The Marseillois, renamed the Vengeur-du-Peuple, was a French warship in service from 1766 to 1794. Having taken part in the American War of Independence, this two-decked 74-gun ship of the line became famous during a battle in 1794 that was glorified by revolutionary propaganda.
The Vengeur-du-Peuple inflicted heavy losses in a close-quarters duel, fought with cannons and muskets, side-by-side, against the British flagship HMS Brunswick. However, it was forced to surrender, having lost two of its masts, with a third of its crew out of action and water rising dangerously in its holds. In the Convention, this military defeat was presented as a ‘moral victory’. The spokesman for the Committee of Public Safety claimed that the sailors of the Vengeur had refused to surrender to the enemy and had died as the ship sank, singing the Marseillaise and shouting ‘Long live the Fatherland, long live the Republic’.
The poet Marie-Joseph Chénier (brother of André Chénier, who was guillotined during the Reign of Terror) dedicated some verses to this naval event:
Arise, emerge from the deep seas,
Smoking wreck of the Avenger!
You who witnessed the French triumph
Over the English, the flames and the waves!
From whence come these heart-rending cries?
What are these magnanimous voices?
They are the brave, as they breathe their last,
Singing from the depths of the abyss:
Glory to the French people!
