Ships of the Line

[Brian James]

Océan Class 118-gun Ship of the Line FS Louis XIV pictured at Arsenal de Brest c1870.
Laid down as FS Tonnant in 1811 at Rochefort, she was renamed Louis-XIV in 1828, still on keel. She was launched in 1854, and was put in the reserve the next year.
On January 28th 1855, she departed Toulon to take part in the Siege of Sevastopol as a Transport Ship. From September 1856 to 1857, she was converted to combined sail/steam propulsion at Arsenal de Brest, using machinery supplied by Robert Napier of Glasgow, to re-enter service on October 25th 1857.
Louis XIV was decommissioned between 1858 and 1861, and was affected to the École Navale as a Gunnery Training Ship from 1861 to 1865. That year, she was sent to Toulon. In 1870, her crew was sent to Paris to defend the city against the advancing Prussian armies. Training resumed in November 1870.
In 1873, Louis XIV was decommissioned again. She was struck on May 3rd 1880, and sold for scrap in 1882.