Sans Pareil
1794
(Aquarius AQ-RT-2)
- Class: Tonnant 3rd rate (3m) 80 gun
- Displacement: 1,800 tons
- Dimensions: 194 x 50 x 25 ft.
- Armament: 30 x 36pdr, 32 x 24pdr, 18 x 12pdr, 4 x 36pdr howitzers
- Complement: 800
- Designer: Jacques-Noël Sané
- Built: Toulon
- Keel laid: December 1787
- Launched: 24 October 1789
- Service: Placed under command of Capt Courand. Sailed in May 1794 with RAdm Neilly's squadron to meet a corn convoy from America. Attacked and captured the British frigate HMS Castor of Capt Thomas Troubridge, and part of a convoy being escorted from Guernsey to Newfoundland. At the Battle of The Glorious First of June, 1794, she was dismasted by Lord Bridport's flagship, HMS Royal George, shot up by HMS Glory, and then taken possession of by HMS Majestic. Her losses may have been as high as 260 killed and 120 wounded. Capt Troubridge and his men who were prisoners on board assisted in bringing Sans Pareil into Spithead. Taken into British service as HMS Sans Pareil, she served in the Channel Fleet and participated in Lord Bridport's action with the French fleet off Belle Isle on 22 Jun 1795. She continued to cruise off the French coast taking advantage of her French build and flying the tricolor as a ruse to lure privateers within range. In 1799 she sailed to the West Indies, returning to Plymouth 4 Sep 1802. After an expensive refit lasting 18 months, she was turned into a prison hulk for French prisoners of war. Later a sheer hulk, she was finally broken up in 1842.
Up