Ally

The Le Dauphin-Royal was a first-rate 118-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, of the Océan type, designed by Jacques-Noël Sané.

During the French Revolution, she was renamed Le Sans-Culotte in September 1792, and eventually L'Orient in May 1795.

She carried Napoleon to his invasion of Egypt, in which the French fleet narrowly avoided discovery by Nelson's fleet. If it had been discovered, L'Orient would have been a major target for the British ships and Napoleon's life would have been in considerable danger.

She was the flagship of the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile in August 1798. After receiving heavy fire from numerous British ships, she was set aflame. Eventually, the fire reached her powder magazine, and she blew up, with the loss of most of her crew, including her captain, Luc-Julien-Joseph Casabianca and his young son - giving rise to the memorable poem Casabianca by Felicia Hemans which begins ... "The boy stood on the burning deck".

After the Battle of Trafalgar, Sir Horatio Nelson was put in a coffin carved from a piece of the main mast of L'Orient which had been taken back to England for this purpose.