Téméraire - class ship of the line The " Téméraire " class ships of the line was a class of 120 74 - gun ships of the line ordered between 1782 and 1813 for the French navy or its attached navies in dependent ( French - occupied ) territories . Although a few of these were cancelled , the type was and remains the most numerous class of capital ship ever built . The class was designed by Jacques - Noël Sané as part of the fleet expansion programme instituted by Jean - Charles de Borda . The design was appreciated in Britain , which eagerly commissioned captured ships and even copied the design with the and . Variants from basic design . While all the French 74 - gun ships from the mid - 1780s until the close of the Napoleonic Wars were to the " Téméraire " design , there were three variants of the basic design which Sané developed with the same hull form of the " Téméraire " . In 1793 two ships were laid down at Brest to an enlarged design ; in 1801 two ships were commenced at Lorient with a shorter length than the standard design ( with a third ship commenced at Brest ) ; and in 1803 two ships were commenced at Toulon to a smaller version ( many more ships to this ' small ( er ) model ' were then built in the shipyards controlled by France in Italy and the Netherlands ) - these are detailed separately below . Ships in class . " Danube " Group ( 26 ships ) . Three further ships to this design were begun at Castellammare di Stabia for the " puppet " Neapolitan Navy of Joachim Murat : Large Variant ( " Cassard " group - 2 ships launched ) . Two ships were laid down in 1793 - 94 at Brest to a variant of Sané ' s design with the aim of carrying 24 - pounder guns on the upper deck instead of the 18 - pounders carried by the " Téméraire " . These ships were 2 feet longer than the standard 74s , and half a foot wider . The first was begun as the " Lion " , but was renamed " Glorieux " in 1795 and " Cassard " in 1798 . The second was begun as the " Magnanime " , but was renamed " Quatorze Juillet " in 1798 and " Vétéran " in 1802 . Unlike the main sequence , construction proceeded slowly . By 1816 the 24 - pounders aboard these two ships had been replaced by 18 - pounders , and no further ships to this variant design were produced , so indicating that it was not judged successful . Short Variant ( " Suffren " group - 2 ships launched ) . Two ships were begun in 1801 to a variation of the standard " Téméraire " design by Sané to meet the demands of Pierre - Alexandre Forfait . The length of these ships were reduced by 65 cm from the standard design . A third ship to this variant design begun at Brest was cancelled in 1804 . After Forfait left the Ministry of the Marine in October 1801 , no further vessels were ordered to this variant design . Small Variant ( " Pluton " group - 24 ships launched ) . Starting with the prototypes " Pluton " and " Borée " in 1803 , a smaller version of the " Téméraire " class , officially named " petit modèle " , was designed by Jacques - Noël Sané to be produced in shipyards having a lesser depth of water than the principal French shipyards , primarily those in neighbouring states under French control and in foreign ports which had been absorbed into the French Empire such as Antwerp . The revised design measured 177 feet 7 inches on the waterline , 180 feet 1 inch on the deck , and 46 feet 11 inches moulded breadth . The depth of hull was 9 inches less than that in the " regular " " Téméraire " design .