Jacques-Luc Coulomb

Posted by F.F. on Wednesday 24th of September 2025 00:04

Correcting my mistakes:

The Monarque / Intrépide class was from Blaise Ollivier (Duhamel du Monceau: « conſtruits ſur des gabarits ſemblables par feu Mr. Ol[l]ivier »), who also draw le Royal-Louis launched in 1759. The ships built by Ollivier without any rake, and named by Duhamel du Monceau, were «the Mars, the Alcide, etc.»

Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau, Élémen[t]s de l’architecture navale:
«
On met en queſtion , s’il eſt avantageux de rendre la quille des Vaiſſeaux fort longue , ou de la tenir courte; ou ce qui eſt la même choſe , s’il faut donner peu ou beaucoup d’élancement à l’étrave , & de quête à l’étambot.

Cette queſtion a beaucoup partagé les Conſtructeurs; pour la réſoudre , il faudroit décider s’il eſt important que les Vaiſſeaux ayent plus de longueur au haut de l’étrave & de l’étambot qu'à la quille; & les refléxions que Mr. Olivier , célèbre Conſtructeur , a fait à ce ſujet , l’ont engagé à faire pluſieurs Vaiſſeaux , comme le Mars , l’Alcide , &c. qui n’avoient ni quête ni élancement , & qui néanmoins ſe ſont bien comportés à la mer. Je crois que l'intention de Mr. Olivier n’étoit pas de condamner abſolument l’élancement , mais ſeulement de prouver que cette circonſtance étoit plus indifférente que l’on ne ſe l’imaginoit.

»

Posted by F.F. on Tuesday 23rd of September 2025 00:42

Many of Jacques-Luc Coulomb's ships were considered as masterpieces, if not the best sailers of his time.

Some of his ships weren't.

In Élémen[t] de l'architecture navale, Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau explained that Coulomb built le Monarque of 1747 and her two sisterships with no rake at all, in order to prove that even such a shape didn't always made a ship a heavy sailer, as was then currently thought. He succeded, these ships being average sailers.

Le Royal-Louis launched in 1759 was a giant (displacement: some 4,900ｔ; burthen, as measured in the British Navy: some 2,700 tons; Slade's Victory had a displacement of 3,500 or 3,600ｔ, and a burthen of 2,162 tons; la Santísima Trinidad, as launched in 1769, was to have a displacement of some 4,500ｔ and a burthen of less than 2,400 tons). That giant is said to have been built from Blaise Ollivier's plans for le Royal-Louis which had to be launched in 1743, but was burnt on stocks in 1742. As the French Navy wanted ships with greater height of battery and carrying more food and water than the British ones, which implied greater displacements, and as thicker sides were also required, as a consequence carcasses were lightly built. Thus the long overhanging of le Royal-Louis's stem rake, unsupported, got deformed to the point that water flooded in her hull. Free surface effect almost sank le Royal-Louis during testings. She never sailed as a cruiser, and, I guess, was the most expensive failure in shipwrighting of any country in her century.

The Lys class (le Lys, 1746; le Fougueux and le Dragon, 1747) was also built in Great Britain, as Ardent class. In that class, the Agamemnon of 1781 was in the British Navy considered as the best 64. And Jacques-Luc Coulomb's le Soleil-Royal launched in 1749 was regarded as the best sailer in the French Navy.