The French ship Superbe was a 74-gun Téméraire-class ship of the line constructed during the 1810s for the French Navy. Designed by Jacques-Noël Sané, she exemplified the typical dimensions and armament of her class, measuring approximately 55.87 meters (183 feet 4 inches) in length, with a beam of 14.46 meters (47 feet 5 inches) and a depth of hold of 7.15 meters (23 feet 5 inches). Displacing around 3,069 tonneaux and with a tonnage of 1,537 port tonneaux, Superbe had a crew complement of about 705 officers and ratings during wartime. She was rigged with three masts and ship rigged, suitable for the extensive sailing operations of the period. Her armament comprised a combination of muzzle-loading, smoothbore guns, with twenty-eight 36-pounder long guns on the lower gun deck and thirty 18-pounder long guns on the upper deck. The quarterdeck and forecastle carried a variable mix of smaller guns, including 8-pounder long guns and 36-pounder carronades, with the total armament fluctuating between sixteen and twenty-eight guns over her service life. The ship was built at Antwerp, a notable effort by the First French Empire to utilize all available shipyards, with construction beginning either in late 1808 or in 1809, and she was launched on 5 September 1814. Superbe was considered particularly well-built, earning a reputation as the "nicest ship in the Navy." She was the only ship constructed at Antwerp to survive beyond the Bourbon Restoration. Her early service was minor, playing a limited role in the waning Napoleonic Wars, and she was decommissioned shortly after her return from the Caribbean in March 1815. Recommissioned in 1830, she participated in the French invasion of Algiers before returning to Toulon. In 1833, she served in the Mediterranean but was involved in a storm off Paros, running aground at Parekia harbor. Survivors returned to Toulon aboard other vessels, marking the end of her notable service.

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