HMS Donegal was launched in 1794 as Barra, a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy. She was renamed Pégase in October 1795, and Hoche in December 1797. The British Royal Navy captured her at the Battle of Tory Island on 12 October 1798 and recommissioned her as HMS Donegal.
Donegal in 1840
The Hoche in tow of the Doris
'Duckworth's Action off San Domingo, on 6 February 1806' by Nicholas Pocock. HMS Donegal is on the left of the painting, engaging the Jupiter
Téméraire-class ship of the line
The Téméraire-class ships of the line were a class of a hundred and twenty 74-gun ships of the line ordered between 1782 and 1813 for the French navy or its attached navies in dependent (French-occupied) territories. Although a few of these were cancelled, the type was and remains the most numerous class of capital ship ever built to a single design.
Scale model of Achille, a typical French seventy-four of the Téméraire class at the beginning of the 19th century.
Fight of the Poursuivante against the British ship HMS Hercules, 28 June 1803
Stern of a model of the Triomphant
Battle between the French warship Droits de l'Homme and the British frigates Amazon (right) and Indefatigable (left), 13 & 14 January 1797.