The don des vaisseaux was a subscription effort launched by Étienne François de Choiseul, Duke of Choiseul and secretary of State to the Navy in 1761 as an effort to rebuild French naval power, diminished at the end of the Seven Years' War and in need for modernisation. Through this subscription, French provinces, cities, institutions or individuals contributed funds for the building of ships of the line, which were then named in their honour. The scheme raised 13 millions French livres and provided 18 ships, including two three-deckers, Ville de Paris and Bretagne.
The Bretagne (launched 1766), one of the main capital ships built with funding from the "don des vaisseau".
Allegorical engraving of the Don des vaisseaux, circa 1762, with an incomplete list of the ships built under the programme (with approximative armament).
French ship Ville de Paris (1764)
Ville de Paris was a large three-decker French ship of the line that became famous as the flagship of De Grasse during the American Revolutionary War.
Ville de Paris in Rochefort, 1764
The Battle of the Saintes, 12 April 1782: surrender of the Ville de Paris by Thomas Whitcombe, painted 1783, shows Hood's Barfleur, centre, attacking the French flagship Ville de Paris, right.
The Ville de Paris, foundering in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean
