page_title: French ship Bretagne (1766)
section_title: Construction
hierarchical_section_title: French ship Bretagne (1766) / Construction
caption_attribution_description: Contemporary engraving of Bretagne
context_page_description: Bretagne was a large 110-gun three-decker French ship of the line, built at Brest, which became famous as the flagship of the Brest Fleet during the American War of Independence. She was funded by a don des vaisseaux grant by the Estates of Brittany. She was active in the European theatres of the Anglo-French War and of the French Revolutionary Wars, notably taking an important role in the Glorious First of June. Later, she took part in the Croisière du Grand Hiver and was broken up.
context_section_description: On 2 November 1761, the Commission of the Estates of Brittany in charge of construction mandated Antoine Groignard as chief engineer, with Gaubry as deputy and Damel as an advisor. Groignard worked both for the French Royal Navy and for the French East India Company; he had recently directed the construction of the 80-gun Orient, the 74-gun Robuste, the 64-gun Vengeur and Solitaire, and was supervising ongoing construction of the 74-gun Diligent and Six Corps, the 56-gun Bordelois in Lorient, that of the 56-gun Utile,  Ferme and Flamand in Bordeaux, and four frigates in Nantes.
  On 17 November 1761, Groignard sent of proposal for a budget between 919,000 and 1,115,000 pounds. The shipyards in Lorient received their first orders in early December. Choiseul wrote the Groignard to congratulate him for his appointment, and to argue in favour of building an 80-gun two-decker, with 36-pounders on the lower battery and 24-pounders on the upper, although he conceded that political considerations mandated a three-decker. He also reminded of the shortcomings of Royal Louis, an unsuccessful 100-gun of the time.
  Groignard hoped to complete construction by 1763, but delay in complete the 1-million load and difficulties in stocking construction wood soon set the schedule back. On 28 March 1763, Groignard sent completed plans to the construction commission, which failed to forward them to Choiseul. On 6 May, Choiseul wrote directly to Groignard to enquire, and setting further requirements that the artillery be set on the three batteries (limiting armament of the castles), and that autonomy be sufficient to feed 1,000 men for six months, with water for two. By July, construction was expected to be completed in 1765, and there were several exchanges of letters and budget estimations between various administrations and rival naval engineers, second-guessing Groignard and arguing about the furniture and spare parts needed for the ship.
  By 3 January 1764, the Commission was requesting revised versions of the plans as to reduce the dimensions of Bretagne. On 23, Groignard submitted his new plans, along with a memorandum underlining that this version would not allow the ship to hold six month worth of food and was compromising her stability, speed and manœuverability; furthermore, he warned that the lower headspace of the gundecks in the smaller project would hinder evacuation of smoke from the guns in combat conditions. On 19 February, Choiseul declined to approve the revised plans and requested a third version; Groignard quickly completed the new plans and went directly to Paris himself to submit them, short-circuiting the construction Commission of the Estates of Brittany and talking Choiseul out of the notion that the lower battery could be armed with 24-pounders instead of 36-pounders to reduce the cost. On 7 May, Choiseul informed the Commission that his plans had met with approval and that the construction could begin.
  The Commission then started procuring the raw materials needed for the construction, notably wood, fabric for the sails, iron and cables. Lacking experience in the matter, it requested advice from Roth, director of the East India Company in Lorient, who replied on 1 April with a long memorandum. Besides explaining how to assess the quality of the materials, how to transport it on land and how to store it, the memorandum observed that a number of parts would need to be obtained from outside of Bretagne, and sometimes even abroard, notably from the Netherlands. Providers would span from Newcastle to Saint Petersburg and Riga.
  In August 1764, Groignard started laying down parts in Lorient shipyard, hoping to take advantage of the summer weather and of a moment of low activity by the East India Company. However, the fluyts needed to transport construction wood were damaged and a lack of wood and nails soon slowed down the work. In December, the Estates and the Company signed an understanding that Groignard would have access to the parts and materials stocked in the Company stores, and that the Estates would replenish them wit
caption: Depiction on Bretagne flying the white ensign of the Ancien Régime.
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