César () was a 74-gun built for the French Navy during the first decade of the 19th century. Completed in 1808, she played a minor role in the Napoleonic Wars.
Background and description César was one of the 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.Winfield & Roberts, p. 94 The ships had a length of , a beam of and a depth of hold of . The ships displaced 2,781 tonneaux and had a mean draught of . 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.Winfield & Roberts, p. 95
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 ships 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 (). 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. César had a dozen 8-pounders and 14 carronades.
Construction and career C´´sar was ordered on 24 April 1804 and laid down in November in Antwerp. The ship was launched on 21 June 1807. She was commissioned on 23 June and completed in March 1808. In March 1809, ten deserters stole a launch and escaped the ship, only to be captured by the 4-gun Actif. In 1814, César took part in the defence of Antwerp, and was sailed to Brest after the Bourbon Restoration.Roche, p. 105 She was ceded to the Netherlands on 1 August 1814 and renamed Prins Frederik serving until 1821 when she was broken up.
Citations
References
Winfield, Rif and Roberts, Stephen S. (2015) French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786-1861: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing.