French Ship Vengeur Du Peuple - Career - French Revolutionary War - Glorious First of June

Glorious First of June

On 16 May 1794, the fleet departed from Brest with the mission of protecting a convoy of ships carrying food to France, beginning the Atlantic campaign of May 1794. On 1 June, the French squadron encountered the British fleet, in an engagement known as the Glorious First of June. Vengeur was third in the French line of battle, after the flagship Montagne and between Achille and Northumberland.

The British fleet approached the French line in an oblique manner, leading to individual engagements as the British ships attempted to break through at several points. Around 9:30, the British flagship HMS Queen Charlotte cut the French line aft of Montagne, firing a devastating raking broadside that killed Montagne's commander, Captain Bazire. The ship astern of Montagne, Jacobin, attempted to prevent Queen Charlotte breaking through by accelerating to close the gap between herself and her flagship; this left a gap behind her, between Jacobin and Achille, that HMS Brunswick, under Captain John Harvey, attempted to exploit to cut the line and assist her Queen Charlotte. Achille accelerated and closed the gap, and Brunswick turned her fire against Vengeur, while Achille engaged HMS Ramillies and Valiant.

Prevented from cutting the French line ahead of Achille, HMS Brunswick turned and tried to cross aft of her, between Achille and Vengeur. Seeing the manoeuvre, Renaudin also accelerated to close this new gap, and Brunswick and Vengeur collided, the anchor of Brunswick becoming entangled in the rigging of Vengeur. Vengeur fired an entire broadside at point-blank range, but was then unable to fire her main batteries again, the ships being so close as to prevent French gunners being able to ram ammunition into their guns; in contrast, British gunners used rope rams and were able to reload and maintain a sustained fire, riddling Vengeur with holes. The fight went on for four hours, until Brunswick, after shattering the rudder of Vengeur to prevent her from manoeuvring, separated at 12:45. Her fire also opened a large hole in the hull of Vengeur.

During the duel between Vengeur and Brunswick, the undamaged HMS Ramillies had approached and put herself in a favourable position to rake Vengeur, and was waiting for Brunswick to separate to open fire. When she did so, Ramillies fired two broadsides, leaving Vengeur with only her foremast standing, which fell half an hour later. Ramillies sustained some damage herself. Soon afterwards, seawater inundated the powder room of Vengeur, denying her all means of defence, and 250 of her crew were out of action. The Trente-et-un Mai closed in, attempting to provide assistance, but the proximity of several British sails endangered her so that she eventually sailed away.

Renaudin, seeing the hapless condition of his ship, ordered his flags hoisted half-mast in surrender and distress around 14:00, but after her surrender no British ship managed to get men aboard. This left Vengeur's few remaining unwounded crew to attempt to salvage what they could. Ultimately the ship's pumps became unmanageable, and Vengeur began to sink. Only the timely arrival of boats from the undamaged HMS Alfred and Culloden, as well as the services of the cutter Rattler, saved any of the Vengeur's crew from drowning, these ships taking off nearly 500 sailors between them. Lieutenant John Winne of Rattler was especially commended for this hazardous work. By 18:15, Vengeur was clearly beyond salvage and only the very worst of the wounded and the dead remained aboard, though some possibly stayed aboard in the hope of being rescued by a French ship rather than a British and avoid captivity.

The rescue is depicted in Lord Howe's action, or the Glorious First of June, Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg's canvas of the battle. Alfred rescued about 100 men; Rattler, about 40; and Culloden, 127, including Captain Renaudin, who abandoned his ship and left in the very first British boat. He was taken to Culloden and served a meal in the officers' mess; as he dined with his son and other French and British officers, a commotion was heard; racing to the gallery of Culloden, the party witnessed Vengeur sink with the remaining wounded aboard. Figures of the casualties on Vengeur are not precisely known, but amount to approximately 250 killed during the battle, 106 drowned in the sinking, and 367 rescued by the British.