Pluton and the French minelaying tradition

Pluton takes its name from Pluto, the god of the underworld, and at least seven French naval vessels carried it. The nineteenth-century sequence is uncertain: the account mentions a wheeled corvette from 1839 to 1854 and a possible association with the Temeraire-class Marengo from about 1855. Earlier namesakes fought at the Battle of the Saintes, the operation against Diamond Rock, and the Battle of Trafalgar, after which one passed into Spanish hands. Another Pluton was a slightly smaller, shallower-draft variation of the Temeraire design intended for construction in captured yards. From about 1910 the name became associated with minelaying, mine warfare, and later naval commando support. The fleet name thus moved from conventional warships to specialist mine-warfare vessels.