French ship Pluton (1805)

Pluton was a 4th rank, 74-gun petite Téméraire-class ship of the line built for the French Navy during the first decade of the 19th century. Completed in 1805, she played a minor role in the Napoleonic Wars.

Pluton was one of two prototypes for a smaller version (petit modèle) 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. Although the Pluton (and her sister, the Borée) were built at the Arsenal de Toulon, all other vessels of this sub-class were built in these overseas yards, notably at Antwerp but also at Genoa, Trieste, Venice, Amsterdam, Flushing and Rotterdam.^[1]

The ships had an length of 53.97 metres (177 ft 1 in), a beam of 14.29 metres (46 ft 11 in) and a depth of hold of 6.9 metres (22 ft 8 in). The ships displaced 2,781 tonneaux and had a mean draught of 6.72 metres (22 ft 1 in). 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.^[2]

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 (petit modèle) 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 (dunette). 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. Pluton herself mounted twenty 8 pounders and six carronades.^[2]

Pluton was ordered on 4 January 1803 and named on 7 February. The ship was laid down on 19 August at the Arsenal de Toulon and launched on 17 January 1805. She was commissioned on 16 March and completed later that month.^[2] Pluton took part in the Battle of Trafalgar under Captain Julien Cosmao-Kerjulien, and escaped to Cádiz with other ships. Two days later, on 23 October 1805, she was the flagship of the counter-attack from Cádiz, together with Indomptable, Neptune, Rayo and San Francisco de Asis. They managed to recapture the Santa Ana and Algésiras. To prevent their recapture, the British scuttled the Intrépide and Neptuno. Pluton was captured by Spain in Cadiz on 14 June 1808 and commissioned in the Spanish Navy as Pluton. ^[3]

• List of ships of the line of France

• Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours [Dictionary of French Warships from Colbert to Today]. Vol. 1: 1671-1870. Roche. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922.
• Winfield, Rif & Roberts, Stephen S. French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786–1861: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing, 2015. ISBN 978-1-84832-204-2.