HMS IMPLACABLE (ex Duguay-Trouin)
By Patrick Stacey
Not many people know that a wooden walled battleship that fought in the Battle of Trafalgar was still afloat in 1949, some 144 years after the event.
No! Not Admiral Lord Nelson’s flag ship H.M.S. Victory, as she was already in dry dock and restored to her former glory.
The ship I am referring to (and had a personal interest in) is a French 74-gun ‘man of war’ Duguay-Trouin. Built in Roquefort, France in 1801 she had a waterline length of 55m and breadth of 15m. Complement of 670 men
Under the command of Claude Touffet she survived the Battle of Trafalgar after causing severe damage to the British fleet. The French ship survived the Battle but 14 days later was sighted by Sir Richard’s Strachan fleet. In the ensuing engagement Claude Touffet and all his officers were killed.
A prize crew was put on board the French ship and sailed back to England for a refit and then commissioned as H.M.S. Implacable. She saw service with the Mediterranean fleet until 1855 when she became a Royal Naval training ship.
In the 1930” the Royal Navy gave permission for HMS Implacable to be used as a private training ship in Portsmouth Harbour for Merchant Service cadets
After the war the old ‘man of war’ became too costly to maintain and on December 2nd 1949 a tug took her in tow and she was scuttled off the Isle of Wight in the English Channel. The last ship afloat from the time of Trafalgar had been put to rest after 148 years.