Charlemagne was one of the of the
Téméraire class that was specially intended for construction in some of the
shipyards in countries occupied by the French, where there was less depth of water than in the main French shipyards. The ships had a length of , a
beam of and a depth of
hold of . The ships
displaced 2,781
tonneaux and had a mean
draught of . They had a tonnage of 1,381
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 and thirty
18-pounder long guns on the upper gun deck. The ships ordered in 1803–1804 were intended to mount sixteen
8-pounder long guns on their forecastle and quarterdeck, plus four 36-pounder
obusiers on the
poop deck (). Later ships were intended to have fourteen 8-pounders and ten 36-pounder
carronades without any obusiers, but the numbers of 8-pounders and carronades actually varied between a total of 20 to 26 weapons.
Charlemagne had a dozen 8-pounders and 14 carronades. == Construction and career ==