Hampton Roads Naval Museum
Ville de Paris![Location Pin](https://wejunket-comb.b-cdn.net/wp-content/themes/wejunket/assets/images/location_pin.png)
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Hampton Roads Naval Museum
5. Ville de Paris![Location Pin](https://wejunket-comb.b-cdn.net/wp-content/themes/wejunket/assets/images/location_pin.png)
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The Ville de Paris was a large, three-decker French ship of the line that became famous as the flagship of the Comte de Grasse during the American Revolutionary War. Originally laid down in 1757 as the 90-gun Impétueux, she was funded by the City of Paris and renamed Ville de Paris in 1762 as a result of the don des vaisseaux, Duc de Choiseul's campaign to raise funds for the navy from the cities and provinces of France. She was completed in 1764 as a 90-gun first rate, a bit too late to serve in the Seven Years' War. She was one of the first three-deckers to be completed for the French navy since the 1720s. In 1778, on the French entry into the American Revolutionary War, the Ville de Paris was commissioned at Brest, joining the fleet as the flagship of the Comte de Guichen. In July she fought in the indecisive Battle of Ushant (1778). At some point during the next two years, she had an additional 14 small guns mounted on her previously unarmed quarterdeck, making her a 104-gun ship. In March 1781 she sailed for the West Indies as flagship of a fleet of 20 of the line under the Comte de Grasse. She then fought at the Battle of Fort Royal, the Battle of the Chesapeake, and the Battle of St. Kitts as De Grasse's flagship. She was taken at the Battle of the Saintes on 12 April 1782, when the British fleet under Admiral Sir George Rodney defeated the French fleet under the Comte de Grasse. The ship did not live up to the motto of her namesake city, Fluctuat nec mergitur (Latin: Tossed by the waves, she does not sink), for she sank in September 1782 with other ships when a fleet led by Admiral Graves was hit by a hurricane off Newfoundland on the voyage back to England. The Ville de Paris sank with the loss of all hands but one.
![Image 1 - Ville de Paris - Hampton Roads Naval Museum](https://media.wejunket.com/images/90e6cbaacf9277f52df647b13a1917f1.jpg)
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- Puppet Tour of the Museum
- Hampton Roads
- Seaman's Jacket & ECD uniform
- Battle off the Virginia Capes
- Ville de Paris
- Capture of USS Chesapeake
- 18-Pounder Naval Cannon
- USS Chesapeake
- USS Constellation
- US Gunboat 135
- American Musket, 1812
- First American Drydock
- USS Delaware
- USS Norfolk
- Fore and Aft Hat
- USS Pennsylvania
- Intro to the Civil War
- The Anaconda Plan
- Life At Sea
- Confederate Defenses
- USS Monitor
- CSS Virginia
- Duel of the Ironclads
- USS Cumberland
- USS Congress
- USS Minnesota
- Capture of Roanoke Island
- G.W.P. Custis
- USS Roanoke
- USS New Ironsides
- Engine Room Clock
- Gangway Headboards
- USS Onondaga
- Fall of Fort Fisher
- CSS Richmond
- CSS Florida
- The Civil War Final
- Shipfitters' tools, 1800s
- Steel Navy
- USS Maine
- Spanish-American War
- The Great White Fleet
- Jamestown Exposition
- Naval Station Norfolk
- Birth of Naval Aviation
- USS Truxtun (DD-14)
- USS Subchaser 136
- Mines in WWI
- Propaganda Posters
- USS New York (BB-34)
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