French ship Commerce de Marseille (1788)

The Océan-class ships had a length of at the gun deck a beam of and a depth of hold of . The ships displaced 5095 tonneaux and had a mean draught of . They had a tonnage of 2,794–2,930 port tonneaux. Their crew numbered 1,117 officers and ratings. They were fitted with three masts and ship rigged with a sail area of . The muzzle-loading, smoothbore armament of the Océan class consisted of thirty-two 36-pounder long guns on the lower gun deck, thirty-four 24-pounder long guns on the middle gun deck and on the upper gundeck were thirty-four 12-pounder long guns. On the quarterdeck and forecastle were a total of eighteen 8-pounder long guns and six 30-pounder obusiers. == Career ==

Commerce de Marseille was laid down at the Arsenal de Toulon in September 1786, launched on 7 August 1788 and completed in October 1790. Built with state-of-the-art plans by Jacques-Noël Sané, she was dubbed the "finest ship of the century". Her construction was difficult because of a lack of wood, and soon after her completion, she was disarmed in 18 December 1793. The ship came under British control during the Siege of Toulon on 29 August 1793. When the city fell to the French in December, she evacuated the harbour for Portsmouth. She was briefly used as a stores ship, but on a journey to the Caribbean Sea, in 1795, she was badly damaged in a storm and had to limp back to Portsmouth. She remained there as a hulk until she was broken up in February 1802. ==Notes==