When Téméraire was designated for scrapping in 1838, she was purchased by John Beatson and sent to his Rotherhithe yard for breaking. Beatson well understood the significance of the timber he was handling and sold quantities of it for use in furniture and buildings as well as decorative objects.

Named after the first Téméraire which had been captured from the French in 1759, the second and far more famous Téméraire in the Royal Navy was the vessel laid down at Chatham and launched on 11th September 1798. A large second rate mounting 98-guns, she spent her first three years as flagship to the Channel Fleet and, after a spell blockading the French coast, then found herself directly behind Victory in Lord Nelson's 'weather column' at Trafalgar where she fought magnificently. Heavily engaged from all sides but eventually capturing the 80-gun Fougueux, she survived the battle but was so severely damaged that she was deemed unfit for further service at sea. Thereafter employed as a prison ship and later a receiving ship at both Devonport as well as Sheerness, she was finally sold for breaking in 1838 and, whilst under tow to Rotherhithe, found immortality when she inspired J.M.W. Turner to paint one of his most celebrated works, the "Fighting Téméraire".