The Seine class was a class of four 42-gun frigates of the French Navy, designed in 1793 by Pierre-Alexandre Forfait. A fifth vessel, Furieuse, was originally ordered at Cherbourg in February 1794 to Forfait's Romaine-class design, but was instead completed to the design of the Seine class.
The ship builder Charles-Henri Le Tellier produced a variant of the Forfait design after the latter went to Venice in 1797. Two further vessels, originally ordered as the final pair to the Seine design and begun to that design in July 1797, were completed to the variant design as the Valeureuse class, which were about 8 inches (20 cm) longer than earlier Seine-class vessels.[1]
The vessels were originally designed to carry a main armament of 24-pounder guns, but in the event all were completed at Le Havre with 18-pounders.
Fate: Captured by the Royal Navy on 24 September 1806, becoming HMS Immortalité; never commissioned and sold in January 1811 at Plymouth for breaking up.
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Demerliac, Alain (2004). La Marine du Consulat et du Premier Empire: Nomenclature des Navires Français de 1800 A 1815 (in French). Éditions Ancre. ISBN2-903179-30-1.
Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN978-1-86176-246-7.
Winfield, Rif; Roberts, Stephen S. (2015). French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786–1861: Design Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN978-1-84832-204-2.