She was renamed Orient by Napoleon Bonaparte on the morning of his departure from the port of Toulon for his expedition on Egypt.

The new name was kept secret until the last moment to shadow the purpose of the large expeditionary force assembled at Toulon, which very few people had known was destined to invade Egypt.

In 1798 Orient was appointed flagship of the squadron tasked with the invasion of Egypt, under Admiral Brueys, with Captain Casabianca as his flag officer.

The British ship Bellerophon set anchor too late and found itself directly abeam the portside of the Orient.

Its romantic load was compounded by the presence aboard of Captain Luc-Julien-Joseph Casabianca's young son, who died in the wreck, this particular detail inspired Felicia Hemans's poem Casabianca: The boy stood on the burning deck Whence all but he had fled; The flame that lit the battle's wreck Shone round him o'er the dead Shortly after the battle, Nelson was presented with a coffin carved from a piece of the main mast of Orient, which had been taken back to England for this purpose, he was put inside this coffin after his death at the Battle of Trafalgar.

Between 1998 and 1999, the French archaeologist Franck Goddio led an expedition that carried out an underwater archaeological study of Orient's wreck site.