De Grasse was an anti-aircraft cruiser of the French Navy. She was the first French vessel named in honour of François Joseph Paul, Marquis de Grasse Tilly, Comte de Grasse. From 1965 to 1971, she was involved in the nuclear test campaigns in the Pacific.
De Grasse at the International Fleet Review in Hampton Roads, United States on 26 June 1957.
François Joseph Paul de Grasse
François Joseph Paul, Comte de Grasse, Marquis of Grasse-Tilly SMOM was a career French officer who achieved the rank of admiral. He is best known for his command of the French fleet at the Battle of the Chesapeake in 1781 in the last year of the American Revolutionary War. It led directly to the British surrender at Yorktown and helped gain the rebels' victory.
François Joseph Paul de Grasse
The Battle of the Chesapeake (1781), painting from the collections of the Hampton Roads Naval Museum, Virginia, U.S.
U.S. postage stamp, 1931 issue, honoring Comte de Rochambeau, George Washington, and de Grasse, commemorating the 150th anniversary of the victory at the siege of Yorktown, 1781.
Tomb of de Grasse in the Church of Saint-Roch, Paris