The French ship Ferme was a 74-gun Téméraire-class ship of the line constructed for the French Navy in the 1780s. Laid down at the Arsenal de Brest in December 1784 and launched on 16 September 1785, she was completed in 1786. The vessel measured approximately 55.87 meters (183 ft 4 in) in length, with a beam of 14.46 meters (47 ft 5 in) and a depth of hold of 7.15 meters (23 ft 5 in). She displaced around 3,069 tonneaux and had a mean draught of 7.15 meters, with a tonnage of 1,537 port tonneaux. Her complement consisted of around 705 officers and ratings during wartime. As a typical Téméraire-class ship, Ferme was ship-rigged with three masts and armed with a broadside of muzzle-loading, smoothbore guns. Her armament included twenty-eight 36-pounder long guns on the lower gun deck, thirty 18-pounder long guns on the upper deck, and additional smaller guns on the quarterdeck and forecastle, including a dozen 8-pounder long guns and ten 36-pounder carronades. Initially, Ferme played a minor role during the Napoleonic Wars. She was offered to the French Crown by the Ferme générale as a Don des vaisseaux, and during her service, notably in September 1790, she was sent to the Caribbean. There, she recaptured the naval schooner Bigotte on 10 November 1791 and the Îlet Ramiers garrison shortly thereafter. In 1792, she was renamed Phocion amid the turbulent political climate of the French Revolution. However, before the official decree renaming her arrived, her officers, loyal to Royalist sentiments, mutinied and flew the white ensign. On 11 January 1793, they sailed her into Trinidad to surrender her to Spain. Ferme was incorporated into the Spanish Navy in 1794, where she served until she was broken up in 1808. Her history reflects the complex naval and political changes of her era, transitioning from French service to Spanish, and exemplifies the typical design and armament of a late 18th-century ship of the line.

This description has been generated using GPT-4.1-NANO based on the Vessel's wikidata information and then modified by ShipIndex.org staff.