The Magnanime class was a class of two 74-gun ships of the line built for France in the late 1770s. They were designed by Jean-Denis Chevillard, and both were constructed at Rochefort Dockyard.
Magnanime Builder: Rochefort Dockyard Ordered: 1778 Begun: October 1778 Launched: 27 August 1779 Completed: December 1779 Fate: Decommissioned in 1792 at Brest, broken up in 1793
Illustre Builder: Rochefort Dockyard Ordered: 1778 or 1779 Begun: August 1779 Launched: 23 February 1781 Completed: March 1781 Fate: Renamed Mucius Scévola in January 1791, shortened to Scévola in February 1791, and cut down (raséed) to a 50-gun "heavy" frigate between August 1793 and February 1794. Wrecked in a storm on 16 December 1796 during the attempted invasion of Ireland.
Citations
References Winfield, Rif and Roberts, Stephen S. (2017) French Warships in the Age of Sail 1626–1786: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates.. Seaforth Publishing, 2017. . Winfield, Rif and Roberts, Stephen S. (2015) French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786-1861: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. .