Built as a 2nd class ship-of-the-line after the plans of Jacques-Noël Sané at Lorient for the French Navy
1790 Laid down.
Launched under the name SUFFREN.
Dim. 172 x 44 x 22ft.
Armament: 28 – 36 pdr, 30 – 18pdr, 16 – 8pdr. 4 – 36pdr. carronades.
1791 Completed.
1794 Renamed at the request of the crew in REDOUTABLE (Terrible), REDOUBTABLE what is given in most English sources is not correct.
17 June 1795 took part in the Battle of Belle Isle, after the battle she was judged too slow for battle man- oeuvres and was laid up at L’Orient.
1797 Recommissioned and took part in the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805 under command of Capt. Jean-Jacques Lucas.
The HMS VICTORY did break the line at around 12.15 when she sailed between the REDOUTABLE and BUCENTAURE and did give to both ships his broadsides.
Capt. Lucas described the results.
It would be difficult to describe the horrible carnage caused by the murderous broadside.
More than 200 of our brave lads were killed or wounded. I was wounded at the same instant but not so seriously as to prevent me from remaining at my post.
A little later a third ship (HMS TEMERAIRE) came up and stationed herself astern of the REDOUTABLE and fired into us at pistol range; in less than half an hour our ship was so riddled that she seemed to be no more than a mass of wreckage.
In this state the TEMERAIRE hailed us to strike, and not prolong a useless resistance, I ordered several soldiers who were near me to answer this summons with musket-shots, which was performed with the greatest zeal. At the very same minute the mainmast fell on board the REDOUTABLE. The entire stern was absolutely stove-in; rudderstock, tiller, and two tiller-sweeps, sternpost, wing transoms, and transoms knees were in general shot to pieces.
All the guns were shattered or dismounted by the shots or from ships having run us aboard.
An 18-pounder gun on the main deck and a 36-pounder carronade on the forecastle having burst, killed and wounded many of our people. The two sides of the ship, all the lids and bars of the ports were utterly cut to pieces. Four of our six pumps were shattered, as well as our ladders in general, in such sort that communication between the decks and the upper works was extremely difficult. All our decks were covered with dead, buried beneath the debris and the splinters from the different parts of the ship.
Out of the ship’s company of 643 men we had 522 disabled, 300 being killed and 222 wounded amongst whom were almost the entire executive.
He who has not seen the REDOUTABLE in this state can never have any conception of her destruction.
I do not know of anything on board which was not cut up by shot. In the midst of this carnage the brave lads who had not yet succumbed, and who’s who were wounded, with whom the orlop deck was thronged, still cried “Vive L’Empereur, we’re not taken yet. Is the Captain still alive?”
As the battle grew, if anything, more intense, REDOUTABLE became entangled with both VICTORY and TEMERAIRE. Then at about 1.15 p.m., a marine in REDOUTABLE’s rigging took aim at an officer walking the deck of VICTORY, mortally wounding Nelson, albeit that he would not die before the France-Spanish fleet had been beaten, and 17 of the enemy ships taken, including the REDOUTABLE.
Under tow of HMS SWIFTSURE after being taken at Trafalgar, she hoisted signals of distress at five in the evening. Boats were put out at the SWIFTSURE and about 150 French prisoners and the British prize crew were taken off. At then-thirty that night the tow was cut when the REDOUTABLE stern was seen to be underwater, even though there were still men aboard. At midnight the wind shifted to the NW and blew a gale; three and a half hours later cries were heard and a further 50 French prisoners taken from rafts built of the REDOUTABLE’s spars. Everyone else aboard her was presumed to have perished.
Source: http://groups.msn.com/JacquesKanon/vaiss17681815.msnw but mostly copied from http://strategypage.com/cic/docs/cic96c.asp and from The Lost Ships of the Royal Navy 1793-1900 by W.P.Gosset. Log Book.