Laid down as
Peuple in covered basin no.3 at Brest Dockyard in October 1793, she was renamed as
Vengeur after the
Bataille du 13 prairial an 2 in honour of the
Vengeur du Peuple by a decree passed by the
National Convention. On 15 December 1805, the French force split into two squadrons which proceeded independently from one another.
Impérial and most of the squadron arrived at French-held
Santo Domingo on
Hispaniola on 20 January 1806, where Leissègues ordered the ships to be
recaulked after their long and difficult
transatlantic voyage. On the morning of 6 February 1806, a Royal Navy squadron under the command of
Vice-Admiral Sir
John Thomas Duckworth arrived off Santo Domingo to attack Leissègues′s force. Leissègues was conducting business ashore when the British squadron was sighted, and the French force was delayed in getting underway while it awaited his return to
Impérial. but once aboard
Impérial, Leissègues ordered his ships to get underway and sail westward along the coast of Hispaniola toward
Nizao. In the resulting
Battle of San Domingo, the French squadron maintained close formation, and the five French ships of the line formed a
line of battle with
Impérial second in line behind
Alexandre and ahead of ,
Jupiter, and
Brave. As the engagement at the head of the French line became confused, with ships of the two sides intermingled and smoke restricting visibility,
Impérial engaged and threatened to overwhelm Duckworth′s flagship, the 74-gun third rate , which was leading the British line, but Cochrane placed
Northumberland in between
Impérial and
Superb in an effort to protect
Superb. Impérial inflicted severe damage on
Northumberland, with some of her shots passing through
Northumberland and striking
Superb. As the battle continued,
Impérial became increasingly isolated. The 98-gun
second-rate ship of the line steered toward
Impérial, fired two
broadsides into her, and then
raked her.
Atlas′s
tiller then jammed and she was engaged by
Diomède and the damaged
Northumberland drifted out of the action, but the rest of the British squadron concentrated its fire on
Impérial.
Impérial′s
mainmast and
mizzenmast collapsed, most of her guns had been silenced, and she was losing her ability to maneuver, and Leissègues ordered her to turn toward shore. Pursued by the 84-gun third-rate ship of the line ,
Impérial ran hard aground parallel to the beach on a
coral reef off the coast of Hispaniola between Nizao and
Point Catalan, suffering severe
hull damage and losing all of her
masts. The similarly damaged
Diomède ran aground nearby. Leissègues ordered
Diomède and
Impérial burned as soon as their crews had completed their abandonment of the ships, The British boarding party took six prisoners aboard
Impérial and then burned her wreck. ==References==