French ship Bucentaure (1803)

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Bucentaure was an 86-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, and the lead ship of her class. She was the flagship of Vice-Admiral Latouche Tréville, who died on board on 18 August 1804, and later of Vice-Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve as the flagship of the Franco-Spanish fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar. The French Bucentaure's figurehead depicted a bucentaur: a mythical, centaur-like creature with the body of a bull and the head of a man. Vice-Admiral Villeneuve hoisted his flag on 6 November 1804. Bucentaure hosted the Franco-Spanish war council while sheltered from the British fleet at Cádiz. The vote was to remain in safe waters (a decision later overruled by Admiral Villeneuve). During the council, Spanish general Antonio de Escaño complained that the atmospheric pressure was descending (a sign of approaching storms). French vice-admiral Charles René Magon de Médine famously retorted "the thing descending here is braveness". This offended Admiral Federico Gravina and other Spanish...

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