Royal Louis

This model from the second half of the 18th century was used to train officers at the Brest naval guard school. As a teaching aid, it enabled them to learn about the architecture and composition of the rigging for the ships they would later be responsible for. During practical work sessions around the model, the future officers learned to identify a series of common manoeuvres, as well as simulating on a reduced scale the orientation of a sail according to the axis of the wind or a tack. The two suspension pivots, still present today at the front and rear of the hull, bear witness to this use: mounted on two forks, these two elements made it possible to tilt the model for teaching purposes, in particular to illustrate how to trim the hull.

Because of its use, this training model had to faithfully reproduce a three-decker vessel. Three Royal Louis were built in Brest, in 1740, 1758 and 1779, but this model is not a carbon copy of any of them. Often compared to the Royal Louis of 1758, a 116-gun vessel built by Jacques-Luc Coulomb, the model has 124 guns, like the 1740 vessel built to Blaise Ollivier's designs, while the treatment of its decorations brings it closer to the vessels of the late 18th century. In reality, this model was probably made after the dismantling of the Royal Louis de Coulomb in 1773, following the detailed plans for the same ship drawn up in 1772. In anticipation of France's entry into the American War of Independence, for which it was planned to build a large number of three-decker ships, there was a need to train naval guards in the handling of this type of vessel. The outfitting of the Royal Louis in 1740 would, however, have been reproduced on this occasion, as Coulomb's vessel had a bad reputation at the time.

Long kept in the former naval museum in Brest, the Royal Louis underwent a major restoration when it arrived in Paris in 1949. She had undergone major alterations to give her the appearance of an early nineteenth-century vessel. The challenge was to restore it to its original appearance. Most of the modifications (black and white stripes on the hull, davits, lengthening of the jib and bowsprit masts, bowsprit on the mizzen mast, etc.) were therefore removed. The sails, which were badly damaged, were tightened. At the same time, the restorer noticed that some of the pulleys were oversized and replaced them with new ones to the scale of the model. In retrospect, it became clear that this oversizing could be explained by the use to which they were put: the ropes had to be able to slide smoothly during demonstrations.