Looks like a bad surname for a French Republican ship... All the 18th & 19-century Richelieus were loyal men who stayed true to the legitimist cause.
There was one who was a Siamese admiral, but he died in 1932 and never wore puffy shorts with his dress uniform.
It's named for an earlier figure in French history, Cardinal Richelieu, who died in 1642. He was the first minister to make France into a naval power. One of his famous quotes is "Les larmes de nos souverains ont le goût salé de la mer qu'ils ont ignorée." ("The tears of our sovereigns have the salty taste of the sea that they have ignored.")