Don des vaisseaux
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The don des vaisseaux (English: gift of the vessels) was a subscription programme launched by French statesman Étienne François de Choiseul, Duke of Choiseul, in 1761 to rebuild the French Navy to make up for the losses it suffered in the Seven Years' War. Under the terms of the programme, the French public was encouraged to contribute funds for the construction of ships of the line. The programme raised 13 million livres from provinces, cities, institutions and private individuals, which were used to build 18 ships of the line for the French navy, including two first-rates, Ville de Paris and Bretagne.
All ships built under the programme were named either after their donors or qualities the donors wished to be associated with. Some ship names fell out of political favour during the French Revolution and were renamed between 1792 and 1794 under the National Convention's direction; in turn, some of the new names became politically unacceptable after the Thermidorian Reaction and were again changed in 1795. The success of the programme encouraged the French state to renew it on several occasions, including from 1782 to 1790 and again during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
During the Seven Years' War, the French Navy suffered numerous defeats at the hands of the British Royal Navy. By 1761, the French navy had lost dozens of ships of the line in several engagements with the British, who as a result of their naval victories held command of the sea in both Europe and the Americas. As France was heavily in debt due to its war effort, it was impossible to fund the reconstruction of the French Navy through conventional means.[citation needed]
As such, the Secretary of State for the Navy, Étienne François de Choiseul, Duke of Choiseul, devised a subscription programme to raise the necessary funds. In 1761, Choiseul suggested to the Archbishop of Narbonne Charles Antoine de La Roche-Aymon, who presided over the Estates of Languedoc, to encourage the Estates' delegates to fund the construction of a 74-gun ship of the line via subscriptions. Choiseul hoped that this would set an example for other French organisations and private individuals to follow, which proved to be correct.[citation needed]
Fundraising
On 26 November 1761, de La Roche-Aymon gave a speech before the delegates of the Estates of Languedoc, encouraging them to
offer to His Majesty a ship of the line of 74 pieces of artillery and provide by this endeavour... a demonstration of what subjects can and must do who are truly worthy of the best of masters... There is no good Frenchman who does not feel moved by the desire to sacrifice everything to assist with the efforts of the King and of the wise and enlightened minister to restore the French Navy.[note 1][1]
The delegates obliged, and the example was followed the next year by the estates of Brittany, Burgundy, Artois and Flanders, the cities of Paris, Bordeaux, Montpellier and Marseille along with several private institutions and individuals such as the six corps de marchands and ferme générale.[citation needed]
Not only did the Provinces offer, in this occasion, distinguished marks of unusual zeal, but M. de Choiseul has told me that he received daily letters from individuals who volunteered money. Amongst others, there was the case of a simple gentleman from Champagne, whose name he sadly did not recall, and who stated that as he was not a rich man and had children, he was not really in any position to make a donation; but that, as they were still young, he could dispense with a thousand pounds that he had saved and that he sent them to him to be used in the service of the King. M. de Choiseul responded that his majesty, after accepting them, would return them so that they would assist in educating the children, who could not fail, with such a father, to render him great services.[note 2][2]