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Thread: Third Rate ships of 74 guns.

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    Default Third Rate ships of 74 guns.

    HMS Albion (1763)

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    By John 'Vallack' Tom.

    HMS Albion was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line designed by Thomas Slade. M/ shipwright Adam Hayes. She was launched on 16 May 1763 at Deptford, being adapted from a design of the old 90-gun ship Neptune which had been built in 1730, and was the first ship to bear the name. She was the first of a series of ships built to the same lines, which became known as the Albion-class ship of the line. Following the prototype, two sister ships were ordered in the post war period, and another pair with modifications to the original design during the 1777/78 period.



    History
    Great Britain
    Name:
    HMS Albion
    Ordered:
    1 December 1759
    Builder:
    Deptford Dockyard
    Launched:
    16 May 1763
    Honours and
    awards:
    Fate:
    Wrecked, April 1797
    General characteristics
    Class and type:
    Albion-classship of the line
    Tons burthen:
    1662 (bm)
    Length:
    168 ft (51 m) (gundeck)
    Depth of hold:
    18 ft 10 in (5.74 m)
    Propulsion:
    Sails
    Sail plan:
    Full rigged ship
    Armament:
    • Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
    • Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
    • QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
    • Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

    She was commissioned in the May of 1770 for the Falkland Islands dispute, she then became a guardship at Portsmouth.

    In 1778 she was recommissioned for wartime service.

    She saw her first action in the
    American War of Independence in July 1779 at the indecisive Battle of Grenada, when the British Fleet under the command of Vice Admiral Byron managed to avoid defeat from superior French forces.

    Albion's next action was a year later on 17 April 1780, when British and French fleets met in the
    Battle of Martinique. A month later, on 15 May, the fleets met again and after a few days of maneuvering the head of the British line confronted the rear-most French warships. Albion, leading the vanguard of the British fleet suffered heavy casualties, but with little to show for it. Just four days later the two fleets clashed for the third time but again it was indecisive with Albion heavily engaged as before, suffering numerous casualties in the process.
    She was paid off in the December of 1781 and underwent repairs and coppering at Chatham prior to rearming as a 22gun floating battery there.

    In 1794 Albion was consigned to the role of a 60-gun floating battery armed with heavy carronades and moored on the
    Thames Estuary. She was positioned in the Middle Swin, seven miles north-east of Foulness Point, under the command of Captain Henry Savage.

    Fate.

    In April 1797, while heading to a new position in the Swin Channel, off
    Maplin Sands and Foulness she ran aground due to pilot error. Two days later, during salvage efforts, her back broke, and she was completely wrecked. HMS Astraea rescued Captain Henry Savage and his crew. The crew later transferred to the newly-built HMS Lancaster. The subsequent court-martial blamed the pilots, William Springfield and Joseph Wright, for imprudent maneuvering and going too far back before altering course. The court ordered that they lose all pay due to them and they never serve as pilots again.
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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    HMS Albion (1802)



    HMS Albion was a
    74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the modified Fame Class by Henslow. Built by Perry, Wells and Green,she was launched at Perry's Blackwall Yard on the Thames on 17 June 1802 and fitted out at Woolwich and Sheerness in 1803.



    History

    GREAT BRITAIN
    Name:
    HMS Albion
    Ordered:
    24 June 1800
    Builder:
    Perry, Wells & Green, Blackwall Yard
    Laid down:
    June 1800
    Launched:
    17 June 1802
    Honours and
    awards:
    Fate:
    Broken up, 1836
    General characteristics
    Class and type:
    Fame-classship of the line
    Tons burthen:
    ​1740 3294 bm
    Length:
    175 ft (53 m) (gundeck)
    Beam:
    47 ft 6 in (14.48 m)
    Depth of hold:
    20 ft 6 in (6.25 m)
    Propulsion:
    Sails
    Sail plan:
    Full rigged ship
    Armament:
    • Lower deck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
    • Upper deck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
    • QD: 2 × 18-pounder guns + 12 × 32-pounder carronades
    • Fc: 2 × 18-pounder guns + 2 × 32-pounder carronades
    • Roundhouse: 6 × 18-pounder carronades


    Napoleonic Wars.



    She was commissioned during her fitting out from the February of 1802 by Captain John Ferrier who continued in command until 1808.

    In the May of 1803 under the command of Ferrier and as the Flagship of Saumarez, she joined Admiral
    Cornwallis' fleet, which was blockading the vital French naval port of Brest. Albion, with Minataur and Thunderer took the 40 gun French Frigate La Franchaise and she was also amongst the vessels of the squadron that shared in the proceeds of the capture of:-

    Juffrow Bregtie Kaas (30 May 1803);
    Eendraght (31 May);
    Morgen Stern (1 June);
    Goede ferwachting (4 June);
    De Vriede (5 June).

    Albion was soon detached from the fleet to deploy to the
    Indian Ocean where she was to remain for several years.
    Albion and
    Sceptre left Rio de Janeiro on 13 October, escorting Lord Melville, Earl Spencer, Princess Mary, Northampton, Anna, Ann, Glory, and Essex. They were in company with the 74-gunthird rateships of the lineHMS Russell, and the fourth rateHMS Grampus. Three days later Albion and Scepter separated from the rest of the ships.
    On 21 December 1803, Albion and Sceptre captured the French privateer Clarisse at
    °18′S 95°20′E / 1.300°S 95.333°E / in the eastern Indian Ocean. Clarisse was armed with 12 guns and had a crew of 157 men. She had sailed from Isle de France (Mauritius) on 24 November with provisions for a six-month cruise to the Bay of Bengal. At the time of her capture she had not captured anything. Albion, Sceptre, and Clarisse arrived at Madras on 8 January 1804.

    On 28 February 1804, Albion and Sceptre met up in the straits of Malacca with the fleet of Indiamen that had just emerged from the
    Battle of Pulo Aura and conducted them safely to Saint Helena. From there HMS Plantagenet escorted the convoy to England.

    On 28 August 1808, Albion recaptured Swallow, which was carrying among other things, a quantity of gold dust.
    Next, Albion escorted to a fleet of nine
    East Indiamen returning to Britain. They left Madras on 25 October, but a gale that commenced around 20 November at 10°S 90°E / 10°S 90°E / -10; 90 by 22 November had dispersed the fleet. By 21 February three of the Indiamen —Lord Nelson, Glory, and Experiment— had not arrived at Cape Town. Apparently all three had foundered without a trace.
    Caroline, of Riga, arrived at Yarmouth on 17 August 1810 having been detained by Albion.


    War of 1812.


    In 1814, the year that Napoleon was finally toppled, and after a long period under extensive repair, she became flagship of Rear Admiral George Cockburn, taking part in a war (War of 1812) against the United States — a duty that the first Albion had once undertaken. In the summer of 1814, she was involved in the force that harried the coastline of Chesapeake Bay, where she operated all the way up to the Potomac and Patuxent Rivers, destroying large amounts of American shipping, as well as US government property. The operations ended once peace was declared in 1815.


    Post-war.

    Just a year later, Albion was part of a combined British-Dutch fleet taking part in the bombardment of Algiers on 27 August 1816, which was intended to force the Dey of Algiers to free Christian slaves. She fired 4,110 shots at the city, and suffered 3 killed and 15 wounded by return fire.



    Albion at the Battle of Navarino

    In 1827, she was part of a combined British-French-
    Russian fleet under the command of Admiral Codrington at the Battle of Navarino, where a Turkish-Egyptian fleet was obliterated, securing Greek independence. Albion suffered 10 killed and 50 wounded, including her second-in-command, Commander John Norman Campbell.




    In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with the clasps "Algiers", and "Navarino" to all surviving claimants from the battles.


    Fate.

    Albion was placed in ordinary in 1829 at Portsmouth. By mid 1830 she was being fitted out as a receiving ship, but completed as a lazarette in 1831. Then from 1832 to 35 she was in the quarantine service at Leith.
    She was finally broken up at
    Deptford Dockyard in the June of 1836.
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    Last edited by Bligh; 11-02-2019 at 14:29.
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

  3. #3
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    HMS Alcide (1779)

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    HMS Alcide, the French and Italian version of "Alcides", another name for Heracles, was an Albion Class 74-gun third-rateship of the line,designed by Thomas Slade, M/shipwright Adam Hayes ordered on the 31st of August, 1774 and launched on the 30th of July, 1779 at Deptford Dockyard. She was fitted out and coppered at Plymouth between the April and June of 1780.




    History
    GREAT BRITAIN
    Name:
    HMS Alcide
    Ordered:
    31 August 1774
    Builder:
    Deptford Dockyard
    Laid down:
    4 June 1776
    Launched:
    30 July 1779
    Fate:
    Broken up, 1817
    Notes:
    General characteristics
    Class and type:
    Albion-classship of the line
    Tons burthen:
    1625
    Length:
    168 ft (51 m) (gundeck)
    Depth of hold:
    18 ft 10 in (5.74 m)
    Propulsion:
    Sails
    Sail plan:
    Full rigged ship
    Armament:
    • 74 guns:
    • Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounders
    • Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounders
    • Quarterdeck: 14 × 9-pounders
    • Forecastle: 4 × 9-pounders
    .
    She fought at the battles of
    Cape St Vincent off the southern coast of Portugal on the16th of January 1780 during the Anglo-Spanish War and Martinique also known as the Combat de la Dominique, which took place on the 17th of April 1780 during the American Revolutionary War in the West Indies. On the12th of September, 1780 Alcide captured the letter of marque Pocahontas. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Pocahontas.

    Her next outing in 1782 took her to the battles of
    St. Kitts on the 25th and 26th of January and the Saintes from the 9th to the 12th of April.

    Paid off after wartime service in the July of 1783, and had a small repair undertaken at Portsmouth completed in the December of 1784. She was recommissioned once more in the October of 1787 under Captain Benjamin Caldwell, and served as a guardship at Portsmouth in the May of 1790. She was under Captain Sir Andrew Snape Douglas for the period of the Spanish Armament and then returned to guardship duties until the March of 1793 when she was recommissioned under Captain John Woodley as the Flagship of Commodore Robert Linzee,for service in Admiral Hood's Fleet off Toulon. Whilst in the Med she also took part in the
    operations against Corsica in the September of 1793, and in the attack on Forneille on the first of October of that year.

    She was commanded by Captain Thomas Shivers from the May of 1794 as the Flagship of the newly promoted Rear Admiral Linzee. By the October of that year she was under Sir Thomas Byard as the Flagship of Vice Admiral Phillips Cosby.
    That November she was laid up in ordinary at Portsmouth, although she was listed as a receiving ship from1802 onwards.

    Alcide was finally broken up there in the May of 1817.
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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    HMS Alexander (1778)


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    Launch of HMS Alexander at Deptford in 1778 (BHC1875), by John Cleveley the Younger (NMM) - HMS Alexander is the ship still on the slipway, centre background


    HMS Alexander was a 74-gun Alfred Class
    third-rate ship of the Line designed by Sir John Williams. M/s Adam Hayes. Ordered on the 21st of July 1773, she was launched at Deptford Dockyard on 8 October 1778.



    History
    GREAT BRITAIN
    Name:
    HMS Alexander
    Ordered:
    21 July 1773
    Builder:
    Deptford Dockyard
    Laid down:
    6 April 1774
    Launched:
    8 October 1778
    Captured:
    6 November 1794, by French Navy
    FRANCE
    Name:
    Alexandre
    Acquired:
    6 November 1794
    Captured:
    22 June 1795, by Royal Navy
    GREAT BRITAIN
    Name:
    HMS Alexander
    Acquired:
    22 June 1795
    Honours and
    awards:
    Fate:
    Broken up, 1819
    General characteristics
    Class and type:
    Alfred-classship of the line
    Type:
    Third rate
    Tons burthen:
    1621 (bm)
    Length:
    169 ft (52 m) (gundeck)
    Beam:
    47 ft 2 in (14.38 m)
    Depth of hold:
    20 ft (6.1 m)
    Propulsion:
    Sails
    Sail plan:
    Full rigged ship
    Armament:
    • Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
    • Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
    • QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
    • Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns


    British service and capture.

    She was commissioned in the October of 1778. Then fitted out and coppered at Portsmouth in the December of 1779.
    On 13 March 1780, Alexander and
    HMS Courageaux captured the 40-gun French privateer Monsieur after a long chase and some exchange of fire. The Royal Navy took the privateer into service as HMS Monsieur.

    In the December of 1782 she was refitted and had her copper raised on each beam at Chatham.
    In the May of 1783 she was paid off following the secession of hostilities.

    In the October of 1791 she was fitted out at Chatham for Channel service, and commissioned under Captain Thomas West in the October of 1793.

    In 1794, whilst serving in Montague's Squadron and returning to England in the company of
    HMS Canada after escorting a convoy to Spain, Alexander, under the command of Rear-Admiral Richard Rodney Bligh, fell in with a French squadron of five 74-gun ships, and three frigates, led by Joseph-Marie Nielly. In the Action of the 6th of November, 1794 Alexander was overrun by the Droits de l'Homme, but escaped when she damaged the Droits de l'Homme's rigging. Alexander was then caught by Marat, which came behind her stern and raked her. Then, the 74 gun third-rateJean Bart closed in and fired broadsides at close range, forcing Bligh to surrender Alexander, having lost 40 killed and wounded in the action. In the meantime, Canada escaped. The subsequent court martial honourably acquitted Bligh of any blame for the loss of his ship.

    The French took her to Brest and then into their French Navy under the name Alexandre. On the 23rd June, 1795, she was with a French fleet off
    Belle Île when the Channel Fleet under Lord Bridport discovered them. The British ships chased the French fleet, and brought them to action in the Battle of Groix. During the battle HMS Sans Pareil and HMS Colossus recaptured Alexander. After the battle, HMS Révolutionnaire towed her back to Plymouth under the acting Captain Alexander Wilson.

    Return to British service.

    After a refit at Plymouth Alexander was recommissioned in 1796 under Captain Arthur Phillip for the Channel Fleet.
    In1797 under Captain Alexander Ball she sailed for the Med.

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    Alexander towing Vanguard, May 1798

    In 1798 Nelson was detached into the Mediterranean by
    Earl St. Vincent with HMS Orion, Alexander, Emerald, Terpsichore, and Bonne Citoyenne. They sailed from Gibraltar on the 9th of May and on the 12th of May were struck by a violent gale in the Gulf of Lion that carried away Vanguard's topmasts and foremast. The squadron bore up for Sardinia, Alexander taking Vanguard in tow.

    The Alexander took part in the
    Battle of the Nile in 1798, still under the command of Captain Alexander Ball. On the evening of the 1st of August, 1798, half an hour before sunset, the battle began. She was the second ship to fire upon the French fleet engaging the flagship, L'Orient. The Alexander sank three French ships before she had to withdraw due to a small fire on board. The Alexander was one of the few ships not carrying a detachment of soldiers.

    Northumberland, Alexander, Penelope, Bonne Citoyenne, and the brig Vincejo shared in the proceeds of the French polacca Vengeance, captured entering Valletta, Malta on the 6th of April.

    In the February of 1800 she was placed under the acting command of Lt. William Harrington for the Genereux's convoy on the 18th of that month.

    By the following February she was under the command of Captain Manley Dixon.
    In the April of 1806 she was back in Portsmouth and being fitted out as a lazerarette.

    Fate.

    She was finally broken up at Portsmouth in the November of 1819.

    Alexander served in the navy's Egyptian campaign between the 8th of March,1801 and the 2nd of September, which qualified her officers and crew for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal that the
    Admiralty issued in 1847 to all surviving claimants.
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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    HMS Arrogant (1761)

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    HMS Arrogant was a 74-gun third rateship of the line, a modified Bellona class designed by Sir Thomas Slade M/shipwrights John Barnard and John Turner. Ordered on the 13th of December, 1758, she was launched on the 22nd of January, 1761 at Harwich. She was the first of the Arrogant class ships of the line of which only two were built during the Seven Years War. A further ten ships were subsequently built after 1773.



    History
    GREAT BRITAIN
    Name:
    HMS Arrogant
    Ordered:
    13 December 1758
    Builder:
    John Barnard & John Turner, Harwich Dockyard
    Laid down:
    March 1759
    Launched:
    22 January 1761
    Commissioned:
    January 1761
    Fate:
    Sold out o service, 1810
    General characteristics
    Class and type:
    Arrogant classship of the line
    Tons burthen:
    1644​5494 bm
    Length:
    • 168 ft 3 in (51.28 m) (gundeck)
    • 138 ft 0 in (42.06 m) (keel)
    Beam:
    47 ft 4 in (14.43 m)
    Depth of hold:
    19 ft 9 in (6.02 m)
    Sail plan:
    Full rigged ship




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    Commissioned in the January of 1761 she was fitted as a guard ship at Portsmouth.
    Refitted and recommissioned in the of 1768 she continued in her role as a guard ship until paid of in the June of 1771.

    There followed a major refit and coppering of her bottom at Chatham from the July of 1780 until the July of the year following, After a smaller repair over the winter of 1774-75 she was fitted for service in the channel in the may of 1790. After further repairs in 1792 and 94 she was commissioned for service once more under the command of Captain Richard Lucas, following which she sailed for the East Indies on the 3rd of April, 1795.

    She was on passage in time to take part in the siege and capture of the Cape of Good Hope. On the 9th of September, 1796 she was in action with Victorious against Sercy's squadron off Sumatra.
    In the March of 1798 she was commanded for a short time by Captain Edward Packenham, and then from the June of that year until 1803 by Captain Edward Osborn.

    In the January of 1799 Arrogant was with the British squadron at the defence of
    Macau during the Macau Incident.

    By 1804 she had been converted to a hulk at Bombay where she served as a receiving ship,
    sheer hulk, and floating battery. In 1810 she was condemned as unfit for further service.

    She was sold out of service and broken up there later in the year of 1810.

    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

  6. #6
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    HMS Audacious (1785)





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    HMS Audacious.



    HMS Audacious was a 74-gun third-rate Arrogant Class ship of the line M/Shipwright John Randall and Brent. She was ordered on the 22nd of October, 1782 and launched on the 23rd of July, 1785 at Rotherhithe. Completed at Deptford and Woolwich in the October of that year, she was the first ship in the British Navy to bear the name.



    History
    GREAT BRITAIN
    Name: HMS Audacious
    Builder: Randall, Rotherhithe
    Laid down: August 1783
    Launched: 23 July 1785
    Fate: Broken up, August 1815
    Notes: ·Participated in:
    ·Battle of the Nile
    General characteristics
    Class and type: Arrogant-classship of the line
    Tons burthen: 1624 bm
    Length: 168 ft (51 m) (gundeck)
    Beam: 46 ft 9 in (14.25 m)
    Depth of hold: 19 ft 9 in (6.02 m)
    Propulsion: Sails
    Sail plan: Full rigged ship
    Armament: ·74 guns:

    ·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounders
    ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounders
    ·Quarterdeck: 14 × 9-pounders
    ·Forecastle: 4 × 9-pounders


    She was commissioned for service in the channel under Captain William Parker. On the 18th of November, 1793 she had a brush with Vanstable's Squadron, and was in action again on the 28th of May, 1794.



    Now under Captain Alexander Hood she sailed for the Med on the 23rd of May 1795. Audacious soon transferred to the command of Captain William Shield for the action off Hyeres on the 13th of July of that year.Next came her pursuit of Richery's fleet in September.

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    After this a return to Plymouth to effect repairs during the first three month of 1797. We saw her serving under Captain Davidge Gould in 1798. On the first of August of that year she took part in the Battle of the Nile, still under Gould's captaincy. During the battle she engaged the French ship Conquérant and helped to force her surrender.



    She became the Flagship of Vice Admiral Lord Keith 1n 1800,for the blockade of Genoa, and thence on to Malta.

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    Recommissioned in the March of 1801 under Captain Henry Curzon for the Channel Fleet in the June of that year she came under the captaincy first of Captain Sir Robert Barlow and then in short order, Captain Shouldham Peard in the Squadron of Saumarez and went on to take an active part in the battle of Algesiras on the 6th of July of that year and following that at the Gut of Gibralter on the 12th of the same month.



    In the April of 1802,Audacious embarked for service in the Leeward islands, but was back for a refit at Plymouth between the April and August of 1805.Recommissioning took place under Captain John Lawford.



    In 1806 she saw service in Strachan's squadron under Captain John Lamour, and then Captain Matthew Scott.



    In 1807 she was in the Channel Fleet once more under Captain Thomas Le Marchant Gosselin, until 1809. During this period she saw service in the Baltic, at Corunna, and then in the operations off the Scheldt estuary.

    In the March of 1810,under Captain Donald Campbell she was at the Texel, and later that year sailed to Portugal.



    She was laid up in ordinary at Chatham in the November of 1811, and finally broken up there in the August of 1815.
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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    HMS Bedford (1775)

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    Royal Oak Class

    HMS Bedford was a 74-gun third rate. ship of the line of the Royal Oak Class ordered in the December of 1768 and designed by Sir John Williams. M/ shipwright William Grey to the March of 1773 She was completed by Nicholas Phillips and launched on the 27th of October, 1775 at Woolwich.


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    Plan of Bedford



    History
    Great Britain
    Name:
    HMS Bedford
    Ordered:
    12 October 1768
    Builder:
    Woolwich Dockyard
    Laid down:
    October 1769
    Launched:
    27 October 1775
    Fate:
    Broken up, 1817
    Notes:
    General characteristics
    Class and type:
    Royal Oak-classship of the line
    Tons burthen:
    1606 (bm)
    Length:
    168 ft 6 in (51.4 m) (gundeck)
    Beam:
    46 ft 9 in (14.2 m)
    Depth of hold:
    20 ft (6.1 m)
    Propulsion:
    Sails
    Sail plan:
    Full rigged ship
    Armament:
    • Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
    • Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
    • QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
    • Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns


    Early service.

    Bedford was Commissioned in the December of 1777 for wartime service.

    American Revolutionary War.



    In 1780, Bedford fought at the
    Battle of Cape St Vincent. Later, she was part of the squadron under Vice-Admiral Mariot Arbuthnot. Under the command of Captain Sir Edmund Affleck, she fought in two engagements against the Comte de Grasse; at the Battle of St. Kitts (25–26 January 1782) under Admiral Samuel Hood, and the Battle of the Saintes (9–12 April 1782) under Admiral Rodney. Her crew was paid off and disbanded in the summer of 1783, and the vessel herself was put into ordinary.

    In 1987 she was fitted as a guard ship at Portsmouth Recommissioned under captain
    Robert Mann in the June of that year for the Spanish Armament.

    Paid off again in 1791 for some months she was a guard ship at Portsmouth under Captain Sir Andrew Snape Hammond. Then as flagship to Vice Admiral Mark Millbank in the Evolutionary squadron during 1792.
    Recommissioned in the January of 1793 under Captain Robert Mann once more, she sailed for the Med on the 22nd of May, 1793 to Join Admiral Hood's Fleet at Toulon. Mann remained with her until late 1794 and in the
    Raid on Genoa on the 17th of October succeeded in capturing the 36 gun Frigate La Modeste.

    French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

    In 1794 she came under the Flag of Sir Hyde Parker.In 1795 she was in the Mediterranean under Captain
    Davidge Gould. She was with Vice-Admiral Hotham's squadron off Genoa on 14 March when it captured Ça Ira and Censeur. During the engagement Bedford suffered such damage to her masts and rigging that she had to be towed out of the action. Bedford's casualties numbered seven men killed and 18 wounded, including her first lieutenant.

    Bedford was also present on 13 July when the British fleet engaged the Toulon fleet in an indecisive action. Only a few British vessels exchanged fire with the French before they withdrew. If Bedford participated at all, she did not suffer any casualties. The British did capture one vessel,
    Alcide, but she caught fire and blew up.

    In September 1795, Bedford was part of the force escorting 63 merchants of the Levant convoy from Gibraltar. The other escorts were the 74-gun ship
    HMS Fortitude, the frigates HMS Argo, the 32-gun frigates Juno and HMS Lutine, and the fireshipTisiphone, and the recently captured Censeur. The convoy called at Gibraltar on 25 September, at which point thirty-two of the merchants left that night in company with Argo and Juno. The rest of the fleet sailed together, reaching Cape St Vincent by the early morning of 7 October. At this point a sizable French squadron was sighted bearing up, consisting of six ships of the line and three frigates under Rear-Admiral Joseph de Richery. Eventually Censeur struck, and the remaining British warships and one surviving merchant vessel of the convoy made their escape. On 17 October Argo and Juno brought in to British waters their convoy of 32 vessels.

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    Battle of Camperdown by Thomas Witcombe.

    In 1797 Bedford saw action in Duncan's Fleet at the
    Battle of Camperdown on the 11th of October, 1797,under the command of Captain Sir Thomas Byard. During the action she suffered 30 killed and 41 wounded.

    By 1799 she was out of commission at Plymouth. The next year she was fitted out there as a
    prison ship. Between September 1805 and October 1807 Bedford underwent extensive repairs and then was prepared for foreign service. In October she was commissioned by Captain James Walker. To man Bedford the Navy transferred over Bellerophon's petty officers and crew.

    Bedford then joined Rear-Admiral Sir
    Sidney Smith who was assisting the Portuguese royal family in its flight from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro. The flotilla that left Lisbon consisted of Marlborough, London, Monarch and Bedford, eight Portuguese ships of the line, four frigates, three brigs and a schooner, as well as many merchant vessels. Smith estimated the total number of Portuguese vessels as 37. The flotilla left on 11 November 1807 and reached Rio de Janeiro on 7 March 1808. While she was in Brazil Bedford was for a short time in 1808-9 under the command of Captain Adam Mackenzie (or M'Kenzie) of President.

    War of 1812.

    In September 1814 Captain Walker took command of a squadron that carried the advance guard of Major General Keane's army, which was moving to attack New Orleans. Bedford arrived off Chandeleur Island on 8 December 1814 and the troops started to disembark eight days later. Sir
    Alexander Cochrane and Rear-Admirals Pulteney Malcolm and Edward Codrington went ashore with the army. Between 12–14 December Bedford's boats, under the command of Lieutenant John Franklin, participated in the Battle of Lake Borgne, in which she lost one man killed and four or five men wounded, including Franklin and two other officers. Bedford then contributed most of her officers and 150 men to land operations. During these operations Franklin helped dig a canal to facilitate the movement of troops. By default Walker became senior officer of the ships of the line, which were anchored 100 miles from the battle area as the waters were too shallow to permit these largest vessels to approach more closely.

    Post-war and fate.

    Paid off in 1815, soon after news of the
    Treaty of Ghent, which had ended the war, arrived, Bedford and Iphigenia sailed to Jamaica. There they collected a home-bound convoy.

    In 1816 Bedford was taken out of commission at Portsmouth. She was broken up in 1817.
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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    HMS Bellerophon (1786)



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    HMS Bellerophon, detail from Scene in Plymouth Sound in August 1815, an 1816 painting by John James Chalon



    HMS Bellerophon was an Arrogant Class 74-gunthird-rateship of the line modified from a design by Slade.M/shipwrights Edward Greaves and Co. Ordered on the 8th of November, 1782 she was built at Frindsbury, near Rochester in Kent and launched on the 17th of, October,1786. She was fitted for sea at Chatham.


    History
    GREAT BRITAIN
    Name: Bellerophon
    Ordered: 11 January 1782
    Builder: Edward Greaves and Co., Frindsbury
    Laid down: May 1782
    Launched: 6 October 1786
    Completed: By March 1787
    Renamed: Captivity on 5 October 1824
    Reclassified: Prison ship from 1815
    Nickname(s): Billy Ruffian
    Fate: Broken up in 1836
    General characteristics
    Class and type: Arrogant-classship of the line
    Tons burthen: 1,612 ​7894 (bm)
    Length: ·168 ft (51.2 m) (gundeck)

    ·138 ft (42.1 m) (keel)
    Beam: 46 ft 10 12 in (14.3 m)
    Depth of hold: 19 ft 9 in (6.0 m)
    Sail plan: Full rigged ship
    Complement: 550
    Armament: ·Lower gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns

    ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
    ·Quarterdeck: 14 × 9-pounder guns
    ·Forecastle: 4 × 9-pounder guns

    Bellerophon was initially laid up in ordinary, briefly being commissioned under Captain Thomas Pasley in the July of 1790 during the Spanish and Russian Armaments, and then laid off again in the September of 1791.

    In the April of 1794 under Captain William hope, she entered service with the Channel Fleet, commanded by the now Rear Admiral Pasley, on the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars.

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    She took part in the "Glorious First" on the 1st of June 1794, which was the first of several fleet actions of the wars. In the action, which was hotly contested, she lost four killed and twenty seven wounded including the Rear Admiral, who later received a knighthood for his part in the battle.



    Bellerophon narrowly escaped being captured by the French in 1795, whilst under the command of Captain Lord James Cranstoun when her squadron was nearly overrun by a powerful French fleet, but the bold actions of the squadron's commander, Vice-Admiral Sir William Cornwallis, caused the French to retreat.

    In the May of 1796 she was placed under the command of Captain John Loring and then later in the year under Captain Henry d'Esterre Darby.



    She played a minor role in efforts to intercept a French invasion force bound for Ireland in 1797, and then joined the Mediterranean Fleet under Sir John Jervis. Detached to reinforce Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson's fleet in 1798, she took part in the decisive defeat of a French fleet at the Battle of the Nile on the !st of September of that year, where she lost 49 killed and 148 wounded.

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    She then returned to England for a refit and repairs at Portsmouth.
    Bellerophon then departed for Jamaica in the West Indies during the December of 1801. She was once more under the command of Loring, and she spent the Peace of Amiens on cruises and convoy escort duty between the Caribbean and North America.



    With the resumption of the wars with France, Bellerophon,now under Commodore Loring's Squadron, took the 74 gun Le Duquesne and the 16 gun L'Oiseau off San Domingo on the 25th of July, 1803.



    Returning to British waters she next joining a fleet under Vice-Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood blockading Cadiz. The reinforced fleet, by then commanded by Horatio Nelson, engaged the combined Franco-Spanish fleet when it emerged from port. At the Battle of Trafalgar on the 21st of, October 1805 Bellerophon fought a bitter engagement against Spanish and French ships, sustaining heavy casualties of 27 killed and 123 wounded, including the death of her captain, John Cooke.



    After repairs at Plymouth, Bellerophon was employed blockading the enemy fleets in the Channel and the North Sea. under the command of Richard Thomas during 1806, and Captain Edward Rotherham from 1807 to 08 as the Flagship of Rear Admiral Albamarle Bertie.



    Under Captain Samuel Warren from the May of 1808 she joined the Squadron of Rear Admiral Alan Garner as his Flagship in the Baltic. She plied those waters throughout 1809, making attacks on Russian shipping, and by the August of 1810 was off the French coast again, blockading their ports under the command of Captains Lucius Hardyman, and from the June of 1811.John Halstead serving as the Flagship of Rear Admiral Sir John Ferrier until 1812.



    In the February of 1813 she first came under the command of Captain Augustus Brine, and then Captain Edward Hawker from the March of that year, as the flagship of Sir Richard Keats. She sailed to Newfoundland, North America in April as a convoy escort, in which role she continued to serve between 1813 and 1814, during which time she captured the 16 gun privateer Le Genie. In the March of 1814 she came under the command of Captain Frederic Maitland, before returning home to England.



    In 1815 she was assigned to blockade the French Atlantic port of Rochefort.


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    In the July of that year, having been finally defeated at the battle of
    Waterloo, and finding escape to America prevented by the blockading Bellerophon, on the 15th of July, Napoleon was allowed aboard "the ship that had dogged his steps for twenty years" (according to the naval historian David Cordingly). In taking his surrender on the deck of the ship Captain Maitland was performing what was to prove be Bellerophon's last act in her distinguished seagoing service.


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    Napoleon on the Bellerophon by Eastlake.



    In the December of 1815 she was paid off and converted at Sheerness for service as a convict hulk. Renamed Captivity on the 5th of October,1824 to free the name for another ship, she was refitted and moved to Plymouth in 1826. Here she was to remain in service as a prison ship until 1834, when the last convicts left.

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    The Admiralty ordered her to be sold at Plymouth on the 21st of January,1836, and she was then broken up.
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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    HMS Bellona (1760)

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    HMS Bellona
    was a 74-gun ship of the line,designed by Sir Thomas Slade,from which the Bellona-class took its name. Ordered on the 28th of December,1757 and built by M/shipwright John Locke, she was a prototype for the iconic 74-gun ships of the latter part of the 18th century. "The design of the Bellona class was never repeated precisely, but Slade experimented slightly with the lines, and the Arrogant, Ramillies, Egmont, and Elizabeth classes were almost identical in size, layout, and structure, and had only slight variations in the shape of the underwater hull. The Culloden class ship of the line was also similar, but slightly larger. Thus over forty ships were near-sisters of the Bellona." Bellona was built at Chatham, starting on the10th of May.1758, and launched on the 19th of February, 1760.


    History
    Great Britain
    Name: HMS Bellona
    Ordered: 28 December 1757
    Builder: Chatham Dockyard
    Laid down: 10 May 1758
    Launched: 19 February 1760
    Honours and
    awards:
    Battle of Copenhagen
    Fate: Broken up, 1814
    General characteristics
    Class and type: Bellona-class74-gunship of the line
    Tons burthen: 1615 bm
    Length: 168 ft (51 m) (gundeck), 138 ft (42 m) (keel)
    Beam: 46 ft 11 in (14.30 m)
    Draught:
    21 ft 6 in (6.55 m)
    Depth of hold: 19 ft 9 in (6.02 m)
    Propulsion: Sails
    Sail plan: Full rigged ship
    Complement: 650 officers and men
    Armament: ·Lower gundeck: 28 × 32 pounder guns

    ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18 pounder guns
    ·
    QD: 14 × 9 pounder guns
    ·
    Fc: 4 × 9 pounder guns


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    Bellona
    was commissioned in the February of 1760 under Captain Peter Denis and sailed to join the squadron blockading Brest during the Seven Years' War on the 8th of April. She was later detached to patrol off the Tagus River in Spain, and on 13th of August 1761, while sailing in company with the frigateBrilliant, she sighted the French 74-gun ship Courageux and two frigates. The British ships pursued, and after 14 hours, caught up with the French ships and engaged them in combat on the14th of August . The Brilliant attacking the frigates, and Bellona the Courageux. The frigates managed to slip away. Not so the Courageux who was forced into striking her colours, taken as a prize and purchased into the Royal Navy.

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    The action of 14 August 1761 off Cape Finisterre at which HMS Bellona captured the French ship Courageux



    In 1763 Bellona was paid off and became a guard ship at Portsmouth until 1771 when she underwent a large refit there, including having her bottom coppered, being one of the first British ships to receive this hull-protecting layer. This notwithstanding she did not see action again until 1780, during the American Revolutionary War. She spent the time until 1783 cruising in the North Sea and the West Indies, and participated in reliefs of Gibraltar.



    Bellona
    was once again paid off, recommissioned briefly in the July of 1789 as a guard ship once more, then recommissioned in the expectation of war with Russia, but didn't get into action again until the March of 1793, when after yet another recommissioning under Captain George Wilson she finally set out for the West Indies on the 13th of October 1794.



    In company with the Alarm she took the 36 gun Le Duquensne and the 20 gun Le Duras on the 5th of January, 1795. On the 11th of May she took the privateer schooner La Bellone, returned home and the was assigned to the Leeward Islands on the13th of February 1796.



    She was next attached to Elphinstone's squadron at the Cape of Good Hope in time for the surrender of the Dutch squadron at Saldanha Bay on the 17th of August.

    On the 10th of January, 1797, Bellona and Babet encountered Legere, a small French privateer schooner of six guns and 48 men, which they drove ashore on Deseada. They then tried to use a second captured privateer to retrieve the schooner Legere that was beached on the shore. In the effort, both French privateers were destroyed. Then Babet chased a brig, which had been taken as a prize by the schooner,and drove that ashore also. The British were unable to re float her, so they also destroyed the Brig. Babet and Bellona were eventually paid head money for these two actions in 1828, more than 30 years after the event took place.



    In the February of 97,
    Bellona was present at the capture of Trinidad, and in 1798 she was back in the Channel Fleet under Captain Sir Thomas Thompson, from the February of 1799. In the May of that year she sailed with Markham's squadron and took part in the Action of the 18th of June,1799, where she forced the surrender of the frigates Le Junonand L' Alceste, and helped HMS Centaur in the capturing of La Courageuse, plus the18 gun La Salamine and 14 gun L'Alerte.



    In the expedition to Denmark during 1801, she took part in the Battle of Copenhagen on the second of May of that year, in spite of having run aground on a shoal. In this action Bellona suffered casualties of 11 killed and and 72 wounded including Captain Thompson.



    Under Captain Thomas Bertie from the May of 1801,she served in the Irish sea, at Cadiz, and then the West Indies until being paid off in the July of 1802.

    Recommissioned in the July of 1805 under Captain Charles Painter she joined Strachan's squadron, but left before the 3rd 0f November. Under Captain John Erskine Douglas she re joined Strachan in the February of 1806 for the pursuit of Leissegues and Willaumez. She was in at the destruction of the 74 gun L'Impetueux off Cape Henry on the 14th of September, 1806.



    For the action at Basque Roads in 1809 she was commanded by Captain Stair Douglas, and also for the operations off the Scheldt.

    After a refit at the end of 1809, still under Douglas she took the French Privateer Le Heros du Nord in the North Sea on the 18th of December 1810.

    In 1813 she was paid off for the final time and went into ordinary at Chatham, She was broken up in the September of 1814, having served in the navy for over 50 years, an uncharacteristically long time for one of the old wooden warships to have survived.



    Bellona in fiction.



    Bellona
    appears in the Patrick O'Brian novels The Commodore and The Yellow Admiral as the pennant ship of a squadron led by the character Jack Aubrey
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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    HMS Berwick (1775)

    HMS Berwick was a 74-gun Elizabeth-classthird rate ship of the line, ordered on the 12th of October,1768 and designed by Sir Thomas Slade. M/shipwright Thomas Bucknall until the October of 1772 and completed by Edward Hunt. She was launched at Portsmouth Dockyard on the18th of April, 1775.

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    History
    Great Britain
    Name:
    HMS Berwick
    Ordered:
    12 December 1768
    Builder:
    Portsmouth Dockyard
    Laid down:
    May 1769
    Launched:
    18 April 1775
    Captured:
    8 March 1795, by the French
    Notes:
    France
    Name:
    Berwick
    Acquired:
    8 March 1795
    Honours and
    awards:
    Battle of Trafalgar
    Captured:
    21 October 1805, by Royal Navy
    Fate:
    Wrecked, 22 October 1805, in the storm following the Battle of Trafalgar
    General characteristics
    Class and type:
    Elizabeth-classship of the line
    Tons burthen:
    1622​5694 (bm)
    Length:
    168 ft 6 in (51.4 m) (gundeck)
    Beam:
    47 ft (14.3 m)
    Draught:
    • Unladen:18 ft (5.5 m)
    • Laden:47 ft (14.3 m)
    Depth of hold:
    12 ft 10 in (3.9 m)
    Propulsion:
    Sails
    Sail plan:
    Full rigged ship
    Armament:
    • Lower deck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
    • Upper deck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
    • QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
    • Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns


    Royal Navy service.


    As one of the newest ships of the line, she was commissioned in December 1777. fitted and coppered at Portsmouth, on the entry of France into the
    American War of Independence in 1778 Berwick joined the Channel Fleet. In the July of that year, she took part in the Battle of Ushant under the command of Captain the Hon. Keith Stewart.


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    Battle of Ushant.

    She served with the Channel Fleet throughout 1779.
    In 1780 she was sent out to the West Indies as part of a squadron under Commodore Walshingham that was sent out to reinforce the fleet under Sir George Rodney. But Walshingham's ships arrived too late for the battles of that year and she was then sent to Jamaica. The lieutenant on this trip was
    John Hunter, who later became an admiral and the second Governor of New South Wales.
    While Berwick was on the
    Jamaica station, she received serious damage from the October 1780 West Indies hurricane, which completely dismasted her and drove her out to sea. The damage forced her to return across the Atlantic to England for repairs.

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    Representation of the Distressed Situation of His Majesty's Ships Ruby, Hector, Berwick and Bristol when Dismasted in the Great Hurricane, 6 October 1780

    After repairs, Berwick sailed to the North Sea where Captain Stewart became commander in chief of the station. The North Sea was becoming an increasingly important convoy route because French and Spanish squadrons cruising in the Western Approaches to the Channel had made that route unsafe for British convoys.

    In 1781 Berwick was under the command of Captain John Ferguson. On 17 April she, with
    Belle Poule, captured the privateer Callonne, under the command of Luke Ryan.Calonne was only two years old, a fast sailer, and well equipped for a voyage of three months. She had a crew of 200 men and was armed with twenty-two 9-pounder guns, six 4-pounder guns, and six 12-pounder carronades.

    When the British Admiralty received news that the Dutch, who had joined the war at the beginning of 1781, were fitting out a squadron for service in the North Sea, it reinforced Berwick with a squadron under Vice-Admiral
    Sir Hyde Parker, who had hoisted his flag in Fortitude. Berwick also received two 68-pounder carronades for her poop deck.
    On 15 August, while escorting a convoy of 700 merchantmen from
    Leith to the Baltic, Parker's squadron of seven ships of the line met a Dutch squadron under Rear-Admiral Johan Zoutman, also consisting of seven ships of the line, but also encumbered with a convoy. In the ensuing Battle of Dogger Bank, Berwick suffered a total of 16 killed and 58 wounded.

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    Battle of the Dogger Bank.


    At the conclusion of the war, Berwick was paid off in 1783 and laid up
    in ordinary at Portsmouth.
    After undergoing a small repair between the May of 1786 and the June of the following year, she was not commissioned again until the1st of January,1793 under Captain Sir John Collins. At the outbreak of the
    French Revolutionary Wars he sailed her out for the Mediterranean on the 22nd of May to join the fleet under Admiral Lord Hood. Under Hood, Berwick participated in Toulon operations in the latter part of that year. Collins died in the March of 1794, and the ship was subsequently commanded by Captains William Shield, George Campbell, George Henry Towry, and ultimately, William Smith.

    Capture.

    In early 1795 Berwick had been refitting in San Fiorenzo Bay, Corsica, when her lower masts, stripped of rigging, rolled over the side and were lost. A hasty court martial dismissed Smith, the First Lieutenant, and the Master from the ship. After fitting a jury rig, Berwick, under Captain Adam Littlejohn, sailed to join the British fleet at Leghorn, but ran into the French fleet. In the ensuing action the French captured Berwick on the 7th of March 1795.
    At 11 am, close off
    Cap Corse, the French frigate Alceste passed to leeward and opened fire within musket-shot on Berwick's lee bow. Minerve and Vestale soon took their stations on Berwick's quarter. By noon, her rigging was cut to pieces and every sail was in ribbons. During the battle four sailors were wounded and a bar-shot decapitated Littlejohn; he was the only man killed. Command then devolved upon Lieutenant Nesbit Palmer, who consulted with the other officers. Palmer decided that Berwick was unable to escape in her disabled state and that all further resistance was useless; he then ordered that Berwick strike her colours.
    The French towed her back to
    Toulon and subsequently commissioned her into the French Navy as Berwick, under Louis-Jean-Nicolas Lejoille.

    French Navy service.

    In September 1795, she sailed from Toulon for Newfoundland as part of a squadron of six ships of the line under Rear-Admiral de Richery. In October, Richery's squadron fell in with the British Smyrna convoy, taking 30 out of 31 ships, and retaking the 74-gun Censeur. The squadron then put into Cádiz, where it remained refitting for the remainder of the year.
    On 4 August 1796, Richery finally set sail from
    Cádiz for North America with his seven ships of the line. His squadron was escorted out into the Atlantic by the Spanish Admiral Don Juan de Lángara, with 20 ships of the line. In September, Richery destroyed the British Newfoundland fishing fleet.
    In November, Berwick returned to
    Rochefort with four of the other ships from Richery's squadron, before sailing on to Brest.
    By 1803, Berwick was back in the Mediterranean at Toulon.


    Napoleonic Wars.

    In March 1805, Berwick sailed for the West Indies as part of a fleet of 11 French ships of the line under Vice-Admiral Villeneuve. Off Cádiz, the fleet was joined by the 74-gun ship Aigle, and six Spanish ships of the line under Vice-Admiral Gravina. When the fleet reached the West Indies, Villeneuve sent Commodore Cosmao-Kerjulien with the Pluton and the Berwick to attack the British position on Diamond Rock, which surrendered on 2 June.
    When Villeneuve heard that
    Nelson had followed him to the West Indies, he sailed for Europe. Sir Robert Calder, with 15 ships of the line, intercepted the French off Cape Finisterre. After a violent artillery exchange, the fleets separated in the fog. Exhausted after six months at sea, the French anchored in Ferrol before sailing to Cádiz to rest and refit. With his command under question and wanting to meet the British fleet to gain a decisive victory, Villeneuve left Cádiz to meet the British fleet near Cape Trafalgar.

    Fate.


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    In 1805, Berwick fought at the Battle of Trafalgar, where HMS Achille re-captured her on the 21st of October. Berwick sank near San Lúcar on the following day, after her French prisoners cut her towing cables. Although Donegal was nearby and quickly sent boats, many of the c.200 persons including the British Prize crew aboard Berwick lost their lives.
    Last edited by Bligh; 11-15-2019 at 12:46.
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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    Bombay Castle (1782)


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    Bombay Castle by Thomas Witcombe.

    HMS Bombay Castle was a 74-gun
    third-rate Elizabeth-class ship of the line,ordered on the 14th of July, 1779 and built by Perry and Co. She was launched on the 14th of June, 1782 at Blackwall Yard.



    History
    Great Britain
    Name:
    Bombay
    Namesake:
    Bombay Castle
    Ordered:
    14 July 1779
    Builder:
    Perry, Blackwall Yard
    Laid down:
    June 1780
    Launched:
    14 June 1782
    Renamed:
    HMS Bombay Castle (17 February 1780)
    Fate:
    Wrecked, 1796
    General characteristics
    Class and type:
    Elizabeth-class ship of the line
    Tons burthen:
    1628, 1628​1994 bm
    Length:
    168 ft 6 in (51.4 m) (gundeck); 138 ft 3 18 in (42.1 m)
    Beam:
    47 ft 1 in (14.4 m)
    Depth of hold:
    19 ft 9 in (6.02 m)
    Propulsion:
    Sails
    Sail plan:
    Full rigged ship
    Armament:
    • Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
    • Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
    • QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
    • Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns




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    Origins.

    The British
    East India Company (EIC) funded the construction of Bombay Castle as a contribution to the war effort. Similarly, the EIC also paid for the construction of HMS Carnatic and HMS Ganges.
    She was commissioned in the May of 1782 under Captain James Cranston, but paid off in that same year.
    Recommissioned in the April of 1783 under Captain Herbert Sawyer she served as a guardship at Plymouth.
    From 1785 under Captain Robert Fanshaw until 1787 when she was refitted with copper bolts. In The February she was recommissioned. She came under Captain Anthony Molloy in 1789. She was fitted for sea at Plymouth in the May of 1790. and then came under the Captaincy of Captain John Duckworth for the Spanish Armament. Paid off in the September of 1791 for repairs at Plymouth, she recommissioned in the August of 1794 under Captain Thomas Southeby and sailed for the Med in the February of 1795.

    Loss.


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    Wreck of the Bombay Castle by Thomas Buttersworth.

    Bombay Castle was still under the command of Captain Thomas Sotheby when she entered the Tagus on the 21st of December 1796. Having taken a pilot on board. In attempting to avoid the store ship
    Camel, which had grounded ahead of Bombay Castle, she also ran aground. During the subsequent week, attempts were made to float her off after boats had removed her guns and stores, but without success. The navy abandoned her as a wreck six days later on the 27th of December.
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

  12. #12
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    HMS Brunswick (1790)

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    In this painting by Robert Dodd, "A View of the Royal Dockyard at Deptford 28th March 1789", HMS Brunswick can be seen approaching completion, to the left of centre. The ship would be launched just over a year later. The three-decker being built behind HMS Brunswick is HMS Windsor Castle.



    An Admiralty designed ship of the Line ordered on the 7th of January 1785,HMS Brunswick was a 74-gun
    third rate, being the first of its class. Built at Deptford by M/shipwright Henry Peake until the March of 1787, and completed by Martin Ware. The first 74 to be designed and built after the end of the American War of Independence Brunswick showed a significant increase in her dimensions over previous vessels of the period. The ship was initially designed to carry a main battery of twenty-eight 32-pounder (15 kg) guns on the lower deck and thirty 18-pounder (8.2 kg) on the upper deck, with a secondary armament of twelve 9-pounder (4.1 kg) guns on the quarter deck and four on the forecastle.
    She was
    launched on the 30th of April, 1790.


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    HMS Brunswick seen passing Mount Edgecumbe on her way out of Plymouth, painted in 1793 by Dominic Serres.





    History
    GREAT BRITAIN
    Name:
    HMS Brunswick
    Ordered:
    7 January 1785
    Builder:
    Deptford Dockyard
    Laid down:
    May 1786
    Launched:
    30 April 1790
    Fate:
    Broken up, 1826
    Notes:
    General characteristics
    Class and type:
    74-gun third rateship of the line
    Tons burthen:
    1836 ​1394 (bm)
    Length:
    176 ft 2 12 in (53.7 m) (gundeck)
    Beam:
    48 ft 9 in (14.9 m)
    Depth of hold:
    19 ft 6 in (5.9 m)
    Propulsion:
    Sails
    Sail plan:
    Full rigged ship
    Armament:
    • Gundeck: 28 × 32 pdrs
    • Upper gundeck: 28 × 18 pdrs
    • Quarterdeck: 14 × 9 pdrs
    • Forecastle: 4 × 9 pdrs


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    Taken down the
    Thames to Woolwich where she was to be fitted-out. She was commissioned in May 1790 under Captain Sir Hyde Parker for the Spanish Armament but was not called into action. Commissioned once more under Captain Sir Roger Curtis for the Russian Armament which was also resolved without conflict. In the August of 1791, Brunswick took up service as a guardship in Portsmouth Harbour. During this time, on the 29th of October, 1792, three condemned mutineers from the Bounty were hanged from her yardarms.
    In the July of 1793, under Captain John Harvey, she joined
    Richard Howe'sChannel Fleet at the outbreak of the French Revolutionary War. Brunswick, was present at the battle on Glorious First of June off Ushant, where she a fought a hard action against the French 74-gun Vengeur du Peuplewith 41 of her crew killed,including Harvey, and 114 wounded.

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    HMS Brunswick fighting the Achille and Vengeur du Peuple

    Brunswick's next action occurred when she was under the command of Captain lord Charles Fitzgerald in a small squadron under
    William Cornwallis that encountered a large French fleet on June the16th and 17th, 1795. The British ships were forced to run into the Atlantic and narrowly avoided capture through a combination of good fortune and some fake signals.

    In the June of 1797 she was In the Leeward Islands under Captain William Rutherford, and in 1798 under Lieutenant Hugh Cook as acting Captain on the Jamaica station. By the May of1799 her Captain was Commander William Chilcott, and finally in the June of 1800 Captain James Wallis still based at Jamiaca.

    After a five-year spell in the
    West Indies, in the September of 1800 Brunswick returned home and was paid off. Refitted at Portsmouth, at this time her Roundhouse was removed and In the December of 1806, Brunswick's armament was changed so that all her guns fired a 24-pounder (11 kg) shot. This meant that the guns on the lower deck were downgraded while those on the upperdeck were upgraded. The guns on the forecastle were replaced with two 24-pounder long guns and four 24-pounder carronades, and on the quarter deck, the twelve 9-pounders were removed to make way for two long guns and ten carronades, all 24-pounders. The great guns on the upper decks were mounted on Gover carriages which enabled them to be handled by fewer men.
    She was recommissioned in the February of 1807 under Captain Thomas Graves and wes dispatched to join the Copenhagen expedition.
    Denmark was under threat from a French invasion, and Brunswick was part of the task force, under overall command of James Gambier, sent to demand the surrender of the Danish fleet in the Augfust of that year. When the Danes refused to comply, Brunswick joined in with an attack on the capital, Copenhagen.


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    Copenhagen after the bombardment painted by J. D. Moller


    Return to the Baltic.

    Following the
    Treaty of Tilsit, Russia became an enemy of the United Kingdom and Sweden, and in May 1808, Brunswick was sent back to the Baltic as part of a fleet, under James Saumarez. While attached to Richard Goodwin Keats' squadron in the August of that year, Brunswick assisted in the evacuation of 10,000 Spanish troops from the region. Initially fighting for Napoleon in Northern Germany and Denmark, the Spaniards had changed allegiance following the occupation of their country by the French. Keats in HMS Superb, accompanied by Brunswick, HMS Edgar and five or six smaller vessels were in close proximity at the time and were contacted by the Spanish commander-in-chief, the Marquis de la Romana, with a view to joining forces. On 9 August a plan was formulated for the Spaniards to seize the fort and town of Nyborg, allowing Keats' squadron to take possession of the port and organize the evacuation. Keats had 57 local boats loaded with the Spaniards' stores and artillery and taken to Slipshavn, four miles to the south-east, where, on 11 August, the troops were able to embark.

    Fate.

    She then went into Ordinary at Gillingham until 1812. In the June of that year she was fitted as a Prison ship under lieutenant H Sparkes until 1814 when she became a powder hulk at Chatham until the August of 1815. From this time onward she was used as a Lazarette at Stangate Creek until the October of 1825.
    Exactly a year later in the October of 1826 she was
    broken up at Sheerness.
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

  13. #13
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    HMS Canada (1765)

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    HMS Captain, pictured, was from the same Canada class as HMS Canada.



    HMS Canada was the first of its class designed by William Batley. A 74-gun third-rate ship of the line, she was ordered on the first of December 1759. There would be three more of her class built but not until 1781. M/shipwright Israel Pownoll until the May of 1762 and then completed by Joseph Harris. She was launched on the 17th of September,1765 at Woolwich Dockyard.

    History
    GREAT BRITAIN
    Name: HMS Canada
    Ordered: 1 December 1759
    Builder: Woolwich Dockyard
    Launched: 17 September 1765
    Honours and
    awards:
    Fate: Broken up, 1834
    Notes: Prison ship from 1810
    General characteristics [1]
    Class and type: Canada-class ship of the line
    Tons burthen: 1605 (bm)
    Length: 170 ft (52 m) (gundeck)
    Beam: 46 ft 9 in (14.25 m)
    Depth of hold: 20 ft 6 in (6.25 m)
    Propulsion: Sails
    Sail plan: Full rigged ship
    Armament:
    • Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
    • Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
    • QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
    • Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns


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    HMS Canada
    was commissioned in the February of 1779 and fitted and coppered at Plymouth from the March to April of 1780. By the end of that year she was rated as a 76 gun ship with two extra 18 pounders fitted.

    On 2 May 1781, Canada engaged and captured the Spanish ship Santa Leocadia, of 34 guns.
    In 1782, Canada was under the command of William Cornwallis, when she took part in the Battle of St. Kitts. Later that year she participated in the Battle of the Saintes. These actions necessitated a major repair at Portsmouth between the March of 1783 and 1784.
    She was recommissioned in the July of 1790 under Captain Lord Hugh Conway for the Spanish Armament, and in 1793 she was commanded by Captain Charles Powell Hamilton under whom she took part in the Action of the 6th of November 1794 with Nielly's squadron, and by skillful ship handling managed to avoid capture.

    Under the command of Sir Erasmus Gower, in 1795 she joined Howe's Fleet. However from the June of that year she was captained by George Bowen, as the flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Roger Curtis, and then sailed for Jamaica.
    She was still In Jamaica during the start 1797 but now under Captain Thomas Twysden, who later returning her to Plymouth for repairs. By the November of that year she was ready for recommissioning under Commodore Sir John Borlase Warren, but in March of 1798n was grounded near the mouth of the Gironde whilst in pursuit of the 36 gun La Charente but was later successfully freed.
    On the 12th of October 1798 Canada was again in action with Bompart's squadron off Ireland. During the engagement on of her crew was mortally wounded.

    In May 1799, under Captain Michael de Courcy she formed a part of Cotton's squadron in the Med, and in operations off Quiberon in the June of 1800. From the April of1801 she was under Captain Joseph York and then went into Portsmouth for a refit.

    Napoleonic Wars.

    In the September of 1805 she was recommissioned under Captain John Harvey and sailed once more for Jamaica on the 28th of January 1806.

    In 1807, Canada was in the Caribbean in a squadron under the command of Rear-Admiral Alexander Cochrane. The squadron, which included HMS Prince George, HMS Northumberland, HMS Ramillies and HMS Cerberus, captured Telemaco, Carvalho and Master on 17 April 1807.

    Following the concern in Britain that neutral Denmark was entering an alliance with Napoleon, in December 1807 Canada sailed in Cochrane's squadron in the expedition to occupy the Danish West Indies. The expedition captured the Danish islands of St Thomas on 22 December and Santa Cruz on 25 December. The Danes did not resist and the invasion was bloodless.

    Fate.

    Returning home Canada was paid off in the January of 1808 and fitted as a prison ship at Chatham. In 1814 she was converted to a powder magazine for the Medway.

    Canada became a convict ship at Chatham from 1810, and was broken up there in 1834.
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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    HMS Captain (1787)


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    HMS Captain was a modified Canada Class74-gun
    third-rateship of the line ordered on the 14th of November,1782 and designed by William Batley. M/shipwright Robert Batson. She was launched on the 26th of November,1787 at Limehouse.




    History
    Great Britain
    Name:
    HMS Captain
    Ordered:
    14 November 1782
    Builder:
    Batson, Limehouse Yard
    Laid down:
    May 1784
    Launched:
    26 November 1787
    Honours and
    awards:
    Participated in:

    Fate:
    Burned and broken up, 1813
    General characteristics
    Class and type:
    Canada classthird rateship of the line
    Tons burthen:
    ​1638 6394 (bm)
    Length:
    170 ft (52 m) (gundeck)
    Beam:
    46 ft 9 in (14.25 m)
    Depth of hold:
    20 ft 6 in (6.25 m)
    Propulsion:
    Sails
    Sail plan:
    Full rigged ship
    Complement:
    550 officers and men


    Armament:
    • Lower gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
    • Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
    • QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
    • Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns


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    Captain was fitted out at various venues from Deptford to Woolwich and finally commissioned at Plymouth on the 24th of September, 1790 under Captain Archibald Dickson for the Spanish Armament.
    She served during both the
    French revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

    French Revolutionary Wars.

    In the January of 1793 she sailed for the med under Captain Samuel Reeve, and joined Hood's fleet. She was with part of the Mediterranean fleet which occupied
    Toulon at the invitation of the Royalists in 1793 before being driven out by Revolutionary troops in an action where Napoleon Bonaparte made his name. During this operation Captain was deployed in the Raid on Genoa. On the 17th of October she was present at the capture of the French 36 gun La Modeste. In 1795 under Captain Thomas Seacombe, and later that year under Captain John Samuel Smith.
    In June 1796, Admiral Sir
    John Jervis transferred Captain Horatio Nelson from HMS Agamemnon into Captain. Jervis appointed Nelson commodore of a squadron that was first deployed off Livorno during Napoleon's march through northern Italy.
    In the September of 1796,
    Gilbert Elliot, the British viceroy of the Anglo-Corsican Kingdom, decided that it was necessary to clear out Capraja, which belonged to the Genoese and which served as a base for privateers. He sent Nelson, in Captain, together with the transport Gorgon, Vanneau, the cutter Rose, and troops of the 51st Regiment of Foot to accomplish this task in September. On their way, Minerva joined them. The troops landed on the 18th of September and the island surrendered immediately. Later that month Nelson oversaw the British withdrawal from Corsica.
    In the February of 1797, Nelson had rejoined Jervis's fleet 25 miles west of Cape St. Vincent at the southwest tip of
    Portugal, just before it intercepted a Spanish fleet on the 14th of February. The Battle of Cape St Vincent made both Jervis's and Nelson's names. Jervis was made Earl St Vincent and Nelson was knighted for his initiative and daring.
    Nelson had realized that the leading Spanish ships were escaping and
    wore Captain to break out of the line of battle to attack the much larger Spanish ships. Captain exchanged fire with the Spanish flagship, Santísima Trinidad, which mounted 136 guns on four decks. Later Captain closely engaged the 80-gun San Nicolas, when the Spanish ship was disabled by a broadside from Excellent and ran into another ship, the San Josef of 112-guns. With Captain hardly maneuverable, Nelson ran his ship alongside San Nicolas, which he boarded. Nelson was preparing to order his men to board San Josef next when she signaled her intent to surrender. The boarding of San Nicolas, which resulted in the taking of the two larger ships was later immortalized as 'Nelson's Patent Bridge for Boarding First Rates.

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    HMS Captain capturing the San Nicolas and the San Josef at the Battle of Cape St Vincent, 14 February 1797

    Captain was the most severely damaged of the British ships as she was in the thick of the action for longer than any other ship. She returned to service following repairs and on the 6th of May,1799 sailed for the Mediterranean under Captain Sir Richard Strachan, where she joined Captain
    John Markham's squadron.
    After the
    Battle of Alexandria, the squadron under Contre-Admiral Jean-Baptiste Perrée, consisting of the 40-gun Le Junon, 36-gun Alceste, 32-gun La Courageuse, 18-gun La Salamine and the brig L'Alerte escaped to Genoa.
    On the 17 of June of that year, the French squadron, still under Perrée, was en route from
    Jaffa for Toulon when it encountered the British squadron under Markham in Centaur. In the ensuing Action of the 18th of June, 1799, the British captured the entire French squadron, with Captain capturing L'Alerte. Markham described L'Alerte as a brig of 14 guns and 120 men, under the command of Lieutenant Dumay.
    In the August of 1800, Captain joined Warren's squadron at Ferrol. On the 23rd of November of that year, Captain Sir
    Richard Strachan in Captain chased a French convoy in to the Morbihan where it sheltered under the protection of shore batteries and the 20-gun corvette Réolaise. Magicienne was able to force the corvette onto the shore at Port Navalo, though she got off again. The hired armed cutter Suworow then towed in four boats with Lieutenant Hennah of Captain and a cutting-out party of seamen and marines. The hired armed cutters Nile and Lurcher towed in four more boats from Magicienne. Although the cutting-out party landed under heavy fire of grape and musketry, it was able to set the corvette on fire; shortly thereafter she blew up. Only one British seaman, a crewman from Suworow, was killed. However, Suworow's sails and rigging were so badly cut up that Captain had to take her under tow. A French report of the action stated that Captain Duclos, seeing the approach of the British, ran Réolaise on shore and burnt her.
    Between the September of 1801 and the October of 1802 Captain was statione at Jamaica in the Caribbean under the command of Captain Charles Boyle, before returning to England for a refit at Plymouth.

    Napoleonic Wars.

    Recommissioned in the June of 1805 under Captain George Stephens, she was again paid off in the March of 1806 for yet another refit at Portsmouth. After recommissioning in the May of 1806 she served under Captain George Cockburn at the blockade of Brest.
    In 1807 it had been one of the escorts for the expedition leaving Falmouth that would eventually attack Buenos Aires. Turned back north once the expedition reached the Cape Verde Islands.
    In the July of that year Captain Isaac Wooley took command and proceeded in Captain on the Copenhagen expedition during August, then on to the occupation of Madeira on the 26th of December. In 1808 she was in the Leeward Islands under Captain Edward Rushworth and by the end of that year Captain James Wood. Captain shared with
    Amaranthe, Pompee, and Morne Fortunee in the prize money pool of £772 3s 3d for the capture of Frederick on the 30th of December. This money was not paid out until the June of 1829.
    Captain took part in the capture of
    Martinique in the February of 1809. In the April of that year, a strong French squadron arrived at the Îles des Saintes, south of Guadeloupe. There they were blockaded until the 14th, when a British force under Major-General Frederick Maitland invaded and captured the islands. Captain was among the naval vessels that shared in the proceeds of the capture of the islands.
    In July she returned to England under Captain Christopher Nesham, and was paid off in December.

    Fate.

    Fitted as a receiving ship at Plymouth where her diagonal braces were removed in the December of that same year of 1807.
    Captain was put into harbour service. On 22 March 1813, she was accidentally burned in the
    Hamoaze, off Plymouth. At the time, she was undergoing conversion to a sheer hulk. When it was clear that the fire, which had begun in the forecastle, had taken hold, her securing lines were cut and she was towed a safe distance away from the other vessels so that she could burn herself out. Even so, orders were given that she be sunk. Ships' launches with carronades then commenced a one-hour bombardment. She finally foundered after having burned down to the waterline. Two men died in the accident. The wreck was raised in July and broken up.
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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    HMS Carnatic (1783)

    HMS Carnatic ordered on the 14th of July, 1779 was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line . She was the first of her class modeled on the lines of the captured French ship Courageux. M/shipwrights Henry Adams and William Barnard. Carnatic was launched on the 21st of January, 1783 at Deptford Wharf. The British East India Company paid for her construction and presented her to the Royal Navy.

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    HMS Carnatic off Plymouth, 18 August 1789

    History
    GREAT BRITAIN
    Name: HMS Carnatic
    Ordered: 14 July 1779
    Builder: Dudman, Deptford Wharf
    Laid down: March 1780
    Launched: 21 January 1783
    Renamed: HMS Captain, 1815
    Fate: Broken up, 1825
    General characteristics
    Class and type: Carnatic-class ship of the line
    Tons burthen: 1719​3094 (bm)
    Length: 172 ft 4 12 in (52.5 m) (gundeck); 1,140 ft 3 12 in (347.6 m) (keel)
    Beam: 48 ft 0 in (14.6 m)
    Depth of hold: 20 ft 9 12 in (6.337 m)
    Propulsion: Sails
    Sail plan: Full rigged ship
    Armament:
    • Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
    • Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
    • QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
    • Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns






    Carnatic
    was commissioned in the March of 1783 under Captain Anthony Malloy as a guard ship at Chatham until 1785. and then in the same role at Plymouth. From the April of 1786 she was under Captain Peregrine Bertie, and fitted for channel service in 1789 under Captain John Ford for the Spanish armament.

    From the August of 1890 she served as the Flagship of Rear Admiral John Jervis. She then had another period as guardship at Plymouth until 1797 when she was recommissioned under Captain Henry Jenkins and served as the Flagship to Rear Admiral Charles Pole.

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    HMS Carnatic's Figurehead.

    In the May of 1796 she sailed for the Leeward Islands and in 1798, whilst stationed at Jamaica, was commanded by Captain George Bowen and then in 1799 Captain John Loring.

    By 1802 she was under the command of Captain Charles Penrose as Flagship to Rear Admiral Robert Montague.

    Fitted as a temporary receiving ship in 1805 at Plymouth she remained in ordinary there from1812 until 1815.

    On the17th of May, 1815, the Admiralty renamed her HMS Captain.

    Captain was broken up on the 30th of September, 1825.
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

  16. #16
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    HMS Colossus (1787)

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    HMS Colossus was a 74-gun Carnatic Class third-rateship of the line ordered on the 13th of December 1781. She was built by M/ shipwright William Cleverley, and was launched at Gravesend on the 4th of April, 1787.




    History
    Great Britain
    Name: HMS Colossus
    Ordered: 13 December 1781
    Builder: Clevely, Gravesend
    Laid down: October 1782
    Launched: 4 April 1787
    Fate: Wrecked, 10 December 1798
    Notes: ·Participated in:
    ·Battle of Groix
    ·Battle of Cape St Vincent
    General characteristics
    Class and type: Carnatic-classship of the line
    Tons burthen: 1703 bm
    Length: 172 ft 3 in (52.50 m) (gundeck)
    Beam: 47 ft 9 in (14.55 m)
    Depth of hold: 20 ft 9 12 in (6.3 m)
    Propulsion: Sails
    Sail plan: Full rigged ship
    Armament: ·74 guns:
    ·Gundeck: 28 × 32 pdrs
    ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18 pdrs
    ·Quarterdeck: 14 × 9 pdrs

    ·Forecastle: 4 × 9 pdrs



    Early history.

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    Colossus was commissioned in the June of 1787 under Captain Hugh Christian, and acted as a guardship at Portsmouth under Captain Henry Harvey until the September of 1791.



    Refitted at Portsmouth, she was recommissioned in the February of 1793 under Captain Charles Pole she sailed for the Med in the April of that year.On the 6th of June, in the Bay of Biscay, she captured Vanneau, a tiny vessel with an armament of just six guns on the 6th of June, which the Royal Navy took into service. Then only a month later accompanied by HMS Leviathan she captured the Privateer Le Vrai Patriot. Still in the same year, Colossus was part of a large fleet of 51 warships of numerous types, including a Spanish squadron, but commanded overall by Vice Admiral Lord Samuel Hood.




    The Siege of Toulon.




    The Fleet arrived off Toulon on the 26th of August, 1793, with Lord Hood aboard HMS Victory. The objective was to keep the French Fleet in check. Berthed In Toulon's port were 58 French warships, and Lord Hood was determined not to allow such a potent and dangerous fleet to be taken over by French revolutionary forces. The Bourbons, the Royalists of France, had thus far managed to maintain control of Toulon, a vital Mediterranean port. Upon the arrival of the British Fleet, the Bourbons duly surrendered the town and ships to Hood.



    Sailors and Royal Marines began to land at Toulon from the ships of the Fleet, with the objective of taking possession of the key forts, which they succeeded in doing. The French Republican forces were quickly mobilized, and began a siege of Toulon on the 7th of September. By the 15th, the British and Spanish were forced to withdraw as the heights overlooking the anchorage had been taken by the Republicans and a battery of siege guns established there. In the retreat the British took with them over15,000 Royalists, as well as destroying the dockyards, and also a large number of the French warships. The Royal Navy lost 10 ships to artillery fire after the French capture of the heights. Colossus then returned to Portsmouth for a refit which took until the April of 1794.

    June saw her joining Montague's squadron, and taking part in the
    Battle of Groix on the 23rd of June,1795.Colossus was once again embroiled in a large fleet action. 25 ships commanded by Admiral Lord Bridport on his flagship, Royal George, fought a French fleet of 23 warships under the command of Rear-Admiral Villaret-Joyeuse. The battle was immense and chaotic, and raged across a vast area, yet it came to an indecisive end, when Bridport ordered his Fleet to cease fighting at 7.15am, just four hours after the initial fighting had started. This decision allowed nine important French warships to escape. Colossus received damage, suffering three killed and thirty wounded. In total, British losses were 31 killed and 113 wounded. French losses are not known; it is estimated over 670 French sailors were killed or wounded, during skirmishes that resulted in the capture of three French warships.

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    Colossus at the Battle of Groix.


    Though Colossus was involved in much bitter fighting, her Scots captain, John Monkton, ordered his kilt-wearing piper to proceed to the maintop mast staysail netting and play the pipes throughout the battle, no doubt to the bemusement of the French sailors who witnessed it.



    Colossusnow returned to Plymouth to make repairs which took until the July of 1796 when she came under the command of Captain Richard Grindall until the end of that year.

    Battle of Cape St. Vincent.

    In the February of 1797, Colossus, now commanded by Captain George Murray, as part of Parker's reinforcements to Admiral John Jervis, joined his fleet and was involved in yet another large-scale clash of fleets in the Battle of Cape St. Vincent on the 14th of February. She was part of a 21-ship strong fleet (including 7 smaller craft) under the command of Jervis in his flagship HMS Victory, against a Spanish Fleet of 27 ships commanded by Lieutenant-General Don José de Córdoba y Ramos. Colossus sustained serious damage, her sails being virtually shot away. It looked inevitable that she would be raked by Spanish warships, until Orion closed up on Colossus and covered her.

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    The battle was a major victory for the Royal Navy. Despite being outnumbered, it captured four Spanish ships of the Line and crippled seven more, including the largest warship afloat at that time - the Santísima Trinidad. The British lost approximately 300 killed or wounded; the Spanish lost 1,092 killed or wounded, and 2,300 taken as prisoners.



    Other action.

    As the fleet repaired at Naples Colossus was immediately sent "on a cruise off Malta". She then went to Gibraltar before returning to the now repaired fleet in Naples. In the summer, William Bolton (later Captain) was promoted to Lieutenant on the Colossus, and the ship on the obverse of the 1797 medal featuring William Bolton may represent Colossus. Colossus was not cannibalized; Captain Murray did, however, hand over to Nelson three of his guns and one bower anchor. This was done as Colossus had been ordered home to England, whereas the Vanguard was staying within the war zone. Loaded with Greek vases and wounded men from the battle of the Nile, Colossus set off for home. She stopped at Algiers and at Lisbon on the way. At Lisbon she joined a larger convoy that was "bound for Ireland and other northern ports". The convoy dispersed in the English Channel as planned.

    Shipwreck.

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    Approximate position of the wreck.



    Amidst the bad winter weather Colossus sighted the Isles of Scilly first and came to anchor in St Mary's Roads on 7 December. For three days she intended to ride out the storm, only for it to increase. On the night of 10 December an anchor cable parted and the ship ran aground on a submerged ledge of rock off Samson Island. Only one life was lost, that of Quartermaster Richard King who drowned when he fell overboard while trying to sound the lead. Boats were immediately put out from the island, and all of the other crew were transported to safety by the morning. On 11 December the ship settled on her side, the starboard beam ends touching the waves. Attempts to re-board her were thwarted by continued high seas.



    On 15 December Colossus' mainmast and bowsprit broke away and it became clear she could no longer be re-floated. A naval brig, Fearless, was able to put alongside the shipwrecked vessel on 29 December and bring away a quantity of stores and the body of Admiral Molyneux Shuldam which had been transported aboard Colossus for reburial in England. No further salvage proved possible and the vessel sank entirely in early January 1799.

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    For more information on the wreck see here:-
    http://scillydivers.blogspot.com/p/wreck-of-hms-colossus.html
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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    HMS Conqueror (1773)

    HMS Conqueror was a 74-gun Royal Oak class, third rateship of the line, designed by Sir John Williams and ordered on the 12th of October,1768. M/shipwright Israel Pownoll until the February of 1775, and completed by John Henslow. She was launched on the10th of October, 1773 at Plymouth.



    History
    Great Britain
    Name:
    HMS Conqueror
    Ordered:
    12 October 1768
    Builder:
    Plymouth Dockyard
    Laid down:
    October 1769
    Launched:
    10 October 1773
    Fate:
    Broken up, 1794
    General characteristics
    Class and type:
    Royal Oak-classship of the line
    Tons burthen:
    1606
    Length:
    168 ft 6 in (51.36 m) (gundeck)
    Beam:
    46 ft 9 in (14.25 m)
    Depth of hold:
    20 ft (6.1 m)
    Propulsion:
    Sails
    Sail plan:
    Full rigged ship
    Armament:
    • 74 guns:
    • Gundeck: 28 × 32 pdrs
    • Upper gundeck: 28 × 18 pdrs
    • Quarterdeck: 14 × 9 pdrs
    • Forecastle: 4 × 9 pdrs


    She was commissioned under Captain Thomas Graves
    coppered and fitted at Plymouth but paid off after wartime service in the March of 1781.

    Recommissioned in the may of that year under Captain George Balfour who commanded her at the
    Battle of the Saintes, in 1782.

    She was fitted in ordinary at Plymouth in the November of 1783.Moved to Chatham in 1787andwas broken up there in the November of 1794.
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

  18. #18
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    French ship Courageux (1753)

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    Courageux was a 74-gun
    ship of the line of the French Navy, built at Brest from 1751 and launched in 1753.



    History
    France
    Name:
    Courageux
    Builder:
    Brest
    Launched:
    11 October 1753
    Captured:
    13 August 1761, by Royal Navy
    Great Britain
    Name:
    Courageux
    Acquired:
    13 August 1761
    Fate:
    Wrecked off Gibraltar, 18 December 1796
    General characteristics
    Class and type:
    74-gun third-rateship of the line
    Tons burthen:
    1,721​3094 bm
    Length:
    172 feet 3 inches (52.5 m) (gundeck)
    Beam:
    48 ft 34 in (14.6 m)
    Depth of hold:
    20 ft 10 12 in (6.4 m)
    Sail plan:
    Full-rigged ship
    Armament:
    • French Navy: 74 guns
    • Gundeck: 28 × 36-pounders
    • Upper gundeck: 30 × 18-pounders
    • Quarterdeck: 16 × 8-pounders
    • Royal Navy: 74 guns
    • Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounders
    • Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounders
    • Quarterdeck: 18 × 9-pounders

    FRENCH SERVICE.

    Battle of Cape Finisterre (1761)

    In the late evening of 13 August 1761, Courageux was off
    Vigo in the company of the frigates Malicieuse and Hermione, when the 74-gun British ship HMS Bellona and the frigate Brilliant were seen. Mistaking them for ships of the line, Courageux and her compatriots sought escape into the darkness. The moon was bright, however, and the British were able to pursue.

    The next morning, Courageux's captain decided that Bellona was a 50-gun ship and, believing he had the superior force, ordered the frigates to attack Brilliant while he turned to close with Bellona. When the ships were within musket-shot, Courageux opened fire and, within nine minutes, had brought down Bellona's mizzen-mast and cut her rigging so badly that the ship became difficult to handle. Bellona's captain, seeing the danger, ordered a boarding party, but Courageux sheered off. With difficulty, the British ship was able to wear and, coming up on Courageux's starboard quarter, unleashed a series of devastating broadsides. Courageux was greatly damaged and, with about 200 men killed and a further 100 wounded, struck her colours.


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    Bellona vs Courageux.

    BRITISH SERVICE.

    Courageux was purchased by the
    Admiralty on the 2nd of February of the following year, and taken into the Royal Navy as the third-rate HMS Courageux. In the July of that year a large repair was begun at Portsmouth, which took until the middle of the June of1764 to complete. A further substantial repair was made between the January of 1772 and the July of1773, In the July of 1776, Courageux was commissioned under Captain Samuel Hood, and, in November, and she was fitted out as a guardship at Portsmouth.

    In 1778 she joined the
    Channel Fleet, and she was later part of the squadron commanded by CommodoreCharles Fielding that controversially captured a Dutch convoy on the 31st of December, 1779, in what became known as the Affair of Fielding and Bylandt.
    Courageux was in the
    Western Approaches on 12 March 1780, in the company of another seventy-four, HMS Alexander, when a large frigate was seen to the south-east. Alexander set off in pursuit and after eighteen hours was close enough to engage with her chase guns. After two hours more, as she was overhauling her quarry, Alexander's fore-top mast snapped. Courageux had by this time caught up and continued the chase, eventually forcing the French frigate's surrender. The prize was the Monsieur, a privateer from Granville of 40 guns and a crew of 362.

    In 1781, Courageux was under the command of
    Lord Mulgrave, and on 4 January, she and HMS Valiant recaptured Minerva, approximately 5 miles west of Ushant. Minerve had sailed in company from Brest the previous day for a fortnight's cruise around the Scilly Isles. Courageux exchanged fire at close range for more than an hour, during which time all of Minerve's masts were put out of action and extensive damage done to her hull, while fifty of her crew were killed and a further twenty-three injured. Courageux's mizzen, foremast and bowsprit were damaged, and ten of her crew were killed and seven wounded. Valiant, in the meantime, had gone off in pursuit of another ship. Courageux towed her prize to Spithead, arriving on the morning of 8 January



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    A 1779 depiction of British-occupied Gibraltar, under siege from Spanish forces.

    In April, Courageux was part of the convoy under
    George Darby sent to relieve the Great Siege of Gibraltar, maintained by French and Spanish forces since June 1779. Courageux shared in the prize money for the French brigs Duc de Chartres and Trois Amis and the Spanish frigate Santa Leucadia captured during the cruise.

    A refit was carried out in the April of1782. Then, in the June of 1787 a greater repair was required, taking until the July of 1789. Following a dispute with Spain over territorial rights along the
    Nootka Sound, Courageux was commissioned in the April of 1790 under George Countess for the Spanish Armament. The crisis was largely resolved through a series of agreements signed between the October of 1790 and the January of 1794. In the February of 1791, Courageux was under the command of Captain Alan Gardner when she was recommissioned for the Russian Armament. Again, the matter was settled before she was called into action, and she paid off in September of that year.

    Toulon and Corsica.

    France declared war on Britain and the Dutch Republic in the February of 1793, and Courageux, under Captain
    William Waldegrave, was dispatched with other British ships to blockade the French fleet in Toulon. By the middle of August, this British force, under Admiral Hood, in the 100-gun First Rate ship HMS Victory, had expanded into twenty-one ships of the line. On the 23rd of August, a deputation of French royalists came aboard the Victory to discuss the conditional surrender of the town, and on the 27th of August 1500 troops were landed to evict the republicans occupying the forts guarding the port. The landings were covered by Courageux, Meleager, Tartar, Egmont and Robust. Once the forts were secured, the remainder of Hood's fleet, accompanied by seventeen Spanish ships of the line, which had just arrived, sailed into the harbour.

    In September 1793, during the occupation, Courageux, captained temporarily by Captain John Matthews, joined a squadron under
    Robert Linzee, which was sent to Corsica to support an insurrection there. General Pasquale Paoli, the leader of the insurgent party, had assured Hood that a small show of strength was all that was needed to force the island's surrender. This turned out not to be the case, however, and Linzee's appeals to the French garrisons there were rejected. His force, of three ships of the line and two frigates, was too small to blockade the island, so an attack on San Fiorenzo was decided upon.

    The two frigates,
    Lowestoffe and Nemesis, were charged with destroying a Martello tower at Forneilli, two miles from the town, which guarded the only secure anchorage in the bay. After taking a few salvos from the ships, the French garrison deserted, and the British landed men to secure the fort. Linzee's squadron entered the bay but was prevented from engaging the batteries of San Fiorenzo by contrary winds. During the night, HMS Ardent was warped into a position where, at 03:30 on the1st of October, she was able to attack the batteries and cover the approach of the other British ships. Half an hour later, HMS Alcide tried to take up a station nearby but was blown towards some rocks by a sudden change of wind and had to be towed clear. Courageux in the meantime covered Alcide's stern by coming between it and the gunfire from a redoubt on the shore. Alcide eventually got into a position where she could join in the action, and the three ships bombarded the redoubt until 08:15 when, there being little sign of damage, Linzee gave the order to withdraw. Courageux bore the brunt of the action, having been exposed to a raking fire from the town, and caught on fire four times after being hit by heated shot.

    During the same month, French troops
    laid siege to the city of Toulon, and in the December, the allied force within was driven out. When the order to withdraw was given, Courageux was being repaired and was without a rudder, but she was able to warp out of the harbour and assist in the evacuation of allied troops from the waterfront. A replacement rudder was brought out, suspended between two ship's boats, and fitted later.

    Battle of Genoa.

    Courageux, now commanded by Captain Augustus Montgomery, was one of thirteen ships of the line, which, together with seven frigates, two sloops and a cutter, were anchored in the roads of
    Livorno on the 8th of March 1795. The following day, a British scout, the 24-gun sloop Moselle, brought news that a French fleet of fifteen ships of the line, six frigates and two brigs, had been seen off the islands of Sainte-Marguerite. Vice-Admiral William Hotham immediately set off in pursuit, and on the10th of March the advanced British frigates spotted the French fleet at some distance, making its way back to Toulon against the wind. Two days later, on the night of the 12th of March, a storm developed which badly damaged two French ships of the line. These ships were escorted to Gourjean Bay by a pair of French frigates, thus leaving the opposing fleets of roughly equal in strength and numbers.

    The next morning, Hotham attempted to arrange his ships into a
    Battle line, but seeing no response from the French fleet, changed his orders to give general chase. At 08:00 the 80-gun Ça Ira at the rear collided with Victoire, and her fore and main topmasts went by the board. The leading British ship, the 36-gun frigate HMS Inconstant under Captain Thomas Fremantle, reached the damaged Ça Ira within the hour and opened up such a furious fire at close range that she caused even further devastation. Seeing the danger, the French frigate Vestale fired upon Inconstant from long range before taking the limping Ça Ira in tow. Shortly after this, HMS Agamemnon under Captain Horatio Nelson joined in the action, until several of the French ships bearing down upon him forced her to drop back into proper station in the line.

    Throughout the day and the following night, the British van sporadically engaged the French rearguard, with Ça Ira dropping further behind the main body of the French force. In order to better protect the damaged ship, the French admiral,
    Pierre Martin, ordered the ship of the line Censeur to replace Vestale as the towing ship. By morning the fleets were 21 nautical miles (39 km) south-west of Genoa, with the British rapidly gaining ground. Ça Ira and Censeur had fallen even further behind, and Hotham sent his two fastest ships after them. Captain and Bedford which unfortunately did not arrive simultaneously and thus both were repulsed, although further damage had been inflicted on the French stragglers during the process. Martin then ordered his line to wear in succession and get between the British fleet and the badly damaged Ça Ira and Censeur, which in the meantime had come under a new threat from the recently arrived Courageux and HMS Illustrious. A sudden lull in wind made manoeuvres more difficult, and the leading French ship, Duquesne under Captain Zacharie Allemand, found itself sailing down the opposite side of the British vanguard.

    At 08:00, Duquesne was in a position to engage Illustrious and Courageux, which, in their efforts to reach Ça Ira and Censeur, were now far ahead and to leeward of their own line. Two other French ships, Victoire and
    Tonnant, now joined in the action, and, for an hour, the French and British vanguards exchanged heavy fire. Both British ships were badly mauled: Illustrious had drifted out of the battle, having lost her main and mizzen masts over the side, while Courageux also had two masts shot away and her hull much holed by the French fire. The Duquesne, Victoire, and Tonnant then exchanged passing broadsides with the British ships coming up, before turning away and leaving Ça Ira and Censeur to their fate. Hotham, considering the condition of the ships in his van, and content with his prizes, chose not pursue the French any further.

    Action off Hyeres.

    The fleet was re-victualling in
    San Fiorenzo bay on the 8th of July, 1795, when a small squadron under the command of Commodore Horatio Nelson approached, pursued by the French Fleet from Toulon. The British fleet was not able to put to sea immediately, due to contrary winds, but was spotted by the French, who abandoned their chase. Hotham finished refitting and supplying his ships, and finally managed to set off in persuit of his quarry at 21:00, almost twelve hours later. On the night of the 12th of July, the British ships were struck by a viscious storm, and they were still carrying out repairs the following morning when the French fleet was sighted again. At 03:45 Hotham gave the order to make all possible sail in pursuit of their enemy, which by then was 5 nautical miles away from them, bearing towards Fréjus.

    By 08:00, the French had formed a line of battle, but the British ships were strung out over 8 nautical miles in total. The leading British ships,
    Victory, Culloden, and Cumberland, at 34 of a mile were the only ships within range and opened fire. After six hours, as more ships arrived on the scene, one of the rearmost French ships, Alcide struck her colours.However, before the British could take possession of her, she caught fire and exploded. Courageux, under the command of Benjamin Hallowell, and some wayto the rear, was unable to get into the action before Hotham, believing the fleet to be running out of sea room, hoisted the signal to disengage.

    Fate.

    In the December of 1796, Courageux was with
    St Vincent's fleet, anchored in the bay of Gibraltar, when a great storm tore her from her mooring and drove her onto the rocks. Sources differ as to which day this occurred and the number of lives lost. William James records that on 10 December a French squadron under Admiral Villeneuve left the Mediterranean, but the British were unable to pursue due to a strong lee-shore wind. The weather took a turn for the worse, and that night several ships cut or had their cables snapped, including HMS Culloden and HMS Gibraltar.

    When Courageux parted from her anchor, Captain Benjamin Hallowell was ashore at Gibraltar, serving on a court martial, and Lieutenant John Burrows was in command. The ship drifted across the bay and almost under the guns of the Spanish batteries, after which she was blown towards the Barbary coast under close-reefed topsails; Burrows was reluctant to run through the Straits for fear of meeting with Villeneuve's ships. Towards evening, the wind and rain increased to hurricane force, and soon after 20:00, the crew, who had been exhausted from trying to sail the ship out of trouble, were sent to dinner; the officers also retired below, except for a lieutenant of the watch. At 21:00, when land was sighted, there were too few men available to prevent the Courageux hitting the
    rocks at the foot of Mons Abyla on the African coast. She turned broadside on to the wind , losing her masts over the side, and water entered rapidly as waves and winds lashed her hull. Of the 593 officers and men who were on board, only 129 escaped with their lives: five by means of the ship's launch, and the remainder by moving along the fallen mainmast to the shore.
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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    HMS Culloden (1783)

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    HMS Culloden was a 74-gun third rate Ganges class ship of the line designed by Edward Hunt of only three were built. Ordered on the 12th of July,1781 she was built by M/shipwright John Randall at Rotherhithe and launched on the16th of June,1783 at Deptford.


    History
    Great Britain
    Name:
    HMS Culloden
    Ordered:
    12 July 1781
    Builder:
    Randall, Rotherhithe
    Laid down:
    January 1782
    Launched:
    16 June 1783
    Honours and
    awards:
    Participated in:

    Fate:
    Broken up, February 1813
    General characteristics
    Class and type:
    Ganges-classship of the line
    Tons burthen:
    1683 (bm)
    Length:
    169 ft 6 in (51.7 m) (gundeck)
    Beam:
    47 ft 8 12 in (14.5 m)
    Depth of hold:
    20 ft 3 in (6.2 m)
    Propulsion:
    Sails
    Sail plan:
    Full rigged ship
    Armament:
    • Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
    • Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
    • QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
    • Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

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    She was commissioned in the August of 1783 under Captain Rowland Cotton as a guardship at Plymouth until paid off in 1786. Recommissioned in the June of that year under Captain Sir Thomas Rich she continued in her role as a guardship until the September of 1791 under a series of different captains. She was then Recommissioned for Channel service. Recommissioned again under the auspices of Sir Thomas Rich, she sailed for the Leeward Islands on the 24th of March,1793.

    French Revolutionary Wars.

    One of her first engagements was at the
    Glorious First of June, on the 7th of June 1794 under Captain Isaac Schomberg. She was captained by Sir Thomas Troubridge during the next six years. During the Mutiny in the December of that year, and then sailed for the Med in the May of 1795 taking part in Hotham's action off Hyeres on the 13th of July of that year losing two killed and five wounded.

    Her next major action was in the
    Battle of Cape St Vincent,on the 14th of February,1797, in which she led the line. Culloden was damaged, and had 10 men killed and 47 wounded. On the 27th of July of that same year Culloden took part in the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. In the following year on the first of August, 1798 she participated in the Battle of the Nile, but ran aground on shoals off Aboukir Island before being able to engage the French fleet, and subsequently did not actively engage the enemy. She was assisted by HMS Mutine whilst aground.

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    Her next action was in 1799 and again in 1800 at the blockade of Malta. Under Commander John Richards she then returned to England for major repairs at Plymouth.

    Napoleonic Wars.

    In November of 1802 she recommissioned under Captain Charles Lane for Channel service. In 1803 she served first as the Flagship of Admiral Sir George Keith and then Rear Admiral George Campbell.
    In 1803 she took part in the chase of Le Douguay-Trouin and La Guerriere to Corruna.
    In 1804 she served as Flagship to Vice Admiral Collingwood, and then Rear Admiral Sir Edward Pellew.

    In the September of that year she sailed for the East Indies under Captain
    Christopher Cole, and captured the French privateer Émilien on the 26th of September, 1806 after a chase that lasted two days and a night. He described her as a ship corvette of 18 guns and 150 men. When the British took possession of Emilien at 2a.m. on the 25th, close off the shoals of Point Guadaveri they found out that they had driven her ashore on the previous night. She had had to jettison 12 guns, her anchors, and her boats, to enable her to be refloated. Cole noted that Émilien was "formerly His Majesty's Sloop Trincomalee". He further noted that she was copper fastened, and that under the name of Gloire had "annoyed our Trade". However, on this cruise she was two months out of Île de France without having made any captures.

    Lloyd's List reported that Culloden had captured a large French privateer named Ameleon in the Indian Sea and taken her into Madras. The Royal Navy took Émilien into service as HMS Emilien, but sold her in 1808 and it is not clear that she ever saw active service.
    On 5th of July, 1808 Culloden captured the French privateer Union off Ceylon. Union had been at sea for 27 days, having sailed from
    Mauritius, when she encountered Culloden, but had not captured anything. Union was armed with eight guns and had a crew of 60 Europeans and 20 lascars.

    In the December of that same year under the command of Captain Pownoll Pellew she made her way home.
    Laid up at Plymouth in the July of1809 she remained thus in what was to be her final decommissioning.

    Fate.

    Culloden was finally broken up there in the February of 1813.
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

  20. #20
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    HMS Cumberland (1774)

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    HMS Cumberland was a 74-gun Elizabeth Class third rateship of the line, designed by Thomas Slade and ordered on the 8th of June 1768 . Built by M/shipwright Adam Hayes she was launched on the 29th of March,1774 at Deptford Dockyard and fitted out at at Portsmouth in 1777.



    History
    Great Britain
    Name: HMS Cumberland
    Ordered: 8 June 1768
    Builder: Deptford Dockyard
    Laid down: 7 January 1769
    Launched: 29 March 1774
    Fate: Broken up, 1804
    Notes: ·Participated in:
    ·Battle of Cape St Vincent
    ·Battle of Cuddalore
    General characteristics
    Class and type: 74-gunthird-rateElizabeth-classship of the line
    Tons burthen: 1647 (bm)
    Length: 168 ft 6 in (51.36 m) (gundeck)
    Beam: 46 ft (14 m)
    Depth of hold: 19 ft 9 in (6.02 m)
    Propulsion: Sails
    Sail plan: Full rigged ship
    Armament: ·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
    ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
    ·QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
    ·Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

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    Having been coppered at Plymouth, in 1780, she saw her first action at the
    Battle of Cape St Vincent on the 16th of January.


    She then went on to capture the French 18-gun privateer ship-sloopDuc de Chartres in the February of 1781. The Royal Navy bought in the privateer as HMS Duc de Chartres.

    Cumberland then sailed to the East Indies, where she took part in the Battle of Cuddalore in 1783.



    Returning home to Plymouth in 1784 for a refit, she was paid off after her wartime service. fitted as a guard ship she was recommissioned for the Spanish Armament in 1793 under Captain Thomas Lewis as Flagship for Rear Admiral John McBride( having himself been her Captain since 1787), in Howe's Fleet.


    From the October of 1793 she became the Flagship of Rear Admiral Benjamin Caldwell. In the following October now commanded by Captain Bartholomew Rowley she sailed for the Med and on the 23rd of May, 1795 was involved in Hotham's action off Hyeres. On the 13th of July of that year Cumberland was part of Mann's squadron in pursuit of de Richery's Squadron.
    Following the very active period, she was dispatched back to Portsmouth for a refit.



    From 1799 until 1801 she came under the command of Captain Robert Graves as the Flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Richard Bickerton.
    From 1801 she was commanded by Captain Robert Reynolds in Calders Channel Squadron which then proceeded to the West Indies in pursuit of Gauteaume.

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    Napoleonic Wars.



    During the Napolonic wars Cumberland took an active part in the Action of 28 June 1803, during the Blockade of Saint-Domingue. Two days later, Cumberland and her squadron were sailing in between Jean-Rabel and St. Nichola Mole in the West Indies, having just parted with a convoy when they spotted a sail of what appeared to be a large French warship. Cumberland and Vanguard approached her and after a few shots from Vanguard the French vessel surrendered, having suffered two men badly wounded, and being greatly outgunned. She proved to be the frigateCréole, of 44 guns, primarily 18-pounders, under the command of Citizen Le Ballard. She had been sailing from Cape François to Port au Prince with General Morgan (the second in command of San Domingo), his staff, and 530 soldiers on board, in addition to her crew of 150 men. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Creole.



    While the British were taking possession of Creole, a small French navy schooner, under the command of a lieutenant, and sailing the same trajectory as Creole, sailed into the squadron and she too was seized. She had on board 100 bloodhounds from Cuba, which were "intended to accompany the Army serving against the Blacks."



    Fate.



    Cumberland finally arrived back in England to pay off in the January of 1804 and was broken up at Portsmouth later that year.
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

  21. #21
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    HMS Defence (1763)

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    HMS Defence was a Common Class of which its offshoot was the Ballona Class 74-gun third-rate ship of the line, ordered on the 13th of December 1758, designed by Thomas Slade, and built by M/shipwright Thomas Bucknall until the May of 1762. Completed by Israel Pownoll she was launched on the 31st of March. 1763 at Plymouth Dockyard.

    History
    Great Britain
    Name: HMS Defence
    Ordered: 13 December 1758
    Builder: Plymouth Dockyard
    Launched: 31 March 1763
    Fate: Wrecked, 24 December 1811
    Notes:
    General characteristics
    Class and type: Bellona-class ship of the line
    Tons burthen: 1603​894 (bm)
    Length: 168 ft (51.2 m) (gundeck)
    Beam: 46 ft 9 in (14.2 m)
    Draught: 21 ft 6 in (6.6 m)
    Depth of hold: 19 ft 9 in (6.0 m)
    Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
    Armament:
    • Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
    • Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
    • QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
    • Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

    Career.

    She was commissioned on the 19th of October 1770 as a guardship until the May of 1771.

    Recommissioned at Chatham for Channel service,during the American War of Independence, Defence served with the Channel Fleet, seeing action at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent in 1780. She was sent out to India in early 1782 as part of a squadron of five ships under Commodore Sir Richard Bickerton, arriving too late for the battles of that year. But in 1783 she took part in the last battle of the war, at Cuddalore. She returned to England at the end of 1785. She was then laid up during the years of peace until the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars.

    Recommissioned into the Channel Fleet in 1793 under Captain James Gambier, she fought at the Glorious First of June in 1794, distinguishing herself in action against Mucius and Tourville, and becoming one of only two British ships to be completely dismasted in the battle.

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    HMS Defence at the Battle of the Glorious First of June 1794, dismasted and with severe injury to the hull. Painted by the artist Nicholas Pocock

    After repairs, she was sent to the Mediterranean in the May of 1795 under Captain Thomas Wells, joining Admiral William Hotham in time to take part in the Battle of Hyeres in the July of that year.
    * In 1798 she came under the command of Captain William Brown, and then on the 6th of May of that year returned to the Mediterranean under Captain John Peyton, taking part in the Battle of the Nile on the first of August.
    During 1799 she was commanded firstly by Captain Thomas Stephenson, and then by Captain Lord Henry Paulett at the blockade of Cadiz and Brest.

    On 1 July 1800, Defence, Fisgard, Renown and the hired armed cutter Lord Nelson were in Bourneuf Bay when they sent in their boats to attack a French convoy at Île de Noirmoutier. The British destroyed the French ship Therese (of 20 guns), a lugger (12 guns), two schooners (6 guns each) and a cutter (6 guns), of unknown names. The cutting out party also burned some 15 merchant vessels loaded with corn and supplies for the French fleet at Brest. However, in this enterprise, 92 officers and men out of the entire party of 192 men, fell prisoners to the French when their boats became stranded. Lord Nelson had contributed no men to the attacking force and so had no casualties.

    In 1801, Defence sailed to the Baltic under Captain Lord Henry Paulet with Admiral Hyde Parker's fleet. She was present at the Battle of Copenhagen, but did not see action as she was part of the reserve under Parker.
    She next sailed for the West Indies, but saw no action, returning to England to be paid off in 1802. Refitted at Chatham, she was recommissioned in the May of 1803 under Captain George Hope firstly in the North Sea and thence to Cadiz.
    In 1805 she saw action again at the Battle of Trafalgar, where still under Captain George Johnstone Hope, she was positioned in the Lee coloumn and went on to captured the San Ildefonso and fought the Berwick, suffering 36 casualties of which seven were killed and 29 wounded.

    Following her return from the battle, she was paid off again in December for a large repair which took from May 1806 until the January of 1807 to effect. on the completion she was recommissioned under Captain Charles Ekins for the Channel once more.
    She took part in the Copenhagen expedition during the August of 1807,and later on the blockade of Cadiz during December.

    Loss.

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    The beach near Thorsminde

    In 1809 she was dispatched under Captain David Atkins for North sea and Baltic service.
    On the 24th of December,1811 she ran aground off the west coast of Jutland, Denmark. She was still under the command of Captain Atkins and in the company of the St George, under Rear-admiral Robert Carthew, Reynolds, and Cressy, when a violent gale and heavy seas came up. St George was jury-rigged and so Atkins refused to leave her without the Admiral's permission. As a result, both were wrecked on Laland Island near Ringkobing.

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    The last cruise.

    Defence lost all but 14 of her crew of 597 men and boys, including her captain. St George also lost most her crew entire, including her Admiral. Most of the bodies which were washed ashore were buried in the sand dunes of Thorsminde, which have been known, ever since that event, as " The Dead Mens' Dunes".
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

  22. #22
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    HMS Defiance (1783)

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    HMS Defiance was a 74-gun Revived Elizabeth Class third rateship of the line. Ordered on the 11th of July,1780. Designed by Thomas Slade and built by M/shipwright John Randall and John Brent at Rotherhithe. She was launched on the10th of December,1783.



    History
    Great Britain.
    Name:
    HMS Defiance
    Ordered:
    11 July 1780
    Builder:
    Randall, and Brent, Rotherhithe
    Laid down:
    April 1782
    Launched:
    10 December 1783
    Honours and
    awards:
    Participated in:

    Fate:
    Broken up, 1817
    General characteristics
    Class and type:
    Revised Elizabeth-classship of the line
    Tons burthen:
    1685 bm
    Length:
    168 ft 6 in (51.36 m) (gundeck)
    Beam:
    46 ft 4 in (14.12 m)
    Depth of hold:
    19 ft 9 in (6.02 m)
    Propulsion:
    Sails
    Sail plan:
    Full rigged ship
    Armament:
    • Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
    • Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
    • QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
    • Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

    History.


    She was commissioned in the August of 1794 by Lt M.T. Hewitt for Captain George Keppel.
    After undergoing some repairs, in May 1795 she was placed under the Captancy of Captain George Home.
    In the March of 1796 she was commanded by Captain Theophilus Jones until 1798. He sailed her with the Channel Fleet during September and October 1796 at which time it was reported that,

    Her qualifications are described as having been of a very superior order. She stowed her provisions well, and when sailing with the Channel fleet in September and October, 1796, beat all the line of battle ships, and kept pace with the frigates. " Upon a wind," Rays the Master's report, " spared them" (the line of battle ships) " main-sail and top-gallant sails, and sailing two or three points free or before the wind, beat them still more." At this time the Defiance's draught of water forward was 20 feet 5 inches; aft, 22 feet 5 inches; height of the midship port, 5 feet 8 inches. Her masts were stayed thus: "foremast nearly upright, main and mizenmasts rake aft."

    Her crew mutinied three times, firstly in October 1795, Her captain initially had to release the ringleaders when the ratings attempted to storm the officer's quarters, but later these and additional mutineers were put in irons when.......

    ...in the afternoon a strong party of the 7th, or South Fencible regiment, and several officers, arrived on board. On the 20th, at 10 a.m., a general muster of the ship's company was made, and the eight men, previously in irons, together with three more, were placed in confinement, and others were subsequently added. A few days afterwards the South Fencibles were relieved by a detachment of the 134th Regt., in number 132, under Lieut.-Colonel Baillie, and with these the Defiance sailed from Leith and returned to the Nore.
    The stationing of the Army troops was required because the ship sailed without its contingent of 60 Marines, which later embarked at Sheerness.


    On 23 March 1796 Captain
    Theophilus Jones took command.

    The crew of the Defiance mutinied for a second time in 1797 during the
    Spithead mutiny. Captain William Bligh of the Calcutta was ordered to embark 200 troops and take them alongside in order for the troops to board Defiance and regain control, however the threat of the soldiers was sufficient to bring about an end to the mutiny.
    Her ship's company mutinied again in 1798 during the rising of the
    United Irishmen. Eleven men were hanged and ten transported for life in the penal colony of New South Wales.

    Her next Captain was Thomas Revell Shivers, who took command in 1799 at Torbay. She joined Rear Admiral Sir James Whitshed's squadron in the Med,and in the June of that year was part of the persuit ofde Bru\x's squadron.
    In the summer of 1800, Defiance was attached to the squadron under Sir Alan Gardner, stationed off the Black Rocks. On the 24th of December of that year, Capt.
    Richard Retallick superseded Capt. Shivers, Defiance being selected for the flagship of Rear AdmiralSir Thomas Graves.


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    Copenhagen


    She fought at the
    Battle of Copenhagen on the 2nd of April, 1801, as the flagship of Graves, with Captain Retallick commanding her. The station in the line occupied in the battle was abreast of the Crown battery, which mounted thirty-six heavy guns, and was provided with a furnace for heating shot. Owing to the mishaps that kept Bellona, Russell, and Agamemnon from taking up their assigned stations, the Defiance became exposed to a severe cross fire, from which she suffered very severe damage.
    In furtherance of the designs of Lord Nelson, when Sir Hyde Parker made the signal to discontinue the action, which Nelson would not see, Rear-Admiral Graves in the Defiance repeated the signal at the lee main topsail yardarm, from whence it could not be seen on board the Elephant. The Defiance continued firing until 3h. 15m. p.m., when the action ceased ; and her spring being cut and sail made, she dropped out of the station she had occupied. Shortly afterwards, the Defiance grounded, and was with difficulty hove off, after starting thirty butts of water. During the action the ship was frequently set on fire by the hot 42-pound shot fired from the batteries, and her damages were consequently serious. Her loss in killed and wounded was as follows Lieutenant George Gray*, Matthew Cobb, pilot, 17 seamen, 3 marines, and 2 soldiers, killed; and the boatswain Lewis Patterson, James Galloway, Midshipman, Harry Niblett, Captain's Clerk, — Stephenson, pilot, 35 seamen, 5 marines, and 7 soldiers, wounded: total, 24 killed, and 51 wounded.
    She was paid off late in 1801, and recommissioned in the May of 1803 under Captain Phillip Durham the Channel Fleet.


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    Battle of Cape Finisterre.

    She also participated in Calder's action at the
    Battle of Cape Finisterre on the 22 of July, 1805, where she suffered only one killed and seven wounded.


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    Trafalgar.

    At the
    Battle of Trafalgar on the 21st of October, whilst under the command of Captain Philip Charles Durham, he claimed that:-

    "she was the fastest 74 gun ship in the British fleet".

    During the battle Defiance captured the Spanish
    San Juan Nepomuceno, and the French Aigle (although the following day the French crew managed to recapture the Aigle from the British prize crew shortly before she was wrecked during the storm of 23 October).
    Prior to the boarding of the Aigle by a full boarding party from the Defiance,
    James "Jack" Spratt dived into the sea from Defiance, swimming with a cutlass between his teeth to the Aigle he climbed in through a stern window and boarded her single handed. He found his way to the French poop deck and threw himself on the French crew, one man against several hundred. In the melee he killed two French seamen, and was grappling with a third when he fell from the poop deck to the main deck, killing his opponent but injuring himself badly. He was saved by the timely arrival of a full boarding party from Defiance.

    During the battle of Trafalgar Defiance and sustained casualties of 17 killed, and 53 wounded.

    After the battle she was ordered back to Portsmouth for repairs and a refit. This was completed by the April of 1806,when she was recommissioned under Captain Henry Hotham for service in Rear Admiral Robert Stopford's squadron off Rochfort. On the 24th of February, 1809, she took part in the
    Battle of Les Sables-d'Olonne. where she assisted in the destruction of three French 40 gun Frigates, La Cybele, Le Calypso, and L'Italienne.


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    Battle of the Basque Roads.

    In early1809 she was involved in the Basque Roads operations, and thence to Plymouth for repairs. From the August of 1810 she was under Captain Richard Raggett and in 1811 under him as flagship to Rear Admiral John Ferrier in the North Sea.

    In 1813 she was transferred to become the Flagship of Rear Admiral George Hope in the Baltic, before returning home to Chatham.

    After serving as a
    prison ship for a short period, from the December of 1813, she went into ordinary in the winter of 1814/15. She was finally broken up there in 1817.
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

  23. #23
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    HMS Edgar (1779)

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    HMS Edgar in
    the Downs circa 1810



    HMS Edgar was a 74-gun third-rateship of the line

    She was ordered from Woolwich Dockyard on the 16th of August ,1774. Built to slightly modified lines of the Arrogant-class, which had been designed by Sir Thomas Slade, built by M/shipwright Nicholas Phillips until the December of 1777, and completed by George White.



    The Arrogant class of third rates was a development of his previous Bellona-class, and a further nine ships were ordered from various yards, both Royal and commercial, to the same lines as Edgar. Originally, the Admiralty had intended to order her to be built to the lines of Sir John Williams' Alfred-class, specifically HMS Alexander. Her keel was laid down on the 26th of August. 1776, and she was launched on the 30th of June, 1779.

    History
    GREAT BRITAIN
    Name: HMS Edgar
    Ordered: 25 August 1774
    Builder: Woolwich Dockyard
    Laid down: 26 August 1776
    Launched: 30 June 1779
    Renamed: HMS Retribution, 1815
    Honours and
    awards:
    ·Participated in:
    ·Battle of Cape St. Vincent, 1780
    ·Battle of Ushant, 1781
    ·Battle of Cape Spartel, 1782
    ·Battle of Copenhagen, 1801
    ·Naval General Service Medal with clasp:
    o "11 Aug Boat Service 1808"
    Fate: Broken up, 1835
    General characteristics
    Class and type: Arrogant classship of the line
    Tons burthen: 1609​9394 (bm)
    Length: 168 ft (51 m) (gundeck)
    Beam: 46 ft 9 in (14.25 m)
    Depth of hold: 19 ft 9 in (6.02 m)
    Propulsion: Sails
    Sail plan: Full rigged ship
    Armament: ·74 guns:
    ·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
    ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
    ·Quarterdeck: 14 × 9-pounder guns
    ·Forecastle: 4 × 9-pounder guns


    A list composed in or around 1793, giving details of twelve Royal Navy ships, reveals that Edgar possessed a white figurehead, with details painted in red and black. Of the other eleven ships mentioned, seven had the plain white figureheads as completed by the dockyards, whilst four had painted theirs with a larger palette since being launched.



    SERVICE.



    Edgar was launched when Britain was embroiled in the American Revolutionary War. She commissioned under her first captain, John Elliot, in May 1779, while her first action came on the 16th of January, 1780, when she fought in the Battle of Cape St Vincent as part of Admiral Sir George Rodney's fleet. After a two-hour chase, Edgar was one of the first ships to engage the numerically inferior Spanish fleet.



    In the November of1781, the Admiralty had received intelligence that a large convoy was preparing to sail from Brest under Admiral de Guichen. It was a convoy of transports carrying naval supplies for the West Indies and the French fleet in the East Indies. Edgar was part of Admiral Richard Kempenfelt's squadron of 18 ships (11 of which mounted 64 or more guns), which he commanded from his flagship the HMS Victory. Kempenfelt was ordered to intercept the convoy, which he accomplished in the Bay of Biscay on the afternoon of the 12th of December, approximately 150 miles (241.4 km) south-west of Ushant. With the French naval escort to leeward of the convoy, Kempenfelt attacked immediately, capturing 15 of the transports before nightfall. The rest of the convoy scattered, most returning to Brest. Only five of the transports reaching the West Indies.



    After a short refit in the February of 1782, her second major action took place on the 20th of October, of that year, whilst she was part of Admiral Richard Howe's fleet of 35 ships of the line at the Battle of Cape Spartel. The fleet had encountered the combined Franco-Spanish fleet of 46 ships of the line under Admiral Luis de Córdova y Córdova, and some exchange of fire took place before Admiral Howe ordered a retreat.



    Edgar spent the remainder of the war in the Channel Fleet under Admiral George Darby.



    Between the wars.



    After the conclusion of the war in 1783, Edgar was fitted for service as a guardship in Portsmouth Harbour. In 1787 Captain Charles Thompson took command, and in the spring of 1788 she served as the Flagship to Rear-Admiral John Leveson-Gower's when he commanded his fleet of observation on its two-month cruise off the Irish coast and to the west of the Scilly Isles. At the end of this cruise, Edgar returned to Portsmouth where she resumed her role as guardship in the May of 1790.



    Edgar was recommissioned in April 1791 under Captain Albermarle as a guard ship once again and next joined the home fleet.



    French Revolutionary War.



    After France's declaration of war against Great Britain brought the country into the French Revolutionary War in 1793, Edgar, under the command of Captain Bertie, captured the French privateer Dumourier, which had earlier captured the Spanish ship Santa Jago (or St Jago), in the April of that year. Edgar was a component part of a squadron commanded by Admiral John Gell. A large quantity of treasure was discovered in the hold of the Dumourier, valued at over £½ million. Edgar, St George, Egmont, Ganges, and Phaeton escorted St Jago into Portsmouth. The ownership of the Spanish ship was a matter of some debate and was not settled until the 4th of February, 1795, when the value of the cargo was put at £935,000.sterling. At this time all the crew, captains, officers and admirals received a share of the prize money, with Admiral Hood's share standing at £50,000.


    Recommissioned in the August of 1794 under Captain Sir Charles Knowles, the crew of HMS Defiance rose up in mutiny whilst the ship lay in Leith Roads. Edgar was ordered alongside Defiance, and if it were deemed necessary to restore order, to engage her. A comment left by one of Edgar's crew suggests that had the order been given to fire, it would not have been obeyed, as the crew thought that the mutineers aboard Defiance were in the right.



    In the May of 1795 she was once more returned to Chatham for a refit. In the August of 1796 she recommissioned under Captain John McDougall who continued in command until1799. During this period she served in the Channel. From the November of 1799 her commander was Captain Edward Buller.

    In 1800 Edgar was part of the Channel Fleet under Admiral Sir Alan Gardner blockading the important French port of Brest. She was forced to return to Plymouth on the 18th of February after sustaining damage to her mainmast, and on completion of repairs repairs sailed from Plymouth with HMS Dragon, rejoining the Fleet on the 13th of May of that year. Edgar was driven from her station on blockade duty on the 9th of November by hurricane-force winds, and again put into Plymouth for repairs.
    On the 28th of February, 1801, Captain George Murray took command of Edgar, transferring from Achille. On the 2 April of that year, Edgar participated in the Battle of Copenhagen. After passing down the Outer Channel, in order to negotiate the southern tip of the Middle Ground shoal off the coast from Copenhagen, Edgar was leading Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson's line, and was the first to commence firing, as soon as she was in range of the Danish Prövesteen. Edgar was forced to fight unsupported for some time, as the next ship in line, Agamemnon, had run aground on the poorly charted Middle Ground shoal, requiring Polyphemus, the next in line after Agamemnon, to manoeuvre around the stranded ship. During the course of the battle, Edgar had 31 killed, including the First Lieutenant and three soldiers of the 49th Regiment, and 115 men were wounded.
    From the August of 1801 commasnd devolved upon Captain Robert Ottway.



    Napoleonic Wars.



    The Revolutionary War was brought to close on the 25th of March, 1802 with the Treaty of Amiens, and war gave way to a period of uneasy peace. In the June of 1802 Edgar returned to Chatham for repairs. She was not recommissioned until the July of 1805 under Captain John Clarke Searle, and later served as Admiral Lord Keith's flagship off the Texel, blockading the Dutch coast. Edgar, along with several other ships, was in the Downs on the 17th of December, when HMS Victory came in to shelter from gales that had blown up, hampering her progress to Chatham. Victory was returning to England after the Battle of Trafalgar, and on board was the body of the late Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson.



    In 1806 she was under the command of Captain Robert Jackson in the Downs.
    During 1807 she served as the Flagship of Admiral Viscount George Keith, from the May of that year under the captaincy of James Macnamara.



    On 28th of March,1808, there was an attempted mutiny aboard whilst Edgar was lying in Cawsand Bay. The crew had congregated on the quarter deck, but were dispersed by the threat of a musket volley from the ship's company of marines. Five men, including the captain of the main-top and the bosun's mate, were arrested and placed in irons. The five were tried for mutiny aboard Salvador del Mundo in the Hamoaze between the 9th and 11th of April. All were found guilty, despite attempts by Edgar's petty officers to prove that they had been goaded into their actions by threats from the rest of the crew. Each of the men was sentenced to be flogged round the fleet, with the captain of the main-top, Henry Chesterfield, receiving a total of 700 lashes and two-years' solitary confinement; the bosun's mate, John Rowlands, received one-year's confinement and 300 lashes; two of the remaining men received 200 lashes each, and one 500 lashes.



    Gunboat War.



    In the May of 1808 Edgar was one of the 12 ships of the line forming part of Vice-Admiral Sir James Saumarez's squadron sent to the Baltic following Denmark's declaration of war against Sweden. By this point in time, Sweden had allied herself with Britain, but both Denmark and Russia were allied to Buonaparte. Saumarez, flying his broad pennant aboard the Victory, was, therefore, faced with the task of keeping the Baltic open to British trade, and also promoting British interests in the region. The hostilities with Denmark lasted from 1807 until 1814.



    When word of the uprising of the Spanish against the French in 1808 reached Denmark, some 12,000 Spanish troops stationed in Denmark and under the command of the Marquis de la Romana decided that they wished to escape from French service and return to Spain. The Marquis contacted Rear-Admiral Keats, on Superb, commanding the British squadron in the Kattegat. They agreed a plan of action and on the 9th of August, 1808 the Spaniards seized the fort and town of Nyborg. Keats then prepared to take possession of the port and to organize the departure of the Spanish. The Admiral informed the Danish authorities that if they did not impede the operation he would spare the town. The Danes agreed, with the exception of the captains of two small Danish warships in the harbour.



    On 11 August Keats sent in the boats from Edgar, under the command of her captain, James Macnamara. The boats captured the brig Fama, of 18 guns and under the command of Otto Frederick Rasch, and the cutter Søormen, of 12 guns and under the command of Thøger Emil Rosenørn. Despite the odds Rasch and Rosenørn refused to capitulate, and put up a stiff resistance before they finally struck. British losses were an officer killed and two men wounded; the Danes lost seven men killed and 13 wounded. In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the issue of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "11 Aug. Boat Service 1808" to all surviving claimants of the action.



    The British organized the evacuation of the Spanish troops using some 50 or so local boats. Some 10,000 troops returned to Spain via Great Britain.



    In the early July of 1810 Edgar under Captain Stephen Poyntz, in company with Dictator and Alonzo, sighted three Danish gunboats commanded by Lieutenant Peter Nicolay Skibsted, who had captured the Grinder in April of that year. The gunboats (Husaren, Løberen, and Flink) sought refuge in Grenå, on eastern Jutland, where a company of soldiers and their field guns could provide covering fire.Nevertheless, the British mounted a cutting out expedition consisting of some 200 men in ten ships’ boats just after midnight on the 7th of July, successfully capturing the three gunboats.



    Fate.



    Edgar was laid up in ordinary at Chatham in 1811. and by 1812 she underwent a conversion to serve as a prison hulk for convicts in 1813, and was renamed Retribution on the 19th of August 1814. She continued to serve in the role as a hulk until the February of 1835, when the decision was finally taken to have her broken up.

    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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    HMS Egmont (1768)

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    A model of Egmont, held in the National Maritime Museum

    HMS Egmont was a 74-gun
    third rateship of the line.developed from the Rammilies design with a sightly increased breadth.Ordered on the 2nd of May 1765, she was re designed by Sir Thomas Slade, and was the only ship built to her specification. The M/shipwright was Adam Hayes.
    Launched on 29th of August, 1768 at
    Deptford.


    .
    History
    Great Britain
    Name:
    HMS Egmont
    Ordered:
    6 June 1765
    Builder:
    Deptford Dockyard
    Laid down:
    October 1766
    Launched:
    29 August 1768
    Fate:
    Broken up, Chatham, Kent, 1799
    Notes:
    General characteristics
    Class and type:
    74-gun third rateship of the line
    Tons burthen:
    1642​7694 (bm)
    Length:
    168 ft 6 in (51.36 m) (gundeck)
    Beam:
    46 ft 11 12 in (14.3 m)
    Depth of hold:
    19 ft 9 in (6.02 m)
    Propulsion:
    Sails
    Sail plan:
    Full rigged ship
    Armament:
    • 74 guns:
    • Gundeck: 28 × 32 pdrs
    • Upper gundeck: 28 × 18 pdrs
    • Quarterdeck: 14 × 9 pdrs
    • Forecastle: 4 × 9 pdrs



    SERVICE.

    She was commissioned in the November of 1770 for the Falkland Islands dispute.

    Egmont suffered heavy damage in the
    Battle of Ushant in 1778. Her captain reported to Admiralty that the vessel received eleven cannonballs to the starboard side and two more through the mainmast. The mizzen mast had been shot away and had gone by the board and the foremast had been shivered along its centre section.

    Coppered and fitted out at Portsmouth in the February of 1780, having sailed out to the West Indies later that year under Captain Robert Fanshawe, Egmont, was dismasted in the
    Great Hurricane of 1780 on the 11th of October near the Island of St Lucia.

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    On her return to England, she was paid off after wartime service in the August of 1781 until she was re fitted for service in the North sea by AO on the 25th of February 1782. From the April until the August of that year she was being refurbished with all Carronade armament and the yards of a 64. After recommissioning for further war service she was again paid off in the April of 1783.

    She now underwent a great repair at Plymouth from the first month of 1788 which was not completed until the July of 1790. Recommissioned under Captain George Hope for the Spanish Armament, she was re established with 32lbr long guns on LD by AO. and with the rest of her original armament on the 18th of December 1792.

    Recommissioned in the January of 1793 by Captain Archibald Dickson she sailed for the Med on the 5th of April of that year. Egmont joined part of the squadron commanded by
    Admiral John Gell on the 14th of April, which escorted the St. Jago, a Spanish ship which they had captured from the French, to Portsmouth. The ownership of the Spanish ship was a matter of some debate and was not settled until the 4th of February, 1795 when the value of the cargo was set at £935,000. At this time all the crew, captains, officers and admirals could expect a share of the prize moneyAdmiral Hood's share for instance was £50,000. Apart from Egmont, the other ships that escorted her into Portsmouth were HMS St George, HMS Edgar, HMS Ganges and HMS Phaeton.

    In late 1793 she took part in the Toulon operations and also Corsica in 1794. Under Captain John Sutton from 1795 to 97 she saw action off Genoa on the 13th of March 1795 and the Hyeres on the 13th of July of that year. She took the 22 gun La Sardine and retook the 28 gun Nemesis off Tunis on the 9th of March, 1796.

    At the Battle of St. Vincent on the 14th of February 1797 still under the captaincy of John Sutton she suffered no casualties.

    FATE.

    She was broken up at Chatham in 1799.
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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    HMS Elephant (1786)





    HMS Elephant was another of the modified Arrogant Class 74-gun, third-rateships of the line. Ordered on the 9th of August, 1781,she was built by George Parsons in Bursledon, Hampshire, and launched on the 24th of August, 1786.



    History
    GREAT BRITAIN
    Name:
    HMS Elephant
    Ordered:
    27 December 1781
    Builder:
    George Parsons, Bursledon
    Laid down:
    February 1783
    Launched:
    24 August 1786
    Honours and
    awards:
    Fate:
    Broken up, 1830
    General characteristics
    Class and type:
    Arrogant-classship of the line
    Tons burthen:
    1604 bm
    Length:
    168 ft (51 m) (gundeck)
    Beam:
    46 ft 9 in (14.25 m)
    Depth of hold:
    19 ft 9 in (6.02 m)
    Propulsion:
    Sails
    Sail plan:
    Full rigged ship
    Armament:
    • Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
    • Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
    • QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
    • Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns



    Elephant
    was commissioned the June of 1790 by Captain Charles Thompson for the Spanish Armament.
    She sailed from Portsmouth on the third of August of that year. In late November the ship narrowly avoided destruction when lightning struck her after she had returned to
    Portsmouth harbour. The main topmast exploded but did not plunge through the quarterdeck as it was still held by the top rope.

    By the October of 1793 she was back in harbour again and reduced to ordinary needing repairs which may have occupied her for the next few years but this period went unrecorded. She was fitted once again between the August of 1799 and the March of 1800, when she was recommissioned under Captain Thomas Foley as the Flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Charles Cotton.

    In 1801
    Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson chose Elephant as his flagship during the Battle of Copenhagen due to its suitability for the shallow waters there. It was on this ship that he is said to have put his telescope to his blind eye and claimed not to be able to see a signal ordering him to withdraw.



    HMS Monarch in the lead, with Elephant close behind forcing the Passage of the Sound, 30 March 1801, prior to the Battle of Copenhagen.

    During the battle Elephant suffered only nine killed, with fifteen wounded.

    From the June of 1801 she came under the command of Captain George Dundas and sailed for Jamaica in the October of that year. In mid-1803, the squadron in the West Indies under Captain
    Henry William Bayntun, consisting of Cumberland, Hercule, Bellerophon, Elephant, and Vanguard captured Poisson Volant and Superieure. The Royal Navy took both into service.

    The ship paid off in the January of 1805 for a refit at Chatham.In the May of 1805 still under Dundas she recommissioned for North Sea service, and sailed for the Leeward Islands on the 4th of May.1806.

    The ship next participated in the
    Blockade of Saint-Domingue. The British patrolled off Cap-François. On the 24th of July 1807 the squadron, made up of Bellerophon, Elephant, under temporary Commander George Morris, HMS Theseus, and HMS Vanguard, came across two French 74-gun ships, Duquesne and Duguay-Trouin, and the frigate Guerrière, attempting to escape from Cap-François. The squadron gave chase, and on the 25th overhauled and captured Duquesne after a few shots were fired, while Duguay-Trouin and Guerrière managed to evade their pursuers and escape to France. One man was killed aboard Bellerophon during the pursuit. Elephant remained blockading Cap-François until November, when the French commander of the garrison there, General Rochambeau, was forced to surrender.

    To prevent Rochambeau escaping, launches from Bellerophon and Elephant went into the Caracol Passage where they cut out the French schooner
    Découverte between the 22nd and the 23rd of November. The French formally surrendered on 30th of November.
    Between the April of 1809 and the July of 1811 Elephant underwent a series large and middling repairs. recommissioned under Captain Francis Austen, on the 28th of December, 1812 whilst in company with Hermes she took the US 12 gun Privateer Swordfish.
    She then returned to Portsmouth where between the February of 1817 and the March of 1818 she was cut down to a 58 gun Fourth Rate frigate.



    Drawing showing the inboard profile for Elephant as cut down to a 58-gun ship 1817–1818

    Fate.

    Never recommissioned she was broken up in the November of1830.
    Last edited by Bligh; 02-01-2020 at 13:02.
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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    HMS Elizabeth (1769)





    Elizabeth as drawn by Thomas Luny


    HMS Elizabeth was a 74-gun third rateship of the line, and the named ship of her class, ordered on the 6th of November 1765 she was designed by Sir Thomas Slade. M/shipwright Thomas Bucknell. She and her three sister ships were all dockyard built. Elizabeth was launched on the 17th of October,1769 at Portsmouth Dockyard.




    History
    Great Britain
    Name: HMS Elizabeth
    Ordered: 6 November 1765
    Builder: Portsmouth Dockyard
    Laid down: 6 May 1766
    Launched: 17 October 1769
    Fate: Broken up, 1797
    General characteristics
    Class and type: Elizabeth-classship of the line
    Tons burthen: 1617 bm
    Length: 168 ft 6 in (51.36 m) (gundeck)
    Beam: 46 ft (14 m)
    Depth of hold: 19 ft 9 in (6.02 m)
    Propulsion: Sails
    Sail plan: Full rigged ship
    Armament: ·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
    ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
    ·QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
    ·Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns




    The approved plan showing the inboard profile for Elizabeth, 1769

    She was commissioned in the October of 1770 for the Falkland Islands dispute, and paid off in the May of 1771
    Recommissioned in the January of 1778. At this time James Bisset served on the ship as a newly commissioned lieutenant under Captain Frederick Maitland. Maitland had married Bisset's first cousin, Margaret Louisa Dick of Edinburgh.
    From the May of 1782 until the December of that year she underwent repairs and coppering at Portsmouth. She was immediately paid off in the January of 1783 after her wartime service. By the March of that year she was recommissioned as a guardship at Portsmouth.Paid off again in early 1786 but recommissioned in April in the same role once more. She was paid off in 1879.
    Recommissioned once more she was caught in a severe storm during 1791 which did considerable damage.


    HMS Elizabeth in a storm circa 1791


    She was finally broken up at Chatham in the August of1797, having served a fairly inauspicious career.
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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    HMS Excellent (1787)

    HMS Excellent was an Edgar Class, a modified Slade designed 74-gunthird-rateship of the line, Ordered on the 9th of August,1781 she was built at Harwich by M/shipwright Joseph Graham. Coppered at her time of building, she was launched on the 27th of November, 1787.


    Excellent and Illustrious.


    History
    GREAT BRITAIN
    Name:
    HMS Excellent
    Ordered:
    9 August 1781
    Builder:
    Graham, Harwich
    Laid down:
    March 1782
    Launched:
    27 November 1787
    Honours and
    awards:
    Battle of Cape St Vincent
    Fate:
    Broken up, 1835
    Notes:
    Reduced to 58-guns in 1820; training ship from 1830
    General characteristics
    Class and type:
    Arrogant-classship of the line
    Tons burthen:
    1645 bm
    Length:
    168 ft (51 m) (gundeck)
    Beam:
    46 ft 9 in (14.25 m)
    Depth of hold:
    19 ft 9 in (6.02 m)
    Propulsion:
    Sails
    Sail plan:
    Full rigged ship
    Armament:
    • Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
    • Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
    • QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
    • Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns



    She was commissioned in the July of 1790 under Captain John Gell for the Spanish Armament.
    She was recommissioned in the September of 1793 under Captain Captain William Clement Finch, but from the May of 1794 her captain was firstly John Samuel Smith and then in the June of that year Captain John Whitby as the Flagship of Vice Admiral William Cornwallis in the Channel.By the October of that year she had a change of captain once again. This time acting Captain Mitchell was soon superseded in the December by Cuthbert Collingwood. She sailed to the Med in the July of 1795.

    Excellent took part in the
    Battle of Cape St Vincent on the 14th of July,1797, after which she was the Flagship at theblockade of Cadiz. She returned to England in the November of 1798 and was paid off. Refitted at Portsmouth she recommissioned in the July of 1799 under Captain Robert Stopford. On the 9th of October, Excellent chased the 18-gun L'Aréthuse. near Lorient. L'Aréthuse attempted to flee but part of her rigging broke during the night, and Excellent caught her on the 11th. After a brief fight, Aréthuse struck her colours. She was later commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Raven.

    On the 20th of February, 1801 Excellent cut out the cutter L' Arc from Quiberon.

    She sailed for the Leeward Islands in 1802 under Captain John Nash.

    On the 9th of April, the 8th
    West India Regiment revolted in Dominica. They killed three officers, imprisoned the others and took over Fort Shirley. On the following day, Magnificent, which was anchored in Prince Rupert's Bay, sent a party of marines ashore to restore order. The mutineers fired upon the Magnificent with no effect. Excellent, the frigate Severn, and the sloop Gaiete assisted Magnificent, also supplying marines.
    On 12 April, Governor Cochrane entered Fort Shirley with the
    Royal Scots Regiment and the 68th Regiment of Foot. The rebels were drawn up on the Upper Battery of Fort Shirley with three of their officers as prisoners and presented arms to the other troops. They obeyed Cochrane's command to ground their arms but refused his order to step forward. The mutineers picked up their arms and fired a volley. Shots were returned, followed by a bayonet charge that broke their ranks and a close range fire fight ensued. Those mutineers who tried to escape over the precipice to the sea were exposed to grape-shot and canister fire from Magnificent.

    She then returned to Portsmouth for a refit between the June and August of 1803. Recommissioned under Captain Frank southron she joined the fleet off Toulon in the November of that year. Her next role involved opperations in the bay of Naples during the first part of 1806. Then in the September of that year back to England for a refit at Chatham. Recommissioned in the February of 1807 under Captain John West she sailed back to the Med via Cadiz. She was at the seizure of fort Trinidad and Rosas Bay in 1808,and the destruction of a convoy at Duino on the 28th of July 1809.

    She underwent repairs at Portsmouth for the whole of 1812 at Portsmouth and then went into ordinary.

    Fate.
    Ordered to be cut down to a 58 gun Frigate on the 11th of May,1820 the work began in 1825 but seems to have never been completed. Instead she first became a receiving ship at Portsmouth and later a gunnery training hulk there in 1830.


    A design for a new truck carriage for a 68-pounder or ten-inch gun sent to HMS Excellent, a 74-gun third rate, two-decker, possible after she was cut down to a 56-gun frigate.

    She was broken up in 1835.
    Attached Images Attached Images    
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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    HMS Fame (1759)



    The Fame
    ships of the line were based on the Dublin Class .She was designed by naval architect William Bately, newly appointed as co-Surveyor of the Navy alongside his more senior colleague Sir Thomas Slade. She was ordered on the 13th of April, 1756 being the first of a class of four 74-gun third rate ships, It was Bately's first design for a vessel of this size, and borrowed heavily from Slade's specifications for the older 74-gun Dublin-class ships which were then under construction at England's Royal Dockyards Fame was, however, constructed at Deptford by M/shipwright Henry Bird Junior and launched there on the first of January, 1759.


    History
    Great Britain
    Name:
    HMS Fame
    Ordered:
    13 April 1756
    Builder:
    Bird, Deptford
    Launched:
    1 January 1759
    Renamed:
    HMS Guildford, December 1799
    Honours and
    awards:
    Fate:
    Sold out of the service, 1814
    General characteristics
    Class and type:
    74-gun third rateship of the line
    Tons burthen:
    1565 ​8994 (bm)
    Length:
    165 ft 6 in (50.44 m) (gundeck)
    Beam:
    46 ft 7 in (14.20 m)
    Depth of hold:
    19 ft 10 in (6.05 m)
    Propulsion:
    Sails
    Sail plan:
    Full rigged ship
    Armament:
    • 74 guns:
    • Gundeck: 28 × 32 pdrs
    • Upper gundeck: 28 × 18 pdrs
    • Quarterdeck: 14 × 9 pdrs
    • Forecastle: 4 × 9 pdrs



    Naval career.

    Fame was commissioned in the February of 1759.

    In 1762, while in company with
    Lion, she captured the French 10-gun ship Ecureuil.
    She was paid off after wartime service on the 3rd of April1763. Recommissioned in the following month she was fitted out as a Guardship at Plymouth on the 6th of September of that year, but in the May of i764 refitted to carry troops.

    Refitted a second time for troop carrying, on the 20th of January,1768, she was driven from her moorings onto
    St. Nicholas Island and was severely damaged. She also collided with the Irish ships Freemason and Valentine. The former was also driven ashore on St. Nicholas Island, whilst the latter sank in the Hamoaze. HMS Fame was refloated on the 5th of February and taken back into Plymouth for repairs at a cost of well over £3000.

    She was again fitted for a guardship there in 1771.

    In 1777 refitted for wartime service, by 1778, se was under the command of Captain
    Stephen Colby, and proceeded to the North American station in a fleet of 14 ships under Vice-Admiral the Hon. John Byron on his flagship the Princess Royal.

    By the 6th of July 1779, she was now commanded by Captain
    John Butchart, and it was under him that on this date Fame took part in the Battle of Grenada against the French. The French fleet, under Admiral D’Estaing, consisted of 25 ships of the line and several frigates. The British fleet, under Vice-Admiral Byron, had 21 ships of the line and 1 frigate. The French were anchored off Georgetown on the south-west of the island, and the English approached during the night. D’Estaing weighed at 4 am and Byron chased. The British ships attacked in utter disorder and confusion. Fame and three other ships got separated from the main body, and were very badly mauled. The French lost no ships and eventually hauled off. The British lost 183 killed and 346 wounded. Fame lost 4 killed and 9 wounded. The French lost 190 killed and 759 wounded. This action reflected no credit on either side.





    Fame then returned to Chatham for repairs and coppering. Recommissioned in the September of 1781 under Captain Robert Barbor she returned to service and under his captaincy, she returned to the West Indies. On the 12th of April,1782, she was one of a fleet of 36 ships of the line under Admiral Sir
    George Rodney, aboard his flagship HMS Formidable. when they encountered the French fleet of 33 ships of the line, commanded by Vice-Admiral Comte de Grasse with his flag aboard the Ville de Paris, between Dominica and Guadeloupe. The fighting was spread over several days, before the French were finally defeated in what came to be known as the Battle of the Saints.





    George Vancouver served as lieutenant on this Fame under Captain Robert Barbor during this engagement. Vancouver later went on captain his own ship, HMS Discovery, on a voyage of discovery to the Pacific Northwest in search of the Northwest passage.

    Fate.

    On her return to Plymouth from the June to the October of 1790 she was refitted as a Guardship for Cork.
    Recommissioned in the November of 1795 under Captain Thomas Taylor for temporary service at Plymouth, she was moved to Portsmouth in 1797 in need of major repairs, being the oldest 74 then in service. Recommissioned under Lieutenant John Watherson as a Prison ship in the November of 1797, In 1801, Fame was renamed Guilford and retained as a
    prison ship stationed at Portsmouth. In 1806 she was commanded by lieutenant Robert Trotter, and fom the May of 1807 by Lieutenant George Keenor. By 1812 she was under Lieutenant William Coet.

    She was eventually sold out of the service on the 30th of September,1814 for the sum of £2,400.
    Last edited by Bligh; 02-14-2020 at 12:26.
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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    HMS Fortitude (1780)

    HMS Fortitude was a 74-gun modified Albion Class
    third-rateship of the line, ordered on the 2nd of February 1778. Built by John Randall & Co. of Rotherhithe she was launched on the 23rd of March,1780.


    History
    GREAT BRITAIN
    Name:
    HMS Fortitude
    Ordered:
    2 February 1778
    Builder:
    Randall, Rotherhithe
    Laid down:
    4 March 1778
    Launched:
    23 March 1780
    Honours and
    awards:
    Participated in:
    Battle of Dogger Bank (1781)
    Fate:
    Broken up, 1820
    General characteristics
    Class and type:
    Modified Albion-classship of the line
    Tons burthen:
    1645 bm
    Length:
    168 ft (51 m) (gundeck)
    Depth of hold:
    18 ft 10 in (5.74 m)
    Propulsion:
    Sails
    Sail plan:
    Full rigged ship
    Armament:
    74 guns:
    undeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
    Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
    Quarterdeck: 14 × 9-pounder guns
    Forecastle: 4 × 9-pounder guns



    Commissioned in the March of 1780 under Captain
    Richard Bickerton, Fortitude served in the English Channel. In the April of 1781 she participated in the second relief of Gibraltar.

    Battle of the Dogger Bank.

    In May, during the
    Fourth Anglo–Dutch War, Vice-Admiral Hyde Parker's shifted his flag from HMS Victory to Fortitude, and on the 5th of August, Fortitude fought in the Battle of Dogger Bank as Parker's flagship. After a desperate, bloody battle in which neither of the combatants gained any advantage, both sides eventually drew off.
    Following the battle she was refitted at Plymouth between the January and February of 1782.
    Paid off after wartime service in the April of 1783 she underwent another small repair at Plymouth.


    French Revolutionary Wars.

    Recommissioned in 1793, under Captain
    William Young she sailed for the Mediterranean to join Admiral Sir Samuel Hood's fleet.
    On the 7th of February 1794, under the command of Captain William Young, Fortitude and
    Juno attacked a tower at Mortella Point, on the coast of Corsica. The tower, though manned by only 33 men and heavily damaged by the ships' guns, resisted the attack for two days before surrendering to land-based forces under Sir John Moore, having lost only two men mortally wounded. In her unsuccessful bombardment, Fortitude, however, suffered extensive damage to her hull, masts, rigging and sails, particularly from heated shot, and had three lower-deck guns disabled. In all, she lost six men killed and 56 men wounded, including eight of them critically. The design of the tower so impressed the British that they made it the model for Martello Towers which they would later construct in Great Britain and also in many of the colonies.

    Under Captain Thomas Taylor Fortitude was involved in two actions. The first off
    Genoa on the 13th of March, 1795, resulted in Admiral William Hotham'sMediterranean Fleet chasing the French fleet and capturing Ça Ira and Censeur, with the two fleets then diverging in opposite directions. The second took place on the 13th of July in that same year when there was an action off Hyères. This encounter being also an indecisive one. Although the British succeeded in capturing a French 74-gun ship of the Line, amid severe criticism, Admiral Hotham resigned on the1st of November.

    On the 25th of September.1795, Fortitude set sail for Britain with a large convoy. On the 7th of October the convoy sighted a large French squadron commanded by de Richery, off
    Cape St. Vincent, which sailed in pursuit of them. Before the French arrived, Censeur lost her fore-topmast and had only a frigate's main mast left, rendering her useless. She was also lightly manned and short of powder. In the subsequent exchange the French recaptured her, along with 30 ships in the convoy. The remaining vessels escaped to England.

    Fate.

    Fortitude was paid off in the November of that year. She was then reassigned to the role of a prison ship under acting Captain Thomas Boys. She was recommissioned with the same role in the June of 1798 under Lieutenant John Gourly. From the May of 1802 she was used as a Powder hulk at Portsmouth until finally broken up there in the March of 1820.
    .
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

  30. #30
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    HMS Ganges (1782)

    HMS Ganges was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line, designed by Edward Hunt, and built by John Randall at Rotherhithe where she was launched in 1782.The original order was placed by the Honourable East India Company to build a 74-gun ship under the name of the Bengal. On completion she was presented to the Royal Navy, who renamed her the HMS Ganges.She was the initial ship in the Navy to bear that name, and was the name ship of her class, the first in a line of five ships, with a sixth of a modified build being added in 1811.



    History
    GREAT BRITAIN
    Name: HMS Ganges
    Ordered: 14 July 1779
    Builder: Randall, Rotherhithe
    Laid down: April 1780
    Launched: 30 March 1782
    Fate: Broken up, 1816
    Notes: ·Participated in:
    ·Battle of Cape Spartel
    ·Battle of Copenhagen
    ·Second Battle of Copenhagen

    General characteristics
    Class and type: Ganges-class ship of the line
    Tons burthen: 1678​5394 or 1679 bm
    Length: 169 ft 6 in (51.7 m) (gundeck)
    Beam: 47 ft 8 12 in (14.5 m)
    Depth of hold: 20 ft 3 in (6.2 m)
    Propulsion: Sails
    Sail plan: Full rigged ship
    Complement: 590 officers and men
    Armament: ·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
    ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
    ·QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
    ·Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

    Service.


    The Royal Navy commissioned Ganges in the February of 1782 under the command of Captain Charles Fielding for Howe's Fleet. Following wartime service, she was paid-off in the March of 1783, but was almost immediately recommissioned during that same month under Captain J. Lutterell, as a guard ship at Portsmouth until the August of 1783.

    Between 1784 and 1787, she was under the command of Captain Sir Roger Curtis. In October 1787 she became the flagship of Rear-Admiral Sir Francis Drake.

    Decommissioned for repairs in the November of 1790, she was recommissioned in the December of 1792 under Captain Anthony Molloy. She was involved in the pursuit of Vanstable's squadron on the 18th of November 1793.

    French Revolutionary Wars.

    After recommissioning in the January of 1794, whilst under the command of Captain William Truscott, she joined Montague's squadron and sailed for the Leeward Islands. On the 30th of October of that year and in concert with HMS Montagu, Ganges captured the French corvette Jacobine, which was armed with twenty-four 12-pounder guns. She was only nine days out of Brest and had a crew of 220 men. The Royal Navy took Jacobin into service as HMS Matilda.

    Ganges was part of the squadron commanded by Admiral John Gell, which escorted a Spanish ship they had captured from the French back to Portsmouth. The ownership of the ship was a matter of some debate and was not settled until 4 February 1795, when the value of the cargo was put at £935,000. At this time all the crew, captains, officers and admirals received a share of the prize money, Admiral Hood taking away £50,000. Besides Ganges, the ships that conveyed the Spanish prize to Portsmouth were St George, Egmont, Edgar and Phaeton.
    By the time this was sorted out Ganges was back in the Leeward Islands commanded by Captain Lancelot Skinner.

    Ganges shared in the prize money from the capture of the French supply ship Marsouin by Beaulieu on the11th of March, 1796. In the following month she came under the captaincy of Captain Robert McDougal in Sir Hugh Christian's operations at St Lucia in the May, and Grenada in the June of that year.

    She returned to Portsmouth for a refit in the January of 1797 still under McDougal. She remained under this captain on the North sea station until 1799. From the September of that year command devolved onto the shoulders of Captain Colin Campbell until she returned to England for a small repair in the June of 1800.



    Ganges was one of the ships at Spithead in 1797.

    Recommissioned in the August of that year,Ganges was placed under the command of Captain Thomas Fremantle, who still captained her at the Battle of Copenhagen on the 2nd of April, 1801. Aboard her, commanded by Isaac Brock, were a contingent of soldiers from the 49th Foot,. Their mission was to storm the forts at Copenhagen, but the outcome of the naval battle made the assault unnecessary.

    Napoleonic Wars.

    In the October of that same year she sailed for Jamaica under Captain Joseph Baker, and in the September of 1802 under Captain George McKinley until paid off in the July of 1803.

    Recommissioned once more under Freemantle she was again paid of in the November of 1804.Refitted at Portsmouth between the May and June of 1806, under Captain Peter Halkett, she joined Stopford's squadron in the January of 1807. later in that year becoming the Flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Richard Goodwin Keats.

    On the 16th of August of that year, Ganges was also present at the Second Battle of Copenhagen, still flying the flag of Commodore Keats, and under the command of Captain Peter Halkett. During the battle Keats placed a portrait of Admiral Nelson on the mizzen mast where it was said to have encouraged officers and men alike in spite of being smeared with the blood and brains of a dead sailor.

    On the 23rd of August, Ganges was one of six British warships that shared in the capture of the Danish vessel Speculation.

    In 1808 she sailed for Portugal, and in 1809 she was firstly stationed in the North sea and then sailed to the Baltic under Captain Thomas Dundas.

    In the September of 1810, two luggers sporting oars, one from Ruby, under the command of Lieutenant Robert Streatfield, and the other from Ganges, under the command of Lieutenant Stackpole, captured two Danish armed vessels off Lessoe. In this brief action neither of the British crews suffered any casualties.

    Fate.

    Paid off at the beginning of 1811, she went into ordinary at Plymouth between March and April. Ganges was commissioned as a prison ship on the12th of December,1811 for the incarceration of prisoners of war. Between 1812 and1814 she was transferred to the Transport Board. under Lieutenant Fredrick Leroux until the December of that year when command was transferred to Lieutenant James Spratt.

    Ganges was broken up at Plymouth in the March of 1816.
    Last edited by Bligh; 02-15-2020 at 02:38.
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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    HMS Goliath (1781)

    HMS Goliath was a 74-gun Edgar, or modified Arrogant Class,
    third-rateship of the line, designed by Slade and ordered on the 21st of February 1778 . M/shipwright Adam Hayes.She was launched on the 19th of October, 1781 at Deptford Dockyard.

    .

    History
    Great Britain
    Name:
    HMS Goliath
    Ordered:
    21 February 1778
    Builder:
    Deptford Dockyard
    Laid down:
    10 April 1779
    Launched:
    19 October 1781
    Honours and
    awards:
    Fate:
    Broken up, 1815
    General characteristics
    Class and type:
    Arrogant-classship of the line
    Tons burthen:
    1604 bm
    Length:
    168 ft (51 m) (gundeck)
    Beam:
    46 ft 9 in (14.25 m)
    Depth of hold:
    19 ft 9 in (6.02 m)
    Propulsion:
    Sails
    Sail plan:
    Full rigged ship
    Complement:
    584 officers and men
    Armament:
    • Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
    • Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
    • QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
    • Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

    Commissioned in the October of 1781, in the July of 1783 she was fitted as a guardship at Sheerness.

    French Revolutionary Wars.

    She is recorded as entering
    Portsmouth Harbour on the 24th of September,1785 where she was re-bolted between the June of 1786 and the September of 1787. Goliath was under the command of Captain Andrew Snape Douglas from 1790. She is also remarked upon as being at the Tagus on the 21st of December, 1796 under Sir Charles Knowles, on the occasion of the Mediterranean Fleets arrival, and then sailing from thence on the following 20th of January with a Portuguese convoy. On the 6th of February, she was joined off Cape St Vincent by a squadron dispatched from the Channel Fleet, and was present with it at Jervis's action against the Spanish on the 14th of February. She was commanded during this action by Captain Knowles, and lost only eight wounded and no one killed. However, Jervis called Knowles 'an imbecile, totally incompetent; the Goliath no use whatever under his command,' and so after the battle Knowles was ordered to exchange ships with Captain Thomas Foley of Britannia. Foley restored Goliath to order whilst Britannia went into decline under Knowles.
    She then sailed on the 31st of March,1797 from
    Lisbon to blockade duties, and on the 3rd of July bombard Cadiz. She left the Cadiz area on the 24th of May,1798 with a squadron of 10 ships of the line to join Nelson's squadron in the Mediterranean. whilst he was searching for the French fleet transporting Bonaparte to Egypt. Goliath arrived with them on the 7th of June, in good time to be present at the Battle of the Nile on the 1st of August, at which juncture Foley deduced that there was enough room to sail between the shore and the stationary anchored French ships. Four other ships followed his lead, and it was this move that can be said to have won the battle for Nelson. Goliath suffered 21 killed and 41 wounded.
    Following the battle, on the 19th of August, Goliath and the ships
    Zealous, Swiftsure, Seahorse, Emerald, Alcmene, and Bonne Citoyenne left Aboukir Bay to cruise off the port of Alexandria. There, on the 25th of August, her boats captured the French armed ketchTorride from under the guns of Abukir Castle. The Royal Navy took Torride into service,and Goliath remained stationed off Alexandria until at least the end of 1798.

    Recommissioned in the June of 1801 under Captain William Essington she sailed for Jamaica in the October of that year.
    From the July of 1802 she came under the command of Captain Charles Brisbane.

    Napoleonic Wars.

    Onthe 27th of January, 1803, during the
    Blockade of Saint-Domingue, Goliath dispatched a boat which captured a small French schooner that had been on her way from Santiago de Cuba to Port-au-Prince, carrying a cargo of sugar and the sum of over £2000 in species. The schooner was armed with three carriage guns and several swivels.
    On the following day, Goliath sailed inshore off the Cape Nicholas Mole, Haiti, to try and find two vessels seen earlier. In the
    Action of the 28th of June , She encountered and, after a few shots, captured the ship-corvetteMignonne, which the British navy took into service under her French name.

    In Brisbane's words, "Mignonne was a remarkable fast sailing Ship Corvette". She carried sixteen long 18-pounder guns, six of which she had landed. Her crew, of only 80 men, were under the command of Monsieur J. P. Bargeaud, Capitaine de Fregate, and she was two days out of Les Cayes, sailing to France via the Cape.
    Goliath returned to Britain in the August of 1803.On the 6th of December she recaptured the Liverpool ship
    Rachael. After arbitration her crew had to share the prize money with HMS Defiance.

    As the
    slaverDiamond was returning from Havana on the 9th of August, she encountered the French privateer Bellona, which took her captive. However, Goliath recaptured Diamond on the 12th and sent her into The Downs.

    In the May of 1805 Goliath was a member of the
    Channel Fleet under Captain Robert Barton, when on the15th of August her lookout spotted four vessels, one to the eastward and three to the westward of her position. Goliath sailed eastward and joined the Camilla, which was in pursuit of the French brig-corvette Faune. Goliath then aided Camilla in the capture the French ship.

    On the same day Goliath was joined by the
    HMS Raisonnable and the two set off after the three sails which she had sighted earlier. They turned out to be the French 44-gun frigateTopaze, the corvettes Department-des-Landes and Torche. Goliath subsequently captured Torche, of 18 guns which was under the command of M. Dehen, with a crew of 196 men. She also had on board as prisoners 52 men from the Blanche. The French flotilla had captured Blanche on the 19th of July, some 150 miles north of Puerto Rico. The Royal Navy took Torche, into service as HMS Torch. She was sister-ship to Mignonne, but she was never commissioned into the Royal Navy.

    After being recommissioned in the February of 1807 under Captain Peter Paget, on the 26th of July, Goliath sailed as a part of a fleet of 38 vessels for
    Copenhagen and was present, from the 15th of August to the 20th of October in that year, for the siege and bombardment of Copenhagen, and the capture of the Danish Fleet by Admiral Gambier.

    She was active from the May to October of 1808 in the
    Baltic with a fleet under Vice-Admiral Sir J Saumarez, being chased on the19th of August by the entire Russian fleet in Hango Bay. On the 30th of August she got he revenge when she joined Centaur, Implacable and the Swedish fleet blockading the Russians in the port of Rogerswick.


    Laid up at Chatham in the November of 1808 and then at Portsmouth in 1812 she was cut down to a Fourth Rate 58 gun Frigate. Early in 1813 she was recommissioned under Captain Frederick Maitland for service in the West Indies.


    Fate.

    She then sailed for home, arriving in Portsmouth on the 25th of July, 1813 and departing only 15 days later with another
    West Indiesconvoy, calling at Falmouth on the 15th of August, and then Cork. She escorted the convoy across the Irish Sea, before heading back to Portsmouth, where she arrived on the 14th of August 1814, the Downs on the day following, and then onto the naval base at Chatham, where, on the 3rd of October she was paid off.
    She was broken up there in the June of 1815.
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

  32. #32
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    HMS Hannibal (1786)





    HMS Hannibal was a Slade designed modified Culloden Class 74-gun third-rate ship of the line,ordered on the 19th of June,1782,and built by Perry and Co at Blackwall. She was launched on 15 April 1786, and was named after the Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca.






    History
    Great Britain
    Name: HMS Hannibal
    Ordered: 19 June 1782
    Builder: Perry, Blackwall Yard
    Laid down: April 1783
    Launched: 15 April 1786
    Honours and
    awards:
    Participated in:
    First Battle of Algeciras
    Captured: 6 July 1801 by the French at the First Battle of Algeciras
    France
    Name: Annibal
    Acquired: 6 July 1801
    General characteristics
    Class and type: Culloden-class ship of the line
    Tons burthen: 1619​5794 (bm)
    Length: 170 ft (51.8 m) (gundeck)
    Beam: 47 ft 6 34 in (14.5 m)
    Depth of hold: 20 ft 0 in (6.1 m)
    Propulsion: Sails
    Sail plan: Full rigged ship
    Armament: · Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
    · Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
    · QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
    · Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

    Early service.



    Fitted out and coppered at Woolwich between the 28th of April and the August of 1786,Hannibal was commissioned in the August of 1787 under Captain Richard Boger. She was paid off two months later and fitted for service in the Channel at Plymouth.



    In the May of 1790 Hannibal was recommissioned under Captain John Colpoys for the Spanish Armament She was recommissioned in the August of 1791 for service as a guardship at Plymouth. When war with France became increasing likely towards end of 1792 the guardships at the three naval seaports were ordered to rendezvous at Spithead. Hannibal and the other Plymouth-based ships left on the 11th of December and arrived at Spithead on the next day. The guardships from the other ports took longer to arrive.

    On the 15th of February, 1793 she and HMS Hector left on a cruise during which at some point they pursued two French frigates. They captured a French merchant ship, Etoille du Matin, on the 23rd of February. They were then fitted for service in the West Indies and on the 24th of March left for the Leeward Islands with the fleet under Rear-Admiral Sir Alan Gardner. Hannibal returned to Britain in early 1794, and underwent fitting at Plymouth from March to December of that year, having been recommissioned by Captain John Markham who took command of her during the August. On the 10th of April, 1795 Rear-Admiral Colpoys, while cruising with a squadron composed of five ships of the line and three frigates, chased three French frigates. HMS Colossus got within gunshot of one of them and opened fire, at which the frigates took different courses. HMS Robust and Hannibal pursued two; the 32-gun fifth-rate frigate HMS Astraea pursued and captured the 36-gun Gloire after an hour-long fight at the Action of the 10th of April, 1795. On the following day Hannibal captured the French 36-gun frigate Gentille, but the Fraternité escaped. Gentille lost eight men killed and fifteen wounded; Hannibal had four men wounded. The Royal Navy took Gentille into service. Ten British warships, Hannibal being one of them, shared in the proceeds of the recapture of the Caldicot Castle on the 28th of March of that year, and the capture on the 30th of March of the French privateer corvette Jean Bart. The Navy took Jean Bart into service as HMS Arab.

    On the 14th of May, Hannibal sailed for Jamaica where On the 21st of October, whilst still on the West Indies station, she captured the 8-gun French privateer schooner Grand Voltigeur. Three days later she also captured the 12-gun French privateer Convention. On the 13th of November she captured the French privateer Petit Tonnerre. Markham left Hannibal in December, and was superseded in January 1796, by Captain T. Lewie.



    On 27 January, Hannibal and HMS Sampson captured the privateer Alerte which was armed with 14 guns and Sampson was the actual captor.
    After Lewie’s death in Jamaica on the 16th of July, the command passed to Captain Joseph Bingham. Captain Robert Campbell assumed command in April 1798. Then In September Captain John Elphinstone. Captain E.T. Smith followed him in October, and remained in command until 1800, when Captain John Loring replaced him, only to pay Hannibal off later that year.



    Defeat and loss.



    Captain Solomon Ferris recommissioned her in March 1801, and under his command she sailed from Spithead on 6 June. She joined Rear-Admiral Sir James Saumarez in Cawsand Bay on the 12th of June, ready to sail for the Mediterranean.


    On the morning of the 6th of July Saumarez's squadron of six line-of-battle ships attacked the French Admiral Linois's three line-of-battle ships and a frigate in Algeciras Bay. Hannibal was the last in and she anchored ahead of HMS Caesar, Saumarez's flagship. From there she fired broadsides for about an hour. At about 10 o'clock Ferris Saumarez ordered Hannibal to cut her cables and move to support HMS Pompee by engaging Formidable, Linois's flagship. As Hannibal maneuvered, the variable winds pushed her into shoal water and she grounded. Still, from his immobile position, Ferris maintained fire on Formidable with those of his forward guns that could bear on her; the other guns fired at the town, batteries and gunboats. Saumarez sent boats from Caesar and HMS Venerable to assist Hannibal but a shot demolished Caesar's pinnace; Ferris then used one of his own cutters to send them back to Caesar. At about 1:30pm the British ships withdrew to Gibraltar, leaving Hannibal immobile and unsupported.



    Ferris consulted with his officers and decided that further resistance was pointless and that the only way to save the lives of the remaining crew was for Hannibal to strike. By this point Hannibal's fire had dwindled to almost nothing so Ferris ordered his men to shelter below decks. He then signaled capitulation by hoisting Hannibal's ensign upside down. The battle had cost Hannibal 75 men killed, 62 wounded and six missing.

    Commander George Dundas, deceived by a signal from Hannibal, sent boats from HMS Calpe to save Hannibal's crew. The French detained the boats and their crews, including Calpe's lieutenant, T. Sykes; after firing several broadsides at the enemy's shipping and batteries, Calpe returned to Gibraltar. The French and Spanish were unable to repair Hannibal quickly enough for her to take part in the eventual defeat of the Franco-Spanish squadron at the Second Battle of Algeciras several days later.



    Sir James Saumarez then arranged to exchange the men from St Antoine, which the British had captured in the second part of the battle, for the men from Hannibal and Calpe. A court martial on HMS Gladiator in Portsmouth on 1 September honourably acquitted Captain Ferris, his officers and crew for the loss of their ship.

    French service.

    The French renamed Hannibal Annibal. In November 1801 HMS Racoon convoyed the Straits fleet to Gibraltar, arriving there on the 16th of November. On the way they encountered dreadful weather in the Bay of Biscay. While Racoon was nearing Brest, she observed Hannibal and Speedy underway. Both former Royal Navy vessels were under jury-masts and French colours. Later, on the 9th of February,1802, Annibal along with Intrépide and Formidable, sailed from Cadiz for Toulon where she underwent a refit between March and June.



    Annibal then served in the French Navy until 1821 (undergoing a further refit at Toulon during 1809). She was partly re-armed in 1806, with one pair of upper deck guns being removed, and sixteen 32-pounder carronades replacing ten of her 9-pounder guns. In the May of 1807, the 38-gun frigate HMS Spartan encountered Annibal, two frigates (Pomone and Incorruptible), and the corvette Victorieuse off Cabrera in the Mediterranean but escaped.

    Fate.

    In January 1821 Annibal became a hulk at Toulon, and was broken up in 1824.





    HMS Hannibal (left foreground) lies aground and dismasted at the First Battle of Algeciras
    Attached Images Attached Images   
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

  33. #33
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    HMS Hector (1774)



    HMS Hector was a Royal Oak Class 74-gun third rateship of the line designed by Sir John Williams, ordered on the 14th of January 1771 and built by Henry Adams and John Barnard at Deptford. launched on the 27th of May, 1774 at Deptford.


    History
    GREAT BRITAIN
    Name: HMS Hector
    Ordered: 14 January 1771
    Builder: Adams, Deptford
    Laid down: April 1771
    Launched: 27 May 1774
    Honours and
    awards:
    Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Egypt"
    Fate: Broken up, 1816
    General characteristics
    Class and type: Royal Oak-classship of the line
    Tons burthen: 1622 (bm)
    Length: 168 ft 6 in (51.36 m) (gundeck)
    Beam: 46 ft 9 in (14.25 m)
    Depth of hold: 20 ft (6.1 m)
    Propulsion: Sails
    Sail plan: Full rigged ship
    Armament: ·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
    ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
    ·QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
    ·Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns





    Career.


    HMS Hector was commissioned in the November of 1776,coppered and fitted out at Portsmouth in the April of 1779.

    During the Hurricane of 1780 she was somewhat damaged.


    HMS Hector and Bristol in distress during the Great Hurricane of 1780



    Paid off in the September of 1782 after wartime service she underwent some further repairs, and inthe Octber of that year was fitted as a guardship at Portsmouth. Recommissioned in the April of 1783 under Captain Sir John Hamilton she continued in her role as a guardship, and later under Captain Sir George Collier until 1786.
    After more repairs in 1787 she was recommissioned in the September of 1790 under Captain George Montagu and sailed for the Leeward Islands on the 24th of March 1793.


    Going aboard Hector in 1791

    By the June of that year she was at Martinique and came under the command of Captain Lawrence Halstead, as the Flagship of the now Rear-Admiral Montague in the September of that same year. Hector returned to Portsmouth in December for a much needed refit, and was paid off in the August of 1794, now under Captain Cuthbert Collingwood. Recommissioned in the December of that year under Captain Robert Montagu, she became the Flagship of Rear–Admiral Lord Hugh Seymour until the start of 1796.



    In the February of 1796 she underwent the first of two refits until in the October of 1797 she set sail for the Med under Captain Peter Apton. She remained here late into 1799 now under the command of Captain Robert Campbell, and then returned to Portsmouth for another refit.
    In the beginning of 1801 she joined Warren’s Squadron under Captain John Elphinstone. On the 9th of May, Hector, Kent, and Cruelle unsuccessfully chased the French corvette Heliopolis, which eluded them and slipped into Alexandria. Because Hector served in the navy's Egyptian campaign (8 March to 8 September 1801), her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal that the Admiralty authorised in 1850 for all surviving claimants.



    Fate.



    In 1802, under Captain William Skipsey Hector was paid off and laid up at Plymouth, where she was converted for use as a prison ship under Lt. Edmond Nepean in 1808, and then under Lieutenants. Lighterness and Elers until she was finally broken up in 1816.
    Attached Images Attached Images   
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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    HMS Illustrious (1789)

    HMS Illustrious was an Edgar class, (modified Arrogant class) 74-gun third rateship of the line, ordered on the 31st of December 1781, built by Henry Adams, and launched on the 7th of July, 1789 at Bucklers Hard.










    Model of HMS Illustrious at Buckler's Hard Maritime Museum


    History
    Great Britain
    Name: HMS Illustrious
    Ordered: 31 December 1781
    Builder: Adams, Bucklers Hard
    Laid down: September 1784
    Launched: 7 July 1789
    Fate: Wrecked, 1795
    Notes: ·Participated in:
    ·Battle of Genoa

    General characteristics

    Class and type: Edgar classship of the line
    Tons burthen: 1615 ​5194 tonnes burthen
    Length: 168 ft 2 in (51.26 m) (gundeck)
    Beam: 46 ft 11 in (14.30 m)
    Draught: 12 ft 6 in (3.81 m)
    Depth of hold: 19 ft 9 in (6.02 m)
    Propulsion: Sails
    Sail plan: Full rigged ship
    Armament: ·74 guns:
    ·Gundeck: 28 × 32 pdrs
    ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18 pdrs
    ·Quarterdeck: 14 × 9 pdrs
    ·Forecastle: 4 × 9 pdrs



    Service.

    Commissioned in the May of 1790 under Captain Alexander Edgar for the Spanish service, she was recommissioned in the March of 1791 under Captain Captain Charles Pole for the Russian Armament but was again paid off in the September of that year.



    Having been refitted at Plymouth in the March of 1793 under Captain Thomas Frederick, she sailed for the Med on the 22nd of May. Between the 29th of August and the 19th of December Illustrious was involved in the Siege of Toulon.


    In the action off Genoa on the 13th of March 1795, she earned a Battle Honour. During the battle, in which Captain Nelson aboard Agamemnon captured Ça Ira. Illustrious was badly damaged in the engagement with the van of the French fleet, having also lost 20 killed and 70 wounded.

    Loss.

    After the battle, Meleager was towing Illustrious when she broke free of her tow. Then the accidental firing of a lower deck gun damaged the ship so that she took on water. On the 18th of March, she attempted to anchor in Valence Bay (between Spezia and Leghorn) to ride out the bad weather that had descended upon her. Her cables broke, however, and she struck on rocks and had to be abandoned. Lowestoffe and Tarleton took off her stores, and all her crew were saved. Her abandoned hull was then burnt on the 28th of March, 1795.
    Attached Images Attached Images   
    Last edited by Bligh; 03-08-2020 at 09:28.
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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    HMS Invincible (1765)

    HMS Invincible was a 74-gun Ramillies class third-rate ship of the line, ordered on the 12th of October 1761and built by John and William Wells and company at Deptford. She was launched on the 9th of March,1765.

    Ramillies Class /Invincible
    History.
    GREAT BRITAIN
    Name: HMS Invincible
    Ordered: 12th of October 1761
    Builder: Wells, Deptford
    Launched: 9 March 1765
    Fate: Wrecked, 16 March 1801
    Notes:

    General characteristics
    Class and type: Ramillies-class ship of the line
    Tons burthen: 1630
    Length: 168 ft 6 in (51.36 m) (gundeck)
    Beam: 47 ft 3 in (14.30 m)
    Depth of hold: 19 ft 9 in (6.02 m)
    Propulsion: Sails
    Sail plan: Full rigged ship
    Armament:
    • 74 guns:
    • Gundeck: 28 × 32 pdrs
    • Upper gundeck: 28 × 18 pdrs
    • Quarterdeck: 14 × 9 pdrs
    • Forecastle: 4 × 9 pdrs

    Built during a period of peace to replace ships worn out in the recently concluded Seven Years' War, Invincible was first sent to Sheerness on the 6th of April 1765, before being commissioned in the November of 1766, under Captain Hyde Parker, and thence to Portsmouth for coppering between the April and May of 1779. Recommissioned under Captain Anthony Parry, she was dispatched to serve in the American War of Independence, under Captain John Laforey, fighting at the battles of Cape St Vincent on the 16th of January,1780 under Captain S Cornish, with a total of three killed and four wounded.

    Richard Bickerton became her captain at the start of 1781, and then under the command of Captain Charles Saxton, the Battles of the Chesapeake on the 5th of September of that year, with no casualties, Then at the battle of St. Kitts in the January of,1782, still under Saxton she suffered only two wounded.


    Battle of St. Kitts 1782

    On her return to Plymouth she went into ordinary in the February of 1784. And in the November of 1788 underwent a large repair at Chatham.

    She survived the cull of the Navy during the next period of peace, and was recommissioned under Captain Thomas Pakenham in the May of 1793 for service in Howe’s Fleet. She was present, still under Pakenham’s command, at the battle of the Glorious First of June off Ushant on the first of June,1794, where she was badly damaged and lost fourteen men killed and thirty one wounded, and then, under the command of William Cayley, went on to the Invasion of Trinidad in (1797), which resulted in the transfer of Trinidad from Spain to Great Britain.

    Shipwreck.



    The loss of HMS Invincible

    In the February of 1801 she was appointed a new captain, one John Rennie. On the 16th of March of that year, she was lost in a shipwreck off the coast of Norfolk, England. She had been sailing from Yarmouth under the flag of Rear-Admiral Thomas Totty in an effort to reach the fleet of Admiral Sir Hyde Parker in the Sound preparing for the upcoming attack on the Danish fleet, with approximately 650 people on board. As the ship passed the Norfolk coast, she was caught in heavy wind and stuck on the Hammond Knoll Rock off Happisburgh, where she was pinned for some hours in the afternoon before breaking free but immediately being grounded on a sandbank, where the effect of wind and waves tore down the masts and began to break up the ship. She remained in that position for all of the following day, but late in the evening drifted off the sandbank and sank in deep water.

    The admiral and 195 sailors escaped the wreck, either in one of the ship's boats or were picked up by a passing collier and fishing boat, but over 400 of their shipmates drowned in the disaster, most of them once the ship began to sink into the deeper water.
    The compulsory court martial investigating the incident, held on Ruby in Sheerness, absolved the admiral and the captain, posthumously, of any culpability in the disaster, blaming the harbour pilot and the ship's master, both of whom had been engaged to steer the ship through the reefs and shoals of the dangerous region, and should have known the location of Hammond Knoll, especially since it was daytime and in sight of land.

    The remains of many of her crew were located by chance in a mass grave in Happisburgh churchyard during the digging of a new drainage channel. A memorial stone was erected in 1998 to their memory by the Ship's Company of the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Invincible, and by the Happisburgh parochial church council.
    Attached Images Attached Images    
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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    HMS Irresistible (1782)

    HMS Irresistible was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line ordered on the 5th of July, 1777, built by John Barnard at Harwich who became bankrupt in the March of 1781. The ship was thus completed by his assignees, Wm Barnard and Co., being launched on 6 December 1782.


    History
    GREAT BRITAIN
    Name: HMS Irresistible
    Ordered: 8 July 1778
    Builder: Barnard, Harwich
    Laid down: October 1778
    Launched: 6 December 1782
    Fate: Broken up, 1806
    Notes:
    General characteristics
    Class and type: Albion-class ship of the line
    Tons burthen: 1643 (bm)
    Length: 168 ft (51 m) (gundeck)
    Depth of hold: 18 ft 10 in (5.74 m)
    Propulsion: Sails
    Sail plan: Full rigged ship
    Armament:
    • Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
    • Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
    • QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
    • Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

    Career.

    Her first role was as a guardship for Chatham from the September of 1787.
    Fitted out at Sheerness in the August of 1793 having been commissioned under Captain John Henry, she sailed for the Leeward Islands on the 24th of November in that year.

    She was at Martinique by the 2nd of February 1794, and assigned to Ford’s Squadron at Port–au-Prince in the May of that year. Late in the winter under Captain John Leigh Douglas she was paid off. Recommissioned in December under Captain Richard Grindall, Irresistible returned to Plymouth for a refit in the June of 1795.

    On the 23rd of that month she was involved in Bridport’s action, at the Battle of Groix, with 3 killed and 11 wounded including Grindall himself. From that time she came under the command of Captain George Martin and sailed for the Med on the 1st of January 1797.

    Irresistible captured the French privateer Quatre frères in the April of that year. (The Royal Navy later took her into service as HMS Transfer.) Irresistible then joined Jervis’s fleet on the 6th of February, and on the 14th was involved in the Battle of Cape St Vincent. From the 15th until mid March she served as the Flagship of Commodore Horatio Nelson.

    In concert with HMS Emerald, she and captured the Spanish 34 gun frigate La Ninfa, and destroyed the Santa Elena in an Action on the 26th of April, 1797.

    She came under the command of Captain Robert Pamplin in the March of 1798, and then under Captain William Owen until paid off in the August of that year.

    Fate.

    After repairs at Chatham, in the April of 1801 she was recommissioned under Captain William Bligh, for service in the North sea, coming under the command of Captain Christopher Parker. Fitted at Chatham in September 1803 for the final time, Irresistible was broken up in the September of 1806.
    Attached Images Attached Images  
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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    HMS Leviathan (1790)



    HMS Leviathan was a Carnatic Class, 3rd rate, 74 gun ship of the line of the Common Type, ordered on the 9th of December 1779, and built in the Royal Dockyard, Chatham, by M/shipwright Nicholas Phillips to the July of 1790 and completed by John Nelson. She was launched there on the 9th of October of that year.




    History
    GREAT BRITAIN
    Name: HMS Leviathan
    Ordered: 9 December 1779
    Builder: Chatham Dockyard
    Laid down: May 1782
    Launched: 9 October 1790
    Honours and
    awards:
    ·Participated in:
    ·
    Battle of Trafalgar
    Fate: Sold and broken up, 1848
    General characteristics
    Class and type: Carnatic classship of the line
    Tons burthen: 1707​8994 (bm)
    Length: 172 ft 3 in (52.50 m) (gundeck)
    Beam: 47 ft 10 in (14.55 m)
    Depth of hold: 20 ft 9 in (6.3 m)
    Propulsion: Sails
    Sail plan: Full rigged ship
    Armament: ·74 guns:
    ·Gundeck: 28 × 32 pdrs

    ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18 pdrs
    ·Quarterdeck: 14 × 9 pdrs
    ·Forecastle: 4 × 9 pdrs



    Career.

    HMS Leviathan was commissioned in the January of 1793 under Captain Hugh Conway and fitted at Sheerness until the April of that year. On the 22nd of May she sailed for the Med and with the aid of HMS Colossus took the French Privateer Le Vrai Patriot in the July of that year. By October she was under the command of Captain Benjamin hallowell at Toulon, and then returned to Portsmouth for a refit in the April of 1794.

    Her next action saw her at the Battle of the Glorious First of June, off Ushant under Captain Lord Hugh Seymour, losing ten killed and thirty three wounded.
    In 1795 her Captain was Captain John Duckworth under whom she sailed to the Caribbean and Jamaica on the 14th of May of that year.



    In 1796 she was at Leogane on the 23rd of March, and thence returned to Plymouth for a refit completed in the August of 1797, when she came under the Captaincy of Joseph Bingham on the the Irish station, with Duckworth flying his broad pennant aboard her.

    On the 10th of September in that year, Leviathan,
    Pompee, Anson, Melpomene, and Childers shared in the proceeds of the capture of the Tordenskiold.



    Later whilst under the command of Captain Henry Digby, on the 2nd of June,1798, she sailed once again for the Med. She was at the capture of Minorca in the November of that year, and in February 1799 was made Flagship of the now Rear Admiral Duckworth, Captain James May. He was superceeded by Captain James Carpenter who commanded her at the blockade of Cadiz, where she took, with the aid of HMS Emerald, the 36 gun ships Carmen and Florentina on the 7th of April 1800. In June under Commander Edward D King she sailed for the leeward Islands, and then in 1801, sailed firstly under Commander Christopher Cole, and in 1802 Captain Richard Dunn still in the role of Duckworth’s Flagship. She was paid off in the December of 1803 for a much needed refit at Portsmouth, and recommissioned in the January of 1804 under Captain Henry Bayntun.

    She sailed for the Med on the 26th of April in time to take part in the blockade of Toulon, and then in Nelson’s chase of Gantheaume to the West Indies .

    At the
    Battle of Trafalgar still under Henry William Bayntun, she was near the front of the weather column led by Admiral Lord Nelson himself, aboard his flagship, HMS Victory, and captured the Spanish ship San Augustin. During the battle she lost four killed and twenty two wounded. A flag said to have been flown by the Leviathan at Trafalgar was sold at auction by Arthur Cory in March 2016. Bayntun is thought to have given it to his friend the Duke of Clarence (later William IV), who then gave it to Arthur Cory's direct ancestor Nicholas Cory, a senior officer on William's royal yacht HMS Royal Sovereign, in thanks for helping the yacht win a race and a bet.



    After repairs at Plymouth n 1808 she was recommissioned under Captain John Harvey and returned to the Med. On the 7th of February, 1809 Leviathan was serving in Martin’s squadron, and on the 23rd of October of that year she was in the attack on Baudin’s convoy. On the 25th the 80 gun Robuste, and 74 gun Le Lion were run ashore and burnt near Frontignan.

    In the August of 1811 under Captain Patrick Campbell, Leviathan’s boats attacked shipping near Frejus.


    On 27 June 1812, Leviathan,
    HMS Imperieuse, HMS Curacoa and HMS Eclair attacked an 18-strong French convoy at Laigueglia and Alassio in Liguria, northern Italy.



    Attack on convoy of eighteen French merchant ships at Laigrelia, 1812

    In 1814 she was again on the Jamaica station under Captain Adam Drummond and in April of that year at Lisbon under Captain Thomas Briggs. Thence back to the Med until 1816 when she was paid off.

    Fate.

    With the end of the
    Napoleonic Wars, in the October of 1816 at Portsmouth she was converted into a prison ship, was scuttled there as a target ship in 1846 and in 1848 was sold to a Mr Burns and broken up.


    Attached Images Attached Images    
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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    HMS Magnificent (1766)

    HMS Magnificent was a Ramillies-class 74-gun third-rate ship of the line Designed by Sir Thomas Slade. She was ordered on the 16th of December, 1761, M/shipwright Adam Hayes, and was launched on the 20th of September, 1766 at Deptford Dockyard. She was one of the ships built to update the Navy and replace those lost in the Seven Years' War.




    History
    GREAT BRITAIN
    Name: HMS Magnificent
    Ordered: 16 December 1761
    Builder: Deptford Dockyard
    Laid down: 15 April 1762
    Launched: 20 September 1766
    Commissioned: July 1778
    Fate: Wrecked off Brest, 25 March 1804
    Notes: ·Participated in:
    ·Battle of Grenada
    ·Battle of Martinique
    ·Battle of the Saintes
    General characteristics
    Class and type: Ramillies-classship of the line
    Tons burthen: 1612​6494 (bm)
    Length: 168 ft 6 in (51.36 m) (gundeck)
    Beam: 46 ft 9 in (14.25 m)
    Depth of hold: 19 ft 9 in (6.02 m)
    Propulsion: Sails
    Sail plan: Full rigged ship
    Armament: ·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
    ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
    ·QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
    ·Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns


    On completion she was laid up at Sheerness on the 22nd of September 1766. It was not until after small repairs between the February of 1772 and the November of 1774 that she was finally fitted for sea in the September of 1778.

    On 21 December 1779, HMS Magnificent with the 74-gun ships HMS Suffolk and HMS Vengeance, and the 64-gun HMS Stirling Castle under Rear-Admiral Joshua Rowley, fell in with the 32-gun French frigates Fortunee and Blanche and the 28-gun Elise, when off Guadeloupe. The French ships were in bad order; their crews were excessively weak; and thus they could not escape the vastly superior British force. The Blanche was overtaken and captured on the evening of the 21st; the Fortunes, by throwing her quarter-deck guns overboard, kept away a little longer, but was captured at last in the early morning of 22 December, an hour before the Elise.

    Magnificents war service in the American Revolution was conducted with Admiral Rodney’s fleet in the Caribbean, where under Captain John Elphinstone she served in the vanguard at battle off Grenada in 1779. Martinique on the 17th of April1780, and The Saintes under Captain Robert Linzee between the 9th and 11th of April, 1782, where she suffered six killed and eleven wounded.

    Paid off again in 1783 after wartime service, she was coppered and fitted at Portsmouth between the October of 1784 and April of 1785. Recommissioned in the June of 1787 under Captain George Berkeley, she was designated as a guardship at Portsmouth. She then passed to the command of Captain Richard Onslow at Weymouth between the July and August of 1789. Paid off in 1791 she was sent to Chatham for repairs in 1794 which were completed in the July of 1795. Recommissioned in the June of that year under Captain Matthew Squire for Channel service, she was paid off once more in the March of 1796 for a middling repair.

    The Napoleonic Wars.

    From the August of 1798 Magnificent was under Captain Edward Bowater. Magnificents duties mainly consisted of blockade work off the French coast, because at Plymouth between the March of 1796 and the October of 1798, the ship had received a complete overhaul designed to extend her service life and improve her ability at performing these close blockade duties.

    After a recommission in the July of 1799 under Captain Peter Bover, in the March of 1801, Magnificent next came under the command of Captain John Giffard upon his transfer from HMS Active. Early in 1802, she sailed for the Leeward Islands, arriving at the time of the 8th West India Regiment revolt in Dominica where they had killed three officers, imprisoned the others and taken over Fort Shirley. On the day following, HMS Magnificent, which was anchored in Prince Rupert's Bay sent a party of marines ashore to restore order. The mutineers fired upon the Magnificent with no effect. On the 12th of April, Governor Cochrane entered Fort Shirley with the Royal Scots Regiment and the 68th Regiment of Foot. The rebels were drawn up on the Upper Battery of Fort Shirley with three of their officers as prisoners and presented arms to the other troops. They obeyed Cochrane's command to ground their arms but refused his order to step forward. The mutineers picked up their arms and fired a volley. Shots were returned, followed by a bayonet charge that broke their ranks and a close range fire fight ensued. Those mutineers who tried to escape over the precipice to the sea were exposed to grape-shot and canister fire from Magnificent. The 74-gunExcellent, the frigate Severn, and the sloop Gaiete assisted Magnificent, also supplying marines.


    At the close of that year she returned to Portsmouth, and was recommissioned in the May of 1803 under Captain William Ricketts Jervis.

    On the morning of 25 March 1804, during her duties blockading the French port of Brest, commanded by Captain Jervis, Magnificent, struck an uncharted reef close to the Black Rocks that bordered the port and rapidly began to founder.



    Loss of the Magnificent by John Christian Schetky


    The rest of the blockading squadron closed on her and rescued the majority of her crew, the remainder taking to the boats as the ship went down, only one and a half hours after hitting the reef, at about 10.30am. Although the whole crew survived, one boat carrying 86 men became separated from the rest and was driven ashore by the prevailing wind and tide, where the men were taken prisoner and remained captives of the French for almost a decade.
    Attached Images Attached Images   
    Last edited by Bligh; 03-12-2020 at 14:48.
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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    HMS Majestic (1785)

    HMS Majestic was a Modified Canada Class 74-gun third-rate ship of the line, ordered on the 23rd of July 1781, originally designed by William Batley, M/shipwright William Barnard. She was launched on the 11th of December, 1785 at Deptford
    GREAT BRITAIN.
    Name: HMS Majestic
    Ordered: 23 August 1781
    Builder: Adams & Barnard, Deptford
    Laid down: June 1782
    Launched: 11 December 1785
    Honours and
    awards:
    Fate: Broken up, April 1816


    General characteristics
    Class and type: Canada-class ship of the line
    Tons burthen: 1623 (bm)
    Length: 170 ft (52 m) (gundeck)
    Beam: 46 ft 9 in (14.25 m)
    Depth of hold: 20 ft 6 in (6.25 m)
    Propulsion: Sails
    Sail plan: Full rigged ship
    Armament:
    • As third rate:
    • Gundeck (GD): 28 × 32-pounder guns
    • Upper gundeck (UG): 28 × 18-pounder guns
    • QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
    • Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns
    • As fourth rate:
    • GD: 28 × 42-pounder carronades
    • UG: 28 × 32-pounder guns
    • QD: 2 × 12-pounder guns


    Career.

    In 1790, Majestic came under the command of Captain William Waldegrave before being partly fitted, and then undergoing a very small unspecified repair at Chatham costing £4,581.8.5d., between the September of 1790 and October 1791.

    Commissioned under Captain Charles Cotton, for Howe’s Fleet at the Glorious First of June on the 1st of June, 1794, she lost 3 killed and 18 wounded during the action.

    In the January of 1795, under Captain George Westcott, Majestic became the flagship of Vice Admiral Benjamin Caldwell on the Leeward Islands station. She was later the flagship of Admiral Sir John Laforey before returning from the West Indies in the March of 1796.

    On the 8th of January 1797 in the company of several other ships she sank the French storeship Le Suffren off Brest.

    After making repairs at Plymouth, in the of that year she set sail for the Med, where on the 14th of November she captured the 16 gun El Bolador.

    Her next encounter with the enemy came on the 1st of August, 1798, at the Battle of the Nile, where she engaged the French ships Tonnant and Heureux, helping to force their surrenders. She was still under the captaincy of George Blagdon Westcott, who was unfortunately killed in the battle along with 50 of the crew and with a further 143 wounded.



    Tonnant
    at the Battle of the Nile, by Louis Lebreton. HMS Majestic is seen in the background.


    She then came under the command of Lt. Robert Cuthbert, acting from the 1st of August until the July of 1779. On 22 February of that year , Majestic was in sight when Espoir, under the command of Captain James Sanders, captured the Spanish 14-gun xebec Africa some three leagues (14 km) from Marbello on the Spanish coast. Captain Cuthbert, of Majestic, transmitted Sanders's letter, adding his own endorsement extolling "the meritorious Conduct of Captain Sanders and his Ship's Company on the Occasion." Espoir and Majestic shared the prize money for the xebec, whose full name was Nostra Senora de Africa.

    On 4 April, Majestic and Transfer destroyed a French privateer of unknown name. Head money was paid in 1828, almost 30 years later.

    From the July of 1799 command devolved upon Captain George Hope, until she was paid off at Naples in the December of that year.

    Recommissioned in the March of 1801, under Captain Davidge Gould she served for a time in the Channel, before sailing for the West Indies on the 11th of February 1802. She was again paid off in the October of that year, and in the June of 1803 came under the captaincy of Lord Amelius Beauclerk and then in the following year, temporarily Captain Edward Hawker. On the 11th of November, C,and Glatton, together with Eagle, Princess of Orange, Raisonable, Africiane, Inspector, Beaver, and the hired armed vessels Swift and Agnes, shared in the capture of Upstalsboom, whose Master was one H.L. De Haase.
    In 1805, Captain Joseph Hanwell commanded Majestic as the Flagship of Vice Admiral Thomas Macnamara Russell in the North Sea.

    In 1807, still acting as Russell’s Flagship, she came under the captaincy of George Hart. On the 4th of September of that year, Majestic, anchored off the Island of Heligoland, enforcing its capitulation to the British.
    She then had a quick succession of captains during 1808 until coming under Captain Frederic Watkins command in the January of 1809 in the Baltic. Later that year under Captain Thomas Harvey her boats took the two gun Spider .
    Having been paid off and laid up at Chatham in the January of 1810, Majestic was razeed into a 58-gun fourth-rate frigate between the January and May of 1813. She was then refitted for sea, and under Captain John Hayes sailed for North America on the second of June of that year.

    On the 3rd of February, 1814, Majestic encountered the French frigates Terpsichore and Atalante, a 20-gun ship, and an apparently unarmed brig. Majestic was able to catch up with and engage the stern-most of the French vessels. After an engagement lasting two and a half hours, the frigate struck. She turned out to be the Terpsichore, of 44 guns and 320 men, under the command of "capitaine de frigate Breton Francois de Sire". In the action, Terpsichore lost three men killed, six wounded, and two drowned as the prisoners were being transported to Majestic; British casualties were nil. Because of the weather and the approach of night, Majestic was unable to pursue the other three French vessels, which therefore escaped. The Royal Navy named Terpsichore HMS Modeste, but never commissioned her.

    On 22 May 1814 Majestic recaptured the former British naval schooner Dominica,sailing as a privateer under American colours, the American privateer Decatur having captured her in the year previous. At the time of her recapture, Dominica was sailing under letters of marque, had a crew of 38 men, and was armed with four 6-pounder guns. With HMS Endymion and others she also took the USS President on the 15th of January, 1815.

    Fate.

    Paid off in the July of 1815, Majestic was finally broken up at Pembroke in the April of 1816 after stranding.
    Attached Images Attached Images    
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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    HMS Minotaur (1793)





    HMS Minotaur was a 74-gun third-rate Carnatic class ship of the line, designed on the lines of the French Courageux 74. Ordered on the 3rd of December, 1782, she was built by Woolwich dockyard. Her M/shipwright was John Nelson until the August of 1790 and thereafter to her completion by William Rule. Minotaur was launched on the 6th of November, 1793 at Woolwich, and she was named after the mythological bull-headed monster of Crete.


    History
    GREAT BRITAIN
    Name: HMS Minotaur
    Ordered: 3 December 1782
    Builder: Woolwich Dockyard
    Laid down: January 1788
    Launched: 6 November 1793
    Honours and
    awards:
    ·Participated in:
    ·Battle of the Nile
    ·Battle of Trafalgar
    ·Battle of Copenhagen (1807)
    ·Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Egypt"
    Fate: Wrecked, 22 December 1810
    General characteristics
    Class and type: Carnatic class ship of the line
    Tons burthen: 1723 (bm)
    Length: 172 ft 3 in (52.50 m) (gundeck)
    Beam: 47 ft 9 in (14.55 m)
    Depth of hold: 20 ft 9 12 in (6.3 m)
    Propulsion: Sails
    Sail plan: Full rigged ship
    Armament: ·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
    ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
    ·QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
    ·Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

    Career.

    Minotaurwas Commissioned in the February of 1794, under Captain Thomas Louis, as the Flagship of Rear Admiral John Macbride in Montagu’s Squadron. Then from the August of 1795 under the temporary captaincy of Captain Charles Jones she joined Vice Admiral William Waldegrave as his Flagship in the West Indies.


    On the 26th of September, 1795 Minotaur and Porcupine recaptured the Walsingham Packet. The French corvette brig Insolent, of 18 guns and 90 men, had previously captured her, whilst she was sailing from Falmouth to Lisbon on the 13th of September. Insolent, herself, narrowly escaped being captured at the recapture of the Walsingham Packet, narrowly slipping into Lorient as the British ships steadily closed their range upon her.



    Minotaur was involved in the mutiny at Spithead during the April and May of 1797, but in the June of that year sailed for the Med. During the Battle of the Nile on the 1stt of August, 1798, she fought an engagement alongside HMS Theseus forcing the French 74 Aquilon to surrender. In the battle Minotaur lost a total of 23 men killed and 64 wounded.



    Later that year Minotaur served at the blockade of Malta, and in the September of 1799 at Naples became the Flagship of Vice Admiral Lord George Keith. After the French surrendered Rome on the 29th of September, Captain Thomas Louis had his barge crew row him up the Tiber River where he raised the Union Jack over the Capitol.
    In the May of 1800, Minotaur still under Vice-Admiral Keith took part in the siege of Genoa. On the 28th of April, the squadron captured the Proteus, just off the city, and on the 3rd of September. Her ships boats accompanied with those from the HMS Niger succeeded in cutting out the Esmeralda and Paz at Barcelona.



    Having then sailed to Egypt, . Minotaur on the 8th of January, 1801 witnessed the Penelope’s capture of the French bombard St. Roche, which was carrying wine, liqueurs, ironware, Delft cloth, and various other merchandise, from Marseilles to Alexandria. As the HMS Swiftsure, Tigre, Minotaur, Northumberland, Florentina, and the schooner Malta, were all in sight at the time they thus all qualified for a share in the proceeds from the capture.



    She was also present at the landings in Aboukir Bay during the invasion of Egypt in 1801 where she lost a total of three men killed, and six wounded. Because Minotaur served in the navy's Egyptian campaign (8 March to 8 September 1801), her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal that the Admiralty authorised in 1850 to all surviving claimants.
    Having returned to Chatham for minor repairs between the March and November of 1802, she was recommissioned in the march of 1803 under Captain Charles John Moore Mansfield, who remained in command until 1807. Sailing to take up service in the channel, on the 28th of May, 1803 Minotaur, in company with Thunderer, and later joined by Albion, captured the French frigate LaFranchise. 33 days out of Port-au-Prince, and being pierced for twenty-eight 12-pounder guns on her main deck and sixteen 9-pounders on her quarterdeck and forecastle, ten of which were stowed in her hold. She had a crew of 187 men under the command of one Captain Jurien.



    Minotaur was present at the surrender of the French garrison at Civitavecchia on 21 September 1804. She shared the prize money for the capture of the town and fortress with Culloden, Mutine, Transfer, and the bomb vesselPerseus. The British also captured the French polacca Il Reconniscento.



    On the 21st of October 1805 Minotaur, under Captain Mansfield, saw action in the Battle of Trafalgar, Minotaur was towards the rear of Nelson's wing of the fleet just ahead of Spartiate and astern of the Prince of Wales. Before the commencement of the battle Mansfield had promised his crew that he would “stick to any ship he engaged till either she strikes or sinks – or I sink". Late in the battle and aided by Spartiate he deliberately interposed the Minotaur between the damaged HMS Victory and Dumanoir’s attacking French ships. Minotaur also managed to isolate the 80 gun Spanish ship Neptuno and was responsible for causing the Spanish ship, to strike her colours. However, Neptuno's crew were able to recaptured her shortly afterwards in the storm that occurred after the battle. The total of Minotaur’s losses in this Pell Mell action was surprisingly light. In all she only suffered 3 killed and 23 wounded.



    For his gallantry in this action, Mansfield was later awarded a sword and gold medal. Both of which can now be seen displayed at the National Maritime Museum.



    During 1806 Minotaur became the Flagship of Rear Admiral John Child Purvis in the Med, and in 1807 Minotaur went on to serve as the flagship of Rear-Admiral William Essington on the Lisbon station, and then in the Copenhagen expedition in the August of that year. At the end of 1807 she came under the command of Captain Norborn Thompson and then temporarily under Captain Robert Neve. From the December of that year she came under Thompson once more as Flagship to Vice Admiral Sir Charles Cotton in the North sea during 1808.



    Then during the Anglo-Russian War, on the 25th of July 1809, Minotaur, now under the command of Captain John Barrett, took part in an action where some 17 boats from the British Baltic squadron consisting of Minotaur, Princess Caroline, Cerberus and Prometheus, under the overall command of Captain Charles Pater, attacked a flotilla of four Russian gunboats and a brig offf Aspö Head near Fredrickshaven in the Grand Duchy of Finland, Russia (present-day Hamina, Finland). Captain Forrest of Prometheus commanded the boats and succeeded in capturing gunboats Nos. 62, 65, and 66, and the transport brig No. 11. In the action the British lost 19 men killed and 51 wounded, and the Russians lost 28 men killed and 59 wounded. Minotaur alone lost eight men killed and had 30 wounded, of whom, four died of their wounds during the next few days.

    In 1847 the Admiralty issued the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "25 July Boat Service 1809" to surviving claimants from the action.




    The shipwreck of the Minotaur, oil on canvas, by J. M. W. Turner

    Fate.



    Whilst sailing from
    Gothenburg to Britain, still under the command of John Barrett, Minotaur in darkness and heavy weather struck the Haak Bank, or Razende Bol, on the Texel off the Netherlands, then part of the First French Empire, in the evening of the 22nd of December, 1810, after becoming separated from her consorts, HMS Plantagenet and Loire. Minotaur grounded on the sand, rolled onto her side and rapidly began to take on water. All the masts were cut away to lighten the ship and lower her centre of gravity, however, whilst carrying out this process several of her boats were damaged or destroyed. Despite this action, by the early hours of the morning the ship had taken on so much water that her forecastle was awash. Waves battered her hull, and about 8:00am, the hull began to break up. The crew, having taking refuge on the poop deck, attempted to evacuate from the ship by using the only remaining Launch and a couple of Yawls. Firstly 32 men escaped aboard one of the yawls. On reaching the Dutch coast, another eighty-five men observing this took to the Launch and they were also successful in making it to the shore. Finally, Captain Barrett, accompanied by almost hundred of the remaining crew, attempted to achieve the same result by using the remaining Yawl. Unfortunately, the Yawl was overwhelmed by the heavy seas, and all the men aboard her were drowned including the Captain. At about 14:00hrs, the Minotaur turned turtle, drowning the remaining members of her crew. The 110 men of her crew who had survived informed the Dutch authorities about the disaster. This resulted in a further twenty survivors being rescued by a pilot vessel. The authorities placed the survivors under custody and refused to hazard further rescue vessels until the following morning. On doing so they discovered, that apart from four men who had reached shore by clinging onto floating wreckage, there were no further survivors on the vessel, or in the surrounding waters. The death toll amounted to somewhere between 370 and 400 souls all told. All of the survivors were dispatched to France as prisoners of war.




    The Noorderhaaks bank, in the mouth of the Texel, is today an island

    Footnote.



    Some three and a half years later, on the release of the imprisoned seamen, a Courts Martial was held to apportion the blame for the loss of the Minotaur. The court concluded that the blame for steering the ship into an unsafe position, resulting in her loss, devolved solely onto the shoulders of the deceased pilots, due to them having misjudged their location by more than 60 miles, which mistake had been induced by the inclement weather at the time.
    Attached Images Attached Images    
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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    HMS Monarch (1765)

    HMS Monarch was a 74-gun Ramillies Class third rate ship of the line,designed by Sir Thomas Slade. Ordered on the 22nd of November 1760, and built by M/shipwright Adam Hayes at Deptford Dockyard. She was launched on the 20th of July, 1765.
    History.
    GREAT BRITAIN
    Name: HMS Monarch
    Ordered: 22 November 1760
    Builder: Deptford Dockyard
    Launched: 20 July 1765
    Fate: Broken up, 1813
    General characteristics.
    Class and type: Ramillies-class ship of the line
    Tons burthen: 1612 bm
    Length: 168 ft 6 in (51.36 m) (gundeck)
    Beam: 46 ft 9 in (14.25 m)
    Depth of hold: 19 ft 9 in (6.02 m)
    Propulsion: Sails
    Sail plan: Full rigged ship
    Armament:
    • 74 guns:
    • Gundeck: 28 × 32 pdrs
    • Upper gundeck: 28 × 18 pdrs
    • Quarterdeck: 14 × 9 pdrs
    • Forecastle: 4 × 9 pdrs

    Monarch was commissioned, after a small repair at Portsmouth, in the October of 1776, initially as a guardship there until the October of 1777. Following this she had a very active career, fighting in her first battle on the 27th of July, 1778 at the Battle of Ushant under Admiral Kepple and her second, captained by Adam Duncan, later First Viscount Duncan, under Admiral Rodney at Cape St. Vincent on the 16th of January, 1780. Monarch suffered 3 killed and 26 wounded.

    In the May of 1780 she was coppered and refitted at Portsmouth.
    She fought in the van of Graves' fleet at the Battle of the Chesapeake, also known as the Battle of the Virginia Capes, under Captain Francis Reynolds on the 5th of September 1781, and received no casualties in the battle.



    Jong(1807) - Zeegevecht (near Sint Eustatius Island, 1781)

    In the February of 1781 was actively engaged at the Capture of Sint Eustatius, under Admiral Sir George Rodney, the Battle of Saint Kitts, also known as the Battle of Frigate Bay, which took place on the 25th and 26th of January,1782 during the American Revolutionary War between a British fleet under Rear-Admiral Sir Samuel Hood and a larger French fleet under the Comte de Grasse. Next up was the Battle of the Saintes (known to the French as the Bataille de la Dominique), or Battle of Dominica, which was an important naval battle in the Caribbean between the British and the French that took place from the 9th to the 12th of April, of that year. Monarch still under Captain Francis Reynolds, serving with the British fleet under Admiral Sir George Rodney defeated a French fleet under the Comte de Grasse, forcing the French and Spanish to abandon a planned invasion of Jamaica. Casualties for Monarch amounted to 16 killed and 33 wounded.

    Between the August of 1787 and the January of 1790 Monarch underwent a great repair at Chatham.
    She was fitted for Channel service in the July of that year under Captain Peter Rainier and paid off in the September of 1791. The next change was when she was recommissioned in the December of 1792 under Captain Sir James Wallace. Fitted as a Guardship in the January of 1793, she, however, sailed for the Leeward Islands. From the 5th of February to the 24th of March 1794, she took part in the attack on Martinique.



    The Capture of Fort Saint Louis, Martinique, 20 March 1794' painting by William Anderson


    Wallace was appointed a Rear Admiral in the April following the surrender, and from that date Monarch came under Captain Frank Sotheron as Wallace’s Flagship.

    In the April of 1795, she changed command to Captain John Elphinstone, as Flagship of Rear Admiral Sir George Elphinstone and sailed for the Cape of Good Hope. On arrival she was deployed as part of the small fleet under Admiral Elphinstone at the capture of the Cape of Good Hope from the Dutch East India Company at the Battle of Muizenberg. Major-General Sir James Henry Craig was supported by Craig's forces were supplemented with 1,000 sailors from Elphinstone's squadron redeployed on land under captains Temple Hardy and John William Spranger. Among this force were a number of American citizens who immediately deserted to the Dutch and were promised repatriation. At noon on 7 August, HMS America, HMS Stately, HMS Echo and HMS Rattlesnake opened fire on Dutch forward positions. Return fire from Dutch field guns killed two men on America and wounded three more, while Craig's troops were able to advance against the Dutch positions and seize them, with the Dutch defenders falling back in confusion. A second attack by soldiers of the 78th captured a rocky height nearby and a Dutch counterattack the following morning was driven off by Hardy's sailors and marines. The Dutch Governor finally capitulated on the 15th of September.

    On the 17th of August 1796 Monarch aided in the capture of Lucas’s Squadron at Saldanha Bay.
    She sailed for home and was refitted at Portsmouth, and from the August of 1797 came under the command of Captain Edward O’Brien as Vice Admiral Richard Onslow's flagship in the Lee coloumn at the Battle of Camperdown, on the 11th of October, 1797 where she lost 36 men killed and 100 wounded.
    In the October of 1798 Monarch was in the North Sea under Captain Samuel Sutton, and from the May of 1799 under Captain Archibald Collingwood she served as the Flagship of Sir Archibald Dickson.


    HMS Monarch in the lead, forcing the Passage of the Sound, 30 March 1801, prior to the Battle of Copenhagen

    On the 2nd of April,1801 she was part of Admiral Nelson's fleet at the Battle of Copenhagen, where her then captain, James Robert Mosse was killed as she suffered over 200 casualties including 55 dead, which was the highest number of casualties of any ship engaged in the battle.

    Having made good her damage at Chatham,in the August of that same year she came under firstly Captain Thomas Peyton and then in November Captain Peter Puget.

    After another refit in 1803 she came under Captain John Clarke Searle as the Flagship to Admiral Lord Keith in catamaran attempts on invasion craft berthed at Boulogne on the 1st of August, 1804.
    Under Captain Richard Lee she took part in a boats attack on the Gironde on the 15th of July 1806 resulting in the capture of the 16 gun Le Cesar.

    In Sir Sydney Smith’s squadron at Lisbon in the November of 1807, she helped escort the Portuguese royal family in its flight from Portugal to Brazil.

    Fate.

    In 1809 she took part in the Walcheren operations. After som further time in the North sea she was paid off in 1812.
    Monarch was broken up at Chatham in the March of 1813.
    Attached Images Attached Images    
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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    HMS Montagu (1779)





    HMS Montagu by Serres, Dominic.



    HMS Montagu was a 74-gun Alfred Class third rateship of the line,designed by Sir John Williams and ordered on the 16th of July, 1774. Built at Chatham dockyard by M/shipwright Israel Pownoll until the April of1779 and then completed by Nicholas Phillips. She was launched on the 28th of August, 1779.


    History

    GREAT BRITAIN
    Name:
    HMS Montagu
    Ordered: 16 July 1774
    Builder: Chatham Dockyard
    Laid down: 30 January 1775
    Launched:
    28 August 1779
    Fate:
    Broken up, 1818
    Notes:
    ·Participated in:
    ·Battle of Cape St Vincent
    ·Glorious First of June
    General characteristics
    Class and type: Alfred-classship of the line
    Tons burthen:
    1631 (bm)
    Length:
    169 ft (51.5 m) (gundeck)
    Beam: 47 ft 2 in (14.4 m)
    Depth of hold: 20 ft (6 m)
    Propulsion: Sails
    Sail plan:
    Full rigged ship
    Armament:
    ·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
    ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
    ·QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
    ·Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

    HMS Montagu was commissioned in the August of 1779.
    Her first action was on the 16th of January.1780 when she took part in the Battle of Cape St Vincent. , under Captain John Houlton. She suffered no losses during the battle.


    She was driven ashore and damaged at Saint Lucia in the Great Hurricane of 1780 in the Antilles, but recovered.


    She was paid off in 1782 after wartime service.


    Between the November of 1782 and the June of 1783 she underwent repairs at Portsmouth.


    She was not recommissioned until the February of 1793 under Captain James Montagu and then joined Admiral Howe’s fleet. On the 1st of June 1794 she took part in te battle of The Glorious First of June off Ushant. In this action she lost 4 killed, including Montagu, and 13 wounded. After the battle Lt Ross Donnelly became acting captain for a short period. Later in 1794 she came under the command of Captain William Fooks and sailed for the Leeward Islands on the 25th of October in that year. On the 30th of October Montague and Ganges captured the French corvette Le Jacobine. Jacobine was armed with twenty-four 12-pounder guns, and had a crew of 220 men; she was only nine days out of Brest and had taken no prizes. The Royal Navy took Jacobin into service as HMS Matilda.

    Paid off in November 1795 for a small repair she recommissioned in the August of 1796 under Captain John knight.

    At the Battle of Camperdown, on the 11th of October 1797, in the Lee Division, Montagu, still under John Knight’s command, suffered slight damage and had three men killed and five wounded.


    On the 2nd of June in the following year she sailed for the Med, where she remained until the end of 1779 under the command of Captain Charles Patterson.

    In 1801 under Captain Robert Cuthbert she sailed for Jamaica. In the March of that year under Captain Edmond Nagle in Calder’s squadron, Montagu was in hot pursuit of Ganteaume’s squadron.

    After her return to Portsmouth between the January of 1802 and the March of 1803 she was undergoing major repairs.I suspect from this painting below that she had been involved in a great storm which would account for the time spent in dock, but only have the above reference to her repairs to go upon.
    .



    The situation of H.M. Ship Montagu at 10 mins after 12 o'clock on the night of the 13th February 1801 off Cape Ortagol


    Recommissioned in the March of 1803 under Captain Robert Otway, she took part in the blockade of Brest, and the attempt on the French Fleet on the 21st of August, 1803.


    She was in Strachan’s squadron from May to September 1806, and then refitted at Portsmouth from May to June 1807. From here, as the Flagship of Rear Admiral George Martin she sailed for the Med on the 3rd of June.

    In 1809 she was still in the Med now commanded by Captain Richard Moubray, and then in 1811 by Captain John Halliday.

    After a small repair and refit for Foreign service at Chatham between the December of that year and the April of 1812, she was placed under the command of Captain Manley Hall Dixon, as Flagship of Rear Admiral Manley Dixon and sailed for South America on the15th of May of that year.She served in Brazil until 1813 , and then in the North sea from the July of that year under Captain Peter Heywood, and afterwards in the Mediterranean under Lord Exmouth, until July 1816 when she was paid off and laid up at Chatham.


    Fate.


    Montagu was broken up there in 1818.
    Attached Images Attached Images   
    Last edited by Bligh; 04-04-2020 at 09:38.
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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    HMS Orion (1787)





    Model of HMS Orion at the Vancouver Maritime Museum



    HMS
    Orion was a Canada-class 74-gun third rateship of the line, designed by William Batley. Ordered on the 2nd of October, 1782, M/shipwright William Barnard. She was launched at Deptford on the first of June, 1787.




    History
    GREAT BRITAIN
    Name: HMS Orion
    Ordered: 2 October 1782
    Builder:
    Barnard, Deptford
    Laid down:
    February 1783
    Launched: 1 June 1787
    Honours and
    awards:

    ·Participated in:
    ·Glorious First of June
    ·Battle of Groix
    ·Battle of Cape St. Vincent
    ·Battle of the Nile
    ·Battle of Trafalgar
    Fate:
    Broken up, 1814

    General characteristics
    Class and type: Canada classship of the line
    Tons burthen: 1646 (bm)
    Length: 170 ft (52 m) (gundeck)
    Beam: 46 ft 9 in (14.25 m)
    Depth of hold:
    20 ft 6 in (6.25 m)
    Propulsion:
    Sails
    Sail plan: Full rigged ship
    Armament:
    ·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
    ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
    ·QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
    ·Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns


    Completed on the 1st of November 1787 she was fitted as a guardship at Plymouth and commissioned in the July of 1788 under Captain Andrew Southerland. Continuing as a guardship from 1789 until the end of the Spanish armament under Captain Charles Chamberlayne , she was recommissioned in the September of 1791 under Captain john Duckworth sailing for the Leeward Islands in the March of 1793.She took the privateer Le Sans-Culotte off the American coast on the 25th of August of that year before returning to home waters.


    On the first of June,1794 she fought in Howe’s Fleet at the Glorious First of June , still under Captain Duckworth, suffering three killed but no wounded.

    In early 1795, Captain James Saumarez was appointed to the command of Orion. She took part in Bridport’s defeat of the French fleet at the Battle of Groix off Lorient on the 23rd of June, and also at the blockades of Brest and Rochefort.
    Having been refitted at Portsmouth, Orion sailed for the Med on the 4th of January, 1797. she joined the Mediterranean Fleet and distinguished herself at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent on the14th of February, losing only 9 men wounded. She then took part in the blockade of Cadiz from the March of 1797 until the April of 1798, when she was dispatched to the Med once again as part of a small squadron under the command of Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson. On the 1st of August of that year, Nelson finally caught up with the French fleet, resulting in the Battle of the Nile. Orion lost 13 killed and 29 wounded of which Captain Saumarez was one.

    Paid off in 1799 for a refit at Plymouth she was recommissioned in the March of 1801. Between the 31st of March. 1801 and the 10th of July, 1802, the Surgeon's First Mate on board the Orion was Henry Plowman. On the 15th of January, 1802, whilst still on board the Orion, anchored at Spithead, he wrote his will which is witnessed by his Captain, Robert Cuthbert.

    After a refit at Portsmouth between the April and July of 1805, Orion was recommissioned under Captain Edward Codrington and joined Nelson’s fleet off Cadiz.

    On October the 21st, she took part in the Battle of Trafalgar where, in the lee column to the rear of Agamemnon and Ajax and with the aid of the latter ship she forced the surrender of the French 74-gun ship Intrépide. Her casualties incurred during the battle totalled only one killed and 23 wounded.


    After Trafalgar, Orion continued in the blockade of Cadiz, and on the 25th of November, HMS Thundererr captured the Ragusan ship Nemesis, sailing from the Isle de France to Leghorn, Italy, with a cargo of spices, Indigo dye, plus other general merchandise. Being in sight of the action, Orion took a share in the prize money along with ten other Royal Naval ships.

    In the December of 1806 Orion came under the command of Captain Sir Archibald Dixon, and under him she was at the Second battle of Copenhagen in the August of 1807, having sailed in Admiral Gambier’s Squadron.

    Fate.

    From 1808 to 1809 she served both in the Baltic and North Sea as the Flagship of Rear Admiral Thomas Bertie.

    Paid off from this service in the January of 1814,Orion was broken up at Pmouth in the July of that year.

    .
    Attached Images Attached Images  
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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    HMS Powerful (1783)



    HMS Powerful was a Revised Elizabeth Class 74 gun third rateship of the line, designed by Sir Thomas Slade, ordered on the 8th of July, 1780 and built by Perry and Co. at Blackwall. She was launched on the 3rd of April, 1783.






    Plan of HMS Powerful

    History
    Great Britain

    Name:
    HMS Powerful
    Ordered: 8 July 1780
    Builder: Perry, Blackwall Yard
    Laid down: April 1781
    Launched: 3 April 1783
    Fate: Broken up 1812

    General characteristics
    Class and type: Revised Elizabeth-classship of the line
    Tons burthen: 1627 (bm)
    Length: 168 ft 6 in (51.36 m) (gundeck)
    Beam: 46 ft (14 m)
    Depth of hold: 19 ft 9 in (6.02 m)
    Propulsion: Sails
    Sail plan: Full rigged ship
    Armament:
    • Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
    • Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
    • QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
    • Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

    Career.



    Powerful was commissioned shortly after launching during the April of 1783 under Captain Thomas Fitzherbert.



    By 1785, her crew included John Lyddiard, an American prisoner of war forcibly enlisted into the Royal Navy in 1778, during the American Revolutionary War. In July 1785, Lyddiard wrote to the United States ambassador to Britain, John Adams, to secure Lyddiard's release. In response to an appeal by Adams, the British government ordered the release of Lyddiard.



    Paid off in late 1785 she was recommissioned in the May of 1786,under Captain Andrew Southerland as the Flagship of Rear Admiral Thomas Graves.



    Between the May of 1788 and March of 1789 she was in for repairs at Plymouth.



    Recommissioned under Captain Thomas Hicks, On the 15th of January 1794 she sailed for Jamaica under Captain William Otway. Paid off in the the August of that year, she recommissioned under Captain Richard Fisher, and then under Captain William O’Bryen Drury from August 1795 until 1799 . Under O’Bryen she took part in the battle of Camperdown on the 11th of October,1797. Fighting in the Lee column during the battle, she suffered 10 killed and 78 wounded.




    Powerful at the Battle of Camperdown 1797, by Nicholas Pocock



    Following the battle the ship the ship was refitted at Plymouth before sailing for Med on the 2nd of June,1798.



    Having been refitting from the March to the August 1805, and now under the command of Captain Robert Pamplin, Powerful arrived too late to take part in the Battle of Trafalgar, In the November of that year she was with Duckworth’s Squadron off Cadiz, and then in early 1806 the Med, before being detached to reinforce the East India squadron.

    On the 13th of June, 1806 she captured the French privateer
    Henriette off Trincomalee, Sri Lanka. Powerful had received intelligence of her presence in the area and set out from Trincomalee on the 11th. Powerful sighted Henriette on the morning of the 13th. After an 11-hour chase, during which Henriette fired her stern guns without any effect. Powerful succeeded in catching her quarry, which surrendered forthwith. During the chase, Henriette's crew had cast four of her 6-pounder guns overboard in an effort to lighten her and thus gain speed. Head money was finally paid for Henriette in the January of 1814.

    In an Action of the 9th of July, 1806, cruising off Ceylon in the guise of an East Indiaman, accompanied by the sloop Rattlesnake, she took the privateer La Bellone, who had been causing serious mischief amongst the British merchantmen in the area. She then joined Pellew’s Squadron off Jarva on the 27th of November of that year.
    In the December of 1807 Powerful was placed under the acting command of Pellew’s son Lieutenant Fleetwood Pellew at Sourabaya. In 1808 she returned to the Cape of Good Hope, and by February 1809 she was back in the North Sea under Captain Charles Johnson at Walcheren.

    Fate.



    Following the failure of the Walcheren operations she was paid off.
    Powerful was broken up at Chatham in the May of 1812.
    Attached Images Attached Images   
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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    HMS Ramillies (1785)



    HMS Ramillies was a 74-gun Modified Culloden Class third rateship of the line, modified from Slade’s design. Ordered on the 19th of February 1782, built by Randall and Brent at Rotherhithe, she was launched on the 12th of July, 1785.






    Hull plan of HMS Ramillies
    History
    GREAT BRITAIN
    Name: HMS Ramillies
    Ordered: 19 January 1782
    Builder: Randall, Rotherhithe
    Laid down: December 1782
    Launched: 12 July 1785
    Fate: Broken up, February 1850
    General characteristics
    Class and type: Modified Culloden-classship of the line
    Tons burthen: ​1677 1794 (bm)
    Length: 170 ft 4 in (51.92 m) (gundeck); 1,390 ft 9 in (423.90 m) (keel)
    Beam: 47 ft 6 in (14.48 m)
    Depth of hold: 19 ft 11 12 in (6.083 m)
    Propulsion: Sails
    Sail plan: Full rigged ship
    Armament:
    • Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
    • Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
    • QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
    • Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns


    French Revolutionary Wars.



    After a small repair at Chatham between the August and December of 1791 Ramilies was commissioned under Captain Henry Harvey in the February of 1793. In the Battle of the Glorious First of June off Ushant in 1794, she lost only 2killed and 7 wounded. In the August of that year under Captain Sir Richard Bickerton she sailed for the West Indies Leeward Islands. On her return to England in the February of 1796 for a refit at Portsmouth, Ramilies was soon in action once more bound for North Sea duty, when on the 4thof April, she ran down and sank the hired armedluggerSpider in a collision whilst manoeuvring.
    Next came her involvement in the mutiny at Spithead from the April to May of 1797. By July she was off to the Channel and then the Irish station under Captain Bartholomew Rowley.

    In the October of 1798 she came under Commander Henry Inman, and then in the February of 1799, Captain Richard Grindall for the Quiberon operation.



    In the January of 1801 Ramilies came under the command of Captain John. W.T. Dixon as part of Admiral Sir Hyde Parker's reserve squadron at the Battle of Copenhagen, and thus took no active part in the battle.



    In the June of that year she came under the command of Captain Sir Robert Barlow and then in the August Captain Samuel Osborne and thence to the Channel and Spanish coast before paying off.
    Recommissioned in the December of 1804 under Captain Francis Pickmore, on the 7th of July 1805 in company with HMS Illustrious she took the 2 gun Privateer La Josephine.


    Expedition to the Danish West Indies.



    On the 10th of January,1807 Ramillies sailed to the Leeward Islands in the West Indies as part of a squadron under the command of Rear-Admiral Alexander Cochrane, who sailed in HMS Belleisle. The squadron, which included HMS Prince George, HMS Northumberland, HMS Canada and HMS Cerberus, captured the Telemaco, Carvalho and Master on 17 April 1807.



    Following the concern in Britain that neutral Denmark was entering an alliance with Napoleon, in December Ramillies participated in Cochrane's expedition that captured the Danish islands of St Thomas on 22 December and Santa Cruz on 25 December. The Danes did not resist and the invasion was bloodless. In the April of 1808 Ramillies came under the command of Captain Robert Yarker and then having returned to home waters, from the July of 1810 until the November of 1812 underwent a large repair at Chatham.



    War of 1812.

    Recommissioned under Captain Sir Thomas Masterman Hardy Ramillies sailed for North America in the August of 1812, at the outbreak of the war. Hardy led the fleet in the ship which provided the escort for the army commanded by John Coape Sherbrooke, capturing significant portions of eastern coastal Massachusetts, including Fort Sullivan, Eastport, Machias, Bangor, and Castine.



    As the flagship of Rear Admiral George Cockburn, on the 4th of December 1813 Ramilies and HMS Lorie recaptured the whalerPolicy, J.Bowman, master, which the United States Navy had previously taken in the South Pacific. Her liberators dispatched Policy to Halifax in Nova Scotia.



    Following these triumphs, Ramillies suffered a reverse, when on the 10th of August, 1814, a landing party from her was defeated at Stonington, Connecticut. The men were to have burned Stonington Borough and the shipping, but they were repulsed by a superior force of the enemy.



    During the Battle of North Point, a composite battalion of Royal Marines were landed from HMS Tonnant, HMS Ramillies, HMS Albion, and HMS Royal Oak, under the command of Brevet Major John Robyns. The only two fatalities were from HMS Ramillies.



    Post-war.



    In June 1815 Ramillies was under the command of Captain Charles Ogle. In November, Captain Thomas Boys replaced Ogle, while Rear-Admiral Sir William Hope raised his flag in her at Leith.
    Fitted as a guardship at Sheerness in the June of 1816, by the September of 1818 Ramillies was at Portsmouth doing the same duty under Captain Askew Hollis., HMS Viper being employed as her tender. On the 30th of November, 1820 and 6 February 1821, Viper made some captures, presumably of smugglers, which resulted in a payment of prize money not only to the officers and crew of Viper, but also to those of Ramillies.



    In the August of 1821, Ramillies came under the command of Captain Edward Brace and served in the Downs on the Coastal Blockade. She then underwent repairs between the May of 1822 and the June of1823, and was fitted for a guardship at Portsmouth again. In the May of 1823 Captain William M'Cullock took command and then In the November of 1825 Captain Hugh Pigot ,in turn, replaced M'Cullock. The Admiralty ordered Ramillies to the Reserve for Harbour Service in 1830, and Ramillies was on harbour service from early in 1831.

    Fate.


    In the June of that year, Ramillies was at Chatham Dockyard, being fitted as a lazaretto, a hospital for quarantine. She then moved to Sheerness to serve in that capacity there. Ramillies was eventually broken up at Sheerness in the February of 1850.


    Attached Images Attached Images  
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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    HMS Resolution (1770)

    HMS Resolution was a 74-gun Elizabeth Class third rate ship of the line, ordered on the 16th of September, 1766 , designed by Sir Thomas Slade, M/shipwright Adam Hayes. She was launched on the 12th of April, 1770 at Deptford Dockyard.




    Resolution



    History
    GREAT BRITAIN
    Name: HMS Resolution
    Ordered: 16 September 1766
    Builder: Adam Hayes,Deptford Dockyard
    Laid down: July 1767
    Launched: 12 April 1770
    Honours and
    awards:
    ·Participated in:
    ·Battle of Cape St Vincent
    ·Battle of the Chesapeake
    ·Battle of the Saintes
    Fate: Broken up, 1813
    General characteristics
    Class and type: Elizabeth-classship of the line
    Tons burthen: 1612 (bm)
    Length: 168 ft 6 in (51.36 m) (gundeck)
    Beam: 46 ft (14 m)
    Depth of hold: 19 ft 9 in (6.02 m)
    Propulsion: Sails
    Sail plan: Full rigged ship
    Armament: ·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
    ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
    ·QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
    ·Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns






    Resolution was commissioned in the December of 1770 for the Falkland Islands dispute as a guardship on the Medway.

    Then fitted as a guardship at Sheerness in the March of 1772. Fitted and coppered at Portsmouth in 1779.

    She participated in the Battle of Cape St. Vincent on the 16th of January (1780), under Captain Sir Chalanor Ogle with no fatalities recorded. the Battle of the Chesapeake on the 5th of September,1781 in the centre, under Captain Lord Robert Manners, losing 3 killed and 16 wounded. At the Battle of the Saintes, between the 9th and 12th of April 1782 she was still under the command of Lord Robert Manners, Resolution was in the centre of the line and saw heavy action suffering 4 killed and 34 wounded, including Lord Robert Manners himself . During the battle one of Manners' arms was broken, and both legs wounded, one so severely that it required amputation. Being of a strong constitution, it was hoped he might survive, and he was sent back to England aboard the Frigate Andromache. However, tetanus set in, and he died on the 23rd of April, and was buried at sea.





    The Death of Lord Robert Manners (1782) on HMS Resolution


    Resolutionwas paid off in the July of that year after wartime service. She underwent middling repairs at Chatham between the March of 1783 and the July of 1784.

    She was not finally recommissioned until the July of 1793 under Captain James Cumming. In 1794 under Captain Francis Pender she served as Flagship to Rear Admiral Sir George Murray and sailed for Halifax on the 18th of May in that year. Then in the August of 1797 under Captain William Lechmere she became the Flagship of Vice Admiral George Vandeput still on the Halifax station. She was paid off in the October of 1798. Recommissioned in the July of 1799 under Captain William Mitchell for Channel service, and coming under Captain Alan Hyde Gardner in the December of that year.

    Involved in the Mutiny at Bantry in 1801, she was paid off in 1802, Fitted and Doubled at Chatham between the May of 1805 and the March of 1806,she was recommissioned under Captain George Burlton, and then had her diagonal braces removed at Sheerness in the December of that year.

    Her next commission was with the Copenhagen expedition in the August of 1807, after which she sailed for Portugal in the November of1808, and was at Corunna in the January of 1808. In the April of 1809 she took part in the Basque Roads operation. Coming under Captain William Ward in the July of 1809 she was involved in the Scheldt operation.

    Fate.

    During 1810 she served in the Baltic under Captain Temple Hardy and then went into Ordinary at Portsmouth in 1812.

    Resolution was broken up there in the March of 1813.
    Attached Images Attached Images   
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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    HMS Robust.



    HMS Robust was a 74-gun Ramillies Class third-rateship of the line ,designed by Sir Thomas Slade, M/shipwright John Barnard and John Turner. She was ordered on the16th of December, 1761 and launched on 25 October 1764 at Harwich. She was the first vessel of the Royal Navy to bear the name.



    Plan of Robust


    History
    GREAT BRITAIN
    Name: HMS Robust
    Ordered: 16 December 1761
    Builder: Barnard, Harwich
    Launched: 25 October 1764
    Fate: Broken up, 1817
    Notes: Harbour service from 1812
    General characteristics
    Class and type: Ramillies-classship of the line
    Tons burthen: 1624 bm
    Length: 168 ft 6 in (51.36 m) (gundeck)
    Beam: 46 ft 11 in (14.30 m)
    Depth of hold: 19 ft 9 in (6.02 m)
    Propulsion: Sails
    Sail plan: Full rigged ship
    Armament: ·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
    ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
    ·QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
    ·Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns
    ·

    Service.


    After undergoing a small repair between the May of 1774 and the January of 1775
    Robust was first commissioned in the December of 1777 under Captain Alexander Arthur Hood and fitted at Chatham in the March of 1778.


    On the 27th of July, 1778 she was at the Battle of Ushant in Palliser's division of the fleet. Her captain, Alexander Hood, took Palliser's side in the subsequent court martial known as "the Keppel affair".
    She was paid off after wartime service in the September of 1782.Between 1783 and 1784 she underwent repairs at Chatham and was not recommissioned until the October of 1787 under Captain William Cornwallis but paid off in the December of that year. Recommissioned in the July of 1790 under Captain Howland Cotton she again paid off in the September of 1791 without seeing any further distinctive action.


    However, when next commissioned in the January of 1793 under Captain George Elphinstone ,Robust sailed to join Lord Hood’s Fleet in the Med on the 22nd of May in that year.


    She was part of the fleet under Hood that occupied Toulon during August . Together with HMS Courageux, Meleager, Tartar and Egmont, on the 27th of the month she covered the landings of 1500 troops sent to oust the republicans holding the forts including, Fort La Malague on the 28th of August which guarded the port. Once the forts had fallen, the remainder of Hood's fleet, accompanied by 17 Spanish ships-of-the-line who had just arrived, sailed into the harbour.
    Under the temporary command of Captain Benjamin Hallowell she was also involved in the evacuation of the port in the December of the year.
    In 1794 she came under the command of Captain Christopher Parker and then Captain Edward Thornbrough with Warren’s squadron in the June of 1795 for the Quiberon operations.


    Robust was next in the North Sea in 1796, and then got caught up in the Spithead mutiny of 1797. In the October of that year she refitted at Portsmouth. By the January of 1798 she had made good her defects and by the October of that year she was in action in Sir John Warren’s squadron against Bompart. On the 12th of October she captured the French ship Hoche.


    March 1799 saw her in action under Captain George Countess in an attack on a Spanish squadron sheltering in the Basque Roads.
    In 1800 she briefly came under the command of Captain William Brown and later under Captain John Acworth Ommanney.


    By the May of 1801 she was under Captain the Hon Henry Curzon, and later in the year, Captain William Ricketts.


    On the 21st of July, the boats of Robust, Beaulieu, Uranie and Doris succeeded in boarding and cutting out the French naval corvette Chevrette, which was armed with 20 guns and had 350 men on board having been placed on board in the expectation of an attack. Also, Chevrette was protected by the batteries of the Bay of Cameret. The hired armedcutterTelemachus placed herself in the Goulet and thereby prevented the French from bringing reinforcements by boat to Chevrette. The action was a sanguinary one. The British lost 11 men killed, 57 wounded, and one missing; Chevrette lost 92 officers, seamen and troops killed, including her first captain, and 62 seamen and troops wounded. In 1847 the Admiralty finally awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "21 July Boat Service 1801" to surviving men who had served in the action.


    Fate.


    In the April of 1802, still under Ricketts’ command, Robust sailed for Jamaica as the Flagship of Admiral Jervis but by the July of that year she had been paid off and was being fitted as a receiving ship at Portsmouth. From 1807 to 1814 she was placed in ordinary there, and was broken up in the January of 1817.
    Attached Images Attached Images  
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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    HMS Royal Oak (1769)



    HMS 'Royal Oak', 1773-1775. By Marshall Joseph

    HMS Royal Oak was a 74-gun third rateship of the line, The named ship for its class designed by Sir John Williams with less sharp bows than the typical Slade design. Ordered on the 16th of November 1765, her M/shipwright was Israel Pownoll for the Plymouth Dockyard. She was launched on the 13th of November, 1769 at Plymouth.

    GREAT BRITAIN
    Name: HMS Royal Oak
    Ordered: 16 November 1765
    Builder: Plymouth Dockyard
    Laid down: May 1766
    Launched: 13 November 1769
    Fate: Broken up, 1815
    Notes: ·Participated in:
    ·Battle of the Chesapeake
    General characteristics
    Class and type: Royal Oak- class ship of the line
    Tons burthen: 1606 ​2194 (bm)
    Length: 168 ft 6 in (51.36 m) (gundeck)
    Beam: 46 ft 9 in (14.25 m)
    Depth of hold: 20 ft (6.1 m)
    Propulsion: Sails
    Sail plan: Full rigged ship
    Armament: ·74 guns:
    ·Gundeck: 28 × 32 pdrs
    ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18 pdrs
    ·Quarterdeck: 14 × 9 pdrs
    ·Forecastle: 4 × 9 pdrs


    History.

    Commissioned in the November of 1770 for the Falkland Islands dispute, Royal Oakwas refitted as a guardship at Plymouth in 1771 and yearly thereafter until 1778, she was one of the ships reviewed by King George on his visit to Portsmouth in the June of 1773.


    George III reviewing the Fleet at Spithead, 22 June 1773, depicting HMS 'Royal Oak'

    Refitted and coppered at Portsmouth between the January and March of 1780, she fought at the Battle of the Chesapeake on the 5th of September 1781 under Captain John Plumer Ardesoif. During the battle she suffered 4 killed and 5 wounded.
    She was paid off again, in the June of 1783 following wartime service.

    Fate.

    Royal Oak was converted for use as a prison ship at Portsmouth in the November of 1796, She then went through a series of commissioning under various Lieutenants commencing with Stephen Liddle in the July of 1803 and concluding in the September of 1805 under Lieutenant James M’Arthur. At this juncture she was renamed Assistance and came under Lieutenant Thomas Sherwin from 1806 to 1807. Then Commodore Hugh Downman from 1808 to 1811, and finally Captain Robert Mends from 1812 to 1813. After this she went into ordinary in 1814, and was broken up at Portsmouth on the 2nd of November, 1815.
    Attached Images Attached Images   
    Last edited by Bligh; 04-10-2020 at 12:18.
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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    HMS Russell (1764)



    Russell

    HMS Russell was a modified Ramillies Class 74-gun third rateship of the line, designed by Sir Thomas Slade, M/shipwright Thomas West. Ordered on the 1st of January, 1761 and launched on the 10th of November,1764 at Deptford.



    GREAT BRITAIN
    Name:
    HMS Russell
    Ordered:
    8 January 1761
    Builder:
    West, Deptford
    Launched:
    10 November 1764
    Honours and
    awards:
    Participated in:

    Fate:
    Sold out of the service, 1811
    Notes:
    Harbour service from 1812
    General characteristics
    Class and type:
    Modified Ramillies-classship of the line
    Tons burthen:
    1642 bm
    Length:
    168 ft 6 in (51.36 m) (gundeck)
    Beam:
    46 ft 11 in (14.30 m)
    Depth of hold:
    19 ft 9 in (6.02 m)
    Propulsion:
    Sails
    Sail plan:
    Full rigged ship
    Armament:
    • Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
    • Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
    • QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
    • Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

    Career.

    Completed on the 6th of January 1765 HMS Russell had an inauspicious start to her career. Nothing save a small repair at Chatham in 1772 to 73 marred her first few years. She was commissioned in the September of 1777 before being coppered and fitted at Portsmouth from the January to April of 1779.

    Her first real action came on the 9th of April,1782, when she was commanded by Captain
    James Saumarez at the Battle of the Saintes. Incurring losses of 10 killed and 38 wounded. She was paid off after wartime service in the following month, and underwent repairs at Chatham between the November of that year and the end of 1783.
    She was in for repairs again in 1791 and then recommissioned in the March of 1793 under Captain John Willett Payne. She was in a spat with Vanstabel’s squadron on the 18th of November of that year, However, her next major action came in the following year when she was part of Admiral
    Howe's fleet at the Glorious First of June, on the 1st of June 1794 in which battle and she incurred no casualties.

    In the following year Russell fought in the
    Battle of Groix on the 23rd of June where she suffered 8 killed and 26 wounded.

    In the December of 1796 she came under the command of Captain Joseph Larcom as the Flagship of Viuce Admiral John McBride in the North Sea. Then, in the April of 1797 she came under Captain Richard Grindall.
    She also fought in the Lee coloumn at the
    Battle of Camperdown on the 11th of October under Captain Henry Trollope, who had succeeded to her command somewhere about the July of that year. During the battle she had no fatalities, but 7 crewmen were wounded.

    In the January of 1798, Russell was in the Channel, where on the 20th of March, aided by HMS Jason, she took the 12 gun Privateer La Bonne Citoyenne.

    In the May of 1799 she was under the command of Captain Hubert Sawyer and sailed for the Med in the June of that year. By 1800 she was back in the Channel now under Captain Sir Thomas Williams, but in 1801 came under the command of Captain William Cumming.

    On 24 February, Lloyd's List reported that Russell had towed "Duckingfield Hall", Pedder, master, into Torbay. She had been sailing from Antigua to London when of the
    Scilly Islands another vessel had run foul of her. Duckenfield Hall had lost her foremast, and her fore, main, and mizzen topmasts; the vessel that ran into her was believed to have foundered.

    Russell now found herself bound for the expedition to Copenhagen, and took her part in the battle on the 2nd of April, 1801. During the battle she lost only 6 wounded. After this she went in for a large repair during the best part of 1802.

    Recommissioned under Captain Robert Williams in the February of 1803, she destroyed the 4 gun La Betsey on the 3rd of June.

    Lloyd's List (LL) reported on 10 June 1803 that Russell had burnt a 14-gun French navy brig coming from San Domingo.

    As no other sinking is mentioned in association with Russell at this time I assume that this was miss-reportage about one and the same incident.

    By the16th of October in the same year, it was noted that she was three days out of Rio in company with the
    fourth rateHMS Grampus,escorting the East IndiamenNorthampton, Lord Melville, Earl Spencer , Princess Mary, Anna, Ann, Glory, and Essex, which were all bound for Bengal. TheGrampus was also carrying £100,000 in specie destined for the British East India Company.

    Whilst out in the Far East she took part in the Java operation of 1806. Under Captain Thomas Caulfield she took the 10 gun Privateer La Adele on the 5th of December. 1807.On 12 February 1808 Russell arrived off the Danish possession of
    Tranquebar where she landed troops of the 14th Regiment of Foot and the Honourable East India Company's artillery. Tranquebar capitulated without resistance.

    In 1809 she became the Flagship of Rear Admiral Richard O’Brien Drury, and served under Captain Edward Hoare during 1810.

    Fate.

    She was sold out of the service in the East Indies on the 23rd of September, 1811, being deemed no longer fit for HM service.
    Attached Images Attached Images  
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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    HMS Saturn (1786)





    Saturn



    HMS Saturn was a 74-gun Edgar Class (modified Arrogant Class designed by Slade) third-rate ship of the line, M/shipwright Thomas Raymond. She was ordered on the 27th of December,1781 and launched on the 22nd of November,1786 at Northam.


    History
    GREAT BRITAIN
    Name: HMS Saturn
    Ordered: 22 December 1781
    Builder: Raymond, Northam
    Laid down: August 1782
    Launched: 22 November 1786
    Honours and
    awards:
    ·Participated in
    ·Battle of Copenhagen (1801)
    Fate: Broken up, 1868
    General characteristics
    Class and type: Arrogant-class ship of the line
    Tons burthen: 1646 (bm)
    Length: 168 ft (51 m) (gundeck)
    Beam: 46 ft 9 in (14.25 m)
    Depth of hold: 19 ft 9 in (6.02 m)
    Propulsion: Sails
    Sail plan: Full rigged ship
    Armament: ·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
    ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
    ·QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
    ·Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

    Service history.


    HMS Saturn was commissioned in the May of 1790 under Captain Robert Linzee, but paid off in the September of the following year.

    Recommissioned in the October of 1793 under Captain Thomas Newnham. In the August of 1794 she sailed under Captain William Lechmere as the Flagship of Rear Admiral Vanderput in the Downs. Next under Captain James Douglas, as Flagship of Vice Admiral Sir John Laforey, she sailed for the Med on the 23rd of May, 1795, in Man’s squadron, in persuit of De Richery in the October of that year.

    Saturn was in action off the Hyeres on the 13th of July, 1796.


    She was back in Plymouth in the October of 1798 to effect repairs, and by the August of that year was under Captain Herbert Sawyer. In the October she was in the Channel under Captain Jacob Waller, and thence back to Portsmouth this time to make good further defects which were completed by the January of 1799. Under Captain Thomas Totty until 1800, she then had a quick succession of captains. Charles Boyle was appointed in the January of 1801, and then Robert Lambert in the February, in Admiral Sir Hyde Parker’s Fleet.

    In the November of that year,
    under Lambert, she sailed with Parker’s expedition to the Baltic and was present at the
    Battle of Copenhagen on the 2nd of April of that year, as part of Admiral Parker's reserve.

    From October her captain was Captain James Brisbane, as the Flagship of the newly appointed Rear Admiral Totty who unfortunately died the following year. In the January of 1802 she sailed for the Leeward islands only to be paid off later in the year. Refitted at Portsmouth she was not recommissioned until the July of 1805 under Captain Lord Amelius Beauclerk, who commanded her until 1808 in the Med until she came under the captaincy of Thomas Boys for the blockade of Lorient. In the May of 1809, Captain William Cumberland took command and proceeded to the Baltic until 1810.


    Saturn then went into ordinary at Plymouth for repairs in 1812, where she remained until she was cut down to create a rasée 58-gun spar-decked frigate in 1813, in preparation for service in the War of 1812. Three 74-gun ships were treated in this manner to produce 'super heavy frigates' that could take on the large American 44-gun frigates. Retaining their 32-pounder main armament, supplemented by 42-pounder carronades. The resulting frigates were much more powerful than the American frigates which they were intended to engage. The rasée frigates proved to be very fast in heavy seas, but in lighter airs conventional frigates had a distinct advantage in speed. On 14 February 1814, under Captain James Nash, Saturn sailed for Bermuda.

    Later in the conflict she served on the Halifax station. She then served as part of the blockading-squadron off New York. On 25 May 1814 Saturn captured the American privateer schooner Hussar, of 211 tons (bm), at 40°8′N 73°28′W after a four-hour chase. Hussar was armed with one 12-pounder gun and nine 12-pounder carronades, eight of which she threw overboard during the chase. Her complement consisted of 98 men. She had been in commission for only a week and had left New York the previous evening for her first cruise, bound for Newfoundland; she was provisioned for a four-month cruise. Nash described her as "coppered, copper-fastened, and sails remarkably fast". Hussar had been launched in 1812 and had made previous cruises, but apparently without success. She was under the command of Francis Jenkins when Saturn captured her.

    In the November of that year Saturn came under the command of Captain Thomas Brown, who remained with her until the War of 1812 ended with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent in 1814.

    She was paid off into ordinary at Plymouth in the April of 1815 and underwent a small repair and alteration before being laid up at the end of 1817.


    Fate.

    In the August of1825 Saturn was fitted at Plymouth as a Lazerette on harbour service for Milford Haven. She became a Gunnery training ship in 1830, and fitted as a Harbour flag and receiving ship at Pembroke at the end of 1845. It had been ordered that she be converted into a screw blockship, but this was cancelled, and she remained a receiving ship. Finally fitted as a guardship still at Pembroke in 1850, under Admiralty orders in 1867, she was broken up in 1868, by which time she was the last survivor in her class of 12 ships.
    Attached Images Attached Images  
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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