L'Orient
F1. Maritime HistoryDefinition
French flagship destroyed at the Battle of the Nile, 1798.
The French 118-gun first-rate ship of the line that served as flagship of Vice-Admiral Brueys at the Battle of the Nile and was destroyed there on 1 August 1798. Around 2200 her magazine exploded after British fire set her ablaze, killing Brueys and most of her crew; the blast halted firing on both sides for several minutes. L’Orient went down in Aboukir Bay carrying much of the army’s pay-chest looted from Malta. The wreck has since been surveyed by underwater archaeologists in the bay.
Source: French 118-gun flagship L'Orient, destroyed by magazine explosion at the Battle of the Nile, Aboukir Bay, 1 August 1798.