The French began to build their fleet of the ships of the line after Louis XIV took effective power in 1661. His great minister Colbert was in control of the Navy from 1663. In order to rebuild the fleet, Colbert used the resources of Europe. He attracted shipwrights from Malta, Barcelona, Holland, and other shipbuilding centres. Great shipwrights such as Anthony Deane of England were used as occasional advisers.

A few large ships were built at Brest and Rochefort in the early 1660s, but the first real class of French ships of the line consisted of seven vessels built in Holland in 1666.

The process of expansion continued, culminating with ships such as the Superbe of 1671, registered at 1,300 tons and carrying up to 76 guns on two decks.

Colbert created his first regulations dividing the fleet into Rates. The First Rate comprised the three-deckers, from 80 guns upwards. It contained the sub-division known as the “premier rang extraordinaire” , included such vessels as the

Royal Louis and the Soleil Royale.

Three masted, with two decks, seventy-six guns, and extreme manoeuvrability won the Superbe a lot of admirers, including the English. On the Superbe, Pepys commented, with some exaggeration, “She was forty feet broad, carried seventy-four guns and six months provision”. Her architect was the famous Jacques Noel Sane, requiring seven hundred men for the smooth running of the vessel.

The influence of the French Court on the arts during the reign of Louis XIV in the seventeenth century was considerable, but there was little similarity between the decorations of the French and British ships; of all the national styles, they were the least alike. One noteworthy exception was the practice of fitting open galleries or balconies, where the English followed the French.

In 1672, the eminent shipwright Anthony Deane was directed by Charles II to build his new ships along the lines of the Superbe, which had open galleries. They first appeared in 1673, and became increasingly common in English ships, and indeed in other nations ships.

Le Superbe joined Admiral Villaret de Joyeuse’s fleet. It was a period of great fights against the British fleet.

Le Superbe came to a tragic end being sunk in a storm in 1795. It was a masterful piece of art and beautiful sculpture that sank to the bottom of the ocean.