HMS Belleisle, was a Téméraire-class 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the French Navy, which later served in the Royal Navy. She was originally named Lion, renamed Marat, launched at Rochefort in June 1794, and then named Formidable in 1795, At the Battle of Groix, she was captured by HMS Barfleur and was taken into service in the Royal Navy, but because the Navy already had a Formidable, she was renamed Belleisle, apparently in the mistaken belief that she had been captured off Belle Île, rather than the Île de Groix.
Admiral Sir William Hargood KCB GCH RN (1762 –1839) was second in the Lee Column, following the flagship HMS Royal Sovereign into the enemy lines by just fifteen minutes, and when there held his fire until he was able to discharge both sides simultaneously into the Fougueux and Santa Ana. Belleisle was engaged continuously during the action, often fighting alone against numerous enemy ships, before finally attaching herself to the Argonauta, which she boarded and captured, but not before she was herself dismasted. Belleisle took almost 25% casualties, with 33 dead and 93 wounded, including Hargood, who had suffered severe bruising during the cannonade. HMS Belleisle was lucky to survive the storm, only the constant attentions of the frigate HMS Naiad allowing her to be slowly towed back to Gibraltar.