- References
{{Infobox ship career| Hide header= | Ship country=Kingdom of France | Ship flag= | Ship name=Merveilleux | Ship namesake= | Ship owner= | Ship operator= | Ship registry= | Ship route= | Ship ordered=February 1691 | Ship awarded= | Ship builder=Blaise Pangalo, Brest Dockyard | Ship original cost= | Ship yard number= | Ship way number= | Ship laid down=7 May 1691 | Ship launched=19 November 1691 | Ship sponsor= | Ship christened= | Ship completed=April 1692 | Ship acquired= | Ship commissioned= | Ship recommissioned= | Ship decommissioned= | Ship maiden voyage= | Ship in service= | Ship out of service= | Ship renamed= | Ship reclassified= | Ship refit= | Ship struck= | Ship reinstated= | Ship homeport= | Ship identification= | Ship motto= | Ship nickname= | Ship honours= | Ship honors= | Ship captured= | Ship fate=Destroyed by fire 2 June 1692 | Ship status= | Ship notes= | Ship badge=
}}{{Infobox ship characteristics | Hide header= | Header caption= | Ship class= | Ship type= | Ship tonnage=1,600 | Ship displacement= | Ship tons burthen= | Ship length=153 French feet[1] | Ship beam=43 French feet | Ship height= | Ship draught=23 French feet | Ship draft= | Ship depth= | Ship hold depth=19¼ French feet | Ship decks=3 gun decks | Ship deck clearance= | Ship ramps= | Ship ice class= | Ship power= | Ship propulsion= | Ship sail plan= | Ship speed= | Ship range= | Ship endurance= | Ship test depth= | Ship boats= | Ship capacity= | Ship troops= | Ship complement=650, + 9 officers | Ship crew= | Ship time to activate= | Ship sensors= | Ship EW= | Ship armament=90, later 80 guns | Ship armour= | Ship armor= | Ship aircraft= | Ship aircraft facilities= | Ship notes=
}} | The Merveilleux was a First Rank ship of the line of the French Royal Navy, the second vessel in the two-ship Foudroyant Class. This ship was ordered in February 1691 to be built - like her sister - at Brest Dockyard, and on 13 May 1691 she was allotted the name Merveilleux. The designer and builder of both ships was Blaise Pangalo. They were three-decker ships without forecastles. The Merveilleux was launched on 11 November 1691 and completed in April 1692. She was initially armed with 90 guns, comprising twenty-eight 36-pounders on the lower deck, twenty-eight 18-pounders on the middle deck, twenty-four 12-pounders on the upper deck, and ten 6-pounders on the quarterdeck. However she was reduced to 80 guns before the end of 1691. The new ship took part in the Battle of Barfleur on 29 May 1692, where she was the flagship of Lieutenant-Général Charles-François Davy, Marquis d'Amfreville. Following the battle she and her sister Foudroyant put into La Hogue on the east coast of the Cotentin Peninsula where they were among a dozen French ships of the line attacked and burnt by Anglo-Dutch naval forces on 2 June 1692. A new ship was immediately ordered to be built at Brest and given the same name; this was launched in November 1692. References- {{Cite book|first=Jean-Michel |last=Roche |year=2005 |chapter= |title=Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours 1 1671 - 1870 |isbn=978-2-9525917-0-6 |oclc=165892922 |page=223}}
- Nomenclature des Vaisseaux du Roi-Soleil de 1661 a 1715. Alain Demerliac (Editions Omega, Nice – various dates).
- The Sun King's Vessels (2015) - Jean-Claude Lemineur; English translation by François Fougerat. Editions ANCRE. {{ISBN|978-2903179885}}
- Winfield, Rif and Roberts, Stephen (2017) French Warships in the Age of Sail 1626-1786: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. {{ISBN|978-1-4738-9351-1}}.
1. ^The French foot (pre-metric) was 6.575% longer than the equivalent English foot.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Merveilleux (1691)}} 2 : Ships of the line of the French Navy|1690s ships |