The history of the French Navy from 1715 to 1789 traces the development of the Royal Navy, which established itself as a permanent force in the 16th century.
In 1715, following budgetary constraints and earlier conflicts, notably the War of the Spanish Succession, the Royal Navy began a reconstruction phase between 1720 and 1740, introducing significant technical innovations.
Under Louis XV, alongside the Kingdom of Great Britain, the French government prioritized maintaining peace. This policy limited naval investments, restricted the number of ships, and reduced training opportunities for crews, who were often assigned to coastal missions or limited patrols.
The War of the Austrian Succession (1744-1748) demonstrated a relative balance of naval forces, but the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) proved disastrous, resulting in the loss of the first French colonial empire—including Canada, eastern Louisiana, and parts of India—which significantly weakened the fleet. Louis XVI ordered a comprehensive reorganization of the Royal Navy. By 1782, the naval budget exceeded that of the army, reflecting the strategic importance of maritime power in the context of global rivalry with Great Britain. This period also saw the standardization of ships and the development of port-arsenals. Despite these advancements, France remained primarily a land-based power. However, its economy increasingly embraced maritimization, driven by thriving trade in the West Indies and the activities of the French East India Company.
Louis XV
Innovations During the Régence and Louis XV's minority, the Royal Navy faced a severe budgetary crisis, inherited from Louis XIV’s costly wars and the Treaties of Utrecht (1713), which diminished French maritime influence. Naval expenditures, capped at 5-6% of the state budget, proved insufficient to maintain an operational fleet. Ships, often left abandoned in ports, deteriorated due to moisture and marine parasites. The arsenals at Brest, Toulon, and Rochefort suffered from chronic under-maintenance, with outdated infrastructure, cluttered slipways, and insufficient stocks of timber, ropes, and canvas. In 1721, the fleet included only 31 seaworthy ships, far below the 51 planned for 1729, with many units obsolete and their armaments inferior to British or Dutch standards. Maurepas, appointed Minister of the Navy in 1723 at age 22, pursued ambitious modernization despite these constraints. Recognizing the Royal Navy’s technical superiority, he employed industrial espionage, a common practice at the time. He dispatched agents like Blaise Geslain and Blaise Ollivier to England and the United Provinces to study foreign shipbuilding techniques. These covert missions provided detailed ship plans, optimized carpentry methods, and innovations in armament, such as smoother-bore cannons with improved accuracy. Concurrently, Maurepas promoted the application of science to naval operations, notably through the work of Duhamel du Monceau, a scholar who published foundational treatises on shipbuilding, material strength, timber preservation, and forest management for naval purposes. These works enhanced oak selection for hulls and extended ship lifespans. Officers, trained in schools at Lorient, Toulon, or Le Havre, compensated for limited practical experience with robust theoretical training in navigation, mathematics, astronomy, geometry, and naval tactics, provided by increasingly structured institutions that foreshadowed future naval academies.
Reconstruction attempts In 1720, the average age of French ships reached 24 years, rendering the fleet obsolete compared to the Royal Navy, which benefited from regular maintenance, a naval budget comprising nearly 20% of British military expenditures, and a deeply ingrained maritime tradition. Two reconstruction campaigns (1722-1724 and 1727-1728) facilitated the launch of 20 ships and 10 frigates, but these efforts failed to close the gap accumulated since Louis XIV’s reign. The Royal Navy remained limited, unable to mobilize its strength for long-range strategic projections or match the Royal Navy in operational ship numbers. Limited expeditions, such as the one against Tripoli in 1728 to suppress Barbary piracy, achieved success but did not address the lack of crew training. Deep-sea exercises, essential for refining combat tactics and fleet cohesion, remained rare, as ships were often disarmed to reduce costs. Sailors, recruited mainly from coastal populations in Brittany, Normandy, and Provence, lacked experience in complex naval battles requiring rigorous coordination in a line of battle. In 1716, the Marshal de Villars, visiting Toulon, lamented the neglected state of the former floating citadels, which “once carried the glory of the king, that of the nation, and the terror of our arms to the ends of the Earth”. The ministry worked to keep workers employed by assigning them to demolish old ships and build for trade.
Renewal of naval elites and espionage Maurepas focused on training a new generation of engineers and officers to revitalize the Navy, drawing inspiration from the scientific and administrative advances of the Enlightenment. He recruited Duhamel du Monceau, whose work on material strength, timber preservation, and standardized carpentry revolutionized shipbuilding. His treatises, such as Éléments de l'architecture navale (1752), became references for shipyards and led to significant improvements in hull and mast quality. Meanwhile, espionage missions by Geslain and Ollivier in England and the United Provinces provided valuable insights into ship carpentry techniques, hull shapes optimized for speed and stability, armament methods, and British crew recruitment practices. These reports, often accompanied by sketches and detailed notes, enhanced French ship design, improving robustness, maneuverability, and durability, though production remained limited by financial constraints. In 1741, the Petite École de Construction was established in Paris, training shipbuilders in applied mathematics, physics, fluid mechanics, and technical drawing. This institution, though modest in size, reflected Maurepas’s commitment to a scientific and professional approach to shipbuilding, moving away from past empirical practices. It trained an elite of engineers capable of designing ships suited to modern warfare, where technology and precision played an increasing role. Simultaneously, Maurepas reformed officer training by strengthening naval schools, where midshipmen studied navigation, geodesy, astronomy, and foreign languages, essential for diplomatic and scientific missions.
New ships The French Navy introduced the 74-gun ship, exemplified by the Tonnant (1744). These ships featured powerful artillery (24- and 36-pound cannons), optimized hulls for stability, and good maneuverability. Their design was highly regarded by the British, who after capturing the Invincible in 1747, adopted similar features in their own shipyards. The capture of the Invincible by the British in 1747 during the Battle of Cape Ortegal highlighted the superiority of French 74-gun ships, which combined devastating firepower with effective maneuverability in line battles. Their design, influenced by observations of English and Dutch shipyards, became a model of efficiency. The Royal Navy, impressed by the Invincible’s performance, adopted the 74-gun ship as a standard in its own shipyards from the 1750s, incorporating French innovations. This recognition marked a significant achievement for French engineers, though serial production remained limited by budgetary constraints and slow arsenals.
New frigates and arsenals Frigates, essential for reconnaissance, escort, commerce raiding, and convoy protection, evolved under Maurepas’s direction. Traditional models, often under-armed and vulnerable, gave way to modern frigates of 8 and 12 pounds, which were faster, better equipped, and capable of engaging mid-sized adversaries, such as enemy sloops or small corvettes. Their numbers increased from 15 units in 1733 to 25 in 1744, enhancing the Navy’s flexibility in various theatres, from European coasts to the Caribbean. These frigates played a crucial role in commerce raiding, capturing British merchant ships and disrupting enemy trade routes. Meanwhile, arsenals were modernized to support the growing fleet, though efforts were constrained by limited resources. At Rochefort, covered sheds were constructed to protect ships under construction from the elements, extending material lifespans. At Lorient, a wood-steaming facility improved carpentry treatment by reducing moisture, making timber more resistant to fungi and insects. At Brest, new construction slipways and modern forges enhanced production capacity, enabling faster ship launches. These improvements laid the foundation for infrastructure capable of supporting a more ambitious fleet, though French arsenals lagged behind their British counterparts, such as Chatham or Portsmouth, in scale and efficiency.
Enlightenment Under Maurepas’s leadership, the Royal Navy embraced the Enlightenment, adopting a scientific, universalist, and strategic vision for its missions. It supported major scientific expeditions, such as that of Charles Marie de La Condamine to Peru (1735-1744), which aimed to measure the Earth’s shape to resolve the debate between Newton’s and Cassini’s geodetic theories, a significant scientific issue of the time. This mission, funded by the crown and supported by the French Academy of Sciences, enhanced France’s prestige and trained versatile officers capable of navigating hostile environments, conducting complex observations (astronomical, geographical, botanical), and producing scientific reports for publication. Other expeditions to the southern seas or African coasts mapped unknown regions and identified potential trade routes. In 1752, the Académie de marine, established in Brest, became a major intellectual hub, uniting scholarly officers, engineers, and scientists who advanced knowledge in navigation, cartography, hydrography, meteorology, botany, and applied mathematics. These members, described as “as much, if not more, scholars than sailors” (Jean Meyer, Martine Acerra), published memoirs on topics ranging from shipbuilding to astronomical navigation and engaged with European counterparts through learned societies in London and Paris. This openness to maritime sciences marked a cultural shift for the Navy, expanding beyond a strictly military role to become a key player in scientific exploration, diplomacy, and the projection of French soft power globally.
War of the Austrian Succession