1760, France
Warship representative of the combat characteristics of most ships of the time.
The Protecteur was laid down in 1757 (under the reign of Louis XV) under the supervision of Noёl Pomet, was launched in 1760 and sailed until 1789 when she was decommissioned.
Under M. De Grasse-Limermont, the Protecteur took part ...
1760, France
Warship representative of the combat characteristics of most ships of the time.
The Protecteur was laid down in 1757 (under the reign of Louis XV) under the supervision of Noёl Pomet, was launched in 1760 and sailed until 1789 when she was decommissioned.
Under M. De Grasse-Limermont, the Protecteur took part in the battle of Grenada in 1779 along the squadron of Count d’Estaing (American the war of Independence).
This ship is representative of its time. She was 74 meters long, 14 meters wide with a maximum height of 64 meters. Her main mast had a 90 cm diameter and the vessel weighted three thousand tons.
She was a 74-gun ship of the French navy capable of firing several cannon ball weights such as 24lb (from the lower deck), 12lb and 8lb cannon balls. She could fire at once 260 kg of cannon balls towards the enemy. In theory, the firing range was 3,700 meters but the most efficient in terms of precision and destruction was 600 meters. Those guns were the only long distance weapons however their manhandling was very long and dangerous.
A well trained crew needed several minutes to rearm one of those guns. Note that a 24lb gun and its carriage was circa three tons heavy and thirteen men were needed to operate it; a 12lb gun only needed a crew of nine and a 8lb gun a crew of seven. On such a ship, 330 men were working simultaneously in dark and smoky battery decks, another 50 were needed (usually ship’s boys barely 12 years old) to carry the cannon balls and the gun powder from the stores below deck and finally another 100 men spread among the top deck and sails were needed to manoeuvre the ship. Very often, those ships would have 100 naval infantry men who would start shooting their guns once the enemy ship was in close enough range. In summary, in times of war, such a ship as the Protecteur could have 600 men on board that needed to be housed and fed for several months at a time.
Such promiscuity led to health and sanitation issues that could have catastrophic results. The surgeon was completely on his own and could only rely on his knowledge, his tools and also the rum. Fresh food was very quickly consumed so the crew had to rely on salted meat (pork, beef and cod), water (more or less clean) from barrels. Water was limited to 4 litres per man (cooking included) and this was even more restricted when reserves ran low. Scurvy was a threat for those with vitamin C deficiencies not forgetting the usual scrapes and wounds linked to daily life on deck and the surgeon only had a space on deck to minister his patients including amputations. A tourniquet, a shot of alcohol and a saw were all the tools required for amputation; hence the many wounded became very quickly casualties.
To survive such living conditions, the crew had to follow a strict discipline. The naval code was very harsh in terms of punishment: irons, whipping... culminating with convict prison or death by hanging.
In spite of all, those ships were the golden age of sailing navies.
