore, and therefore Pompee did not take any part in it .
In October 1809, Tigre (Captain Benjamin Hallowell) was part of Rear Admiral George Martin's squadron which was off the coast of Catalonia and was sent to intercept Rear Admiral François Baudin's small French squadron sailing from Toulon . On the morning of October 23, HMS Volontaire discovered the French squadron and the British rushed in pursuit, but lost sight of it. HMS Tigre discovered Robuste, Borée, Lion and Pauline at dawn on 24 October, but the fleets lost each other again. Contact was re-established on the morning of October 25 and the pursuit resumed. Trying to escape pursuit, Robuste and Lion ran aground near Frontignan. After two hours of fruitless attempts to save the ships, Boden ordered them to be scuttled. They were set on fire and exploded at 22:30.
Tigre remained in service until 1816, when she was transferred to reserve at Plymouth. She was in reserve until the decision was made to scrap the ship in June 1817 .
The design stamp is made after painting of Joseph Jeakes: «"Tigre" during the siege of Acre in 1799”.
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Source: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tigre_(1793).