Courageux was a 4th rank, 74-gun built for the French Navy during the 1790s. Completed in 1806, she played a minor role in the Napoleonic Wars.
Designed by Jacques-Noël Sané, the Téméraire-class ships had a length of , a beam of and a depth of hold of . The ships displaced 3,069 tonneaux and had a mean draught of . They had a tonnage of 1,537 port tonneaux. Their crew numbered 705 officers and ratings during wartime. They were fitted with three masts and ship rigged.
The muzzle-loading, smoothbore armament of the Téméraire class consisted of twenty-eight 36-pounder long guns on the lower gun deck and thirty 18-pounder long guns on the upper gun deck. On the quarterdeck and forecastle were a total of sixteen 8-pounder long guns. Beginning with the ships completed after 1787, the armament of the Téméraires began to change with the addition of four 36-pounder obusiers on the poop deck (). Some ships had instead twenty 8-pounders.
Courageux was ordered on 15 May 1801 and named Alcide on 7 January 1802. The ship was renamed Courageux on 22 January, laid down in July at the Arsenal de Lorient and launched on 3 February 1806. The ship was commissioned on 8 April 1806 and completed later that month. Captain Amable Troude was in command of Courageux which was serving as his flagship of a squadron also comprising and that departed Lorient on 16 February 1809 to resupply French forces in the Caribbean. D'Hautpoul was captured by the British, but the other two returned to France on 29 May having captured seven British merchant ships on the voyage home.