French ship Louis-XIV (1854)

Louis XIV was an Océan-class 118-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.

Engraving by Lebreton showing Louis XIV as a naval school
History
France
Namesake	"Thundering", Louis XIV of France
Builder	Rochefort shipyard
Laid down	1811
Launched	1854
Decommissioned	1873
Renamed	Louis-XIV in 1828
Stricken	3 May 1880
Reinstated	sail/steam ship in 1857.
Fate	Broken up in 1882.
General characteristics
Class and type	Océan-class ship of the line
Displacement	2,700 tonnes
Length	65.18 m (213.8 ft) (196.6 French feet)
Beam	16.24 m (53.3 ft) (50 French feet)
Draught	8.12 m (26.6 ft) (25 French feet)
Propulsion	sail, 3,265 m2 (35,144 sq ft)
Complement	1,079
Armament	Rated as 120-gun: lower deck: 32 36-pounder guns middle deck: 34 24-pounder guns upper deck: 34 18-pounder guns forecastle: 18 8-pounder guns, 6 36-pounder carronades

Laid down as Tonnant in 1811 at Rochefort, she was renamed Louis-XIV in 1828, still on keel. She was launched only in 1854, and was put in the reserve the next year.

On 28 January 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 in Brest harbour, using machinery supplied by Robert Napier of Glasgow, to reenter service on 25 October 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 3 May 1880, and sold for scrap in 1882.