3rd Rate ships of the Royal Navy. 1793 to 1815.

[Bligh]

HMS Mars (1794)





HMS Mars was the name ship of its class. a 74-gun third-rate,designed by Sir John Henslow, and ordered on the17th of January, 1788. Built by M/shipwright Martin Ware at Deptford Dockyard, and launched on the 25th of October. 1794.


Figurehead of HMS Mars.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Mars
Ordered:	17 January 1788
Builder:	Deptford Dockyard
Laid down:	10 October 1789
Launched:	25 October 1794
Fate:	Broken up, 1823
Notes:	·Participated in: ·Battle of Trafalgar
General characteristics
Class and type:	Mars-class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	​1,842 24⁄94 bm
Length:	176 ft (54 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	49 ft (15 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft (6.1 m)
Sail plan:	Full-rigged ship
Armament:	·74 guns: ·Gundeck: 28 × 32 pdrs ·Upper gundeck: 30 × 24 pdrs ·Quarterdeck: 12 × 9 pdrs ·Forecastle: 4 × 9 pdrs

Career.


HMS Mars was commissioned in the November of 1794 under Captain Charles Cotton. In the early part of the French Revolutionary Wars she was assigned to the Channel Fleet. One of her first encounters was during Cornwallis’s retreat between the 16th and 17th of June 1795.

In the February of 1797 she came under the command of Captain Alexander Hood and was involved in the Mutiny at Spithead in the April of that year. On the 24th of April 1798 at the Battle of the Raz de Sein she fought a famous single-ship duel with the French seventy-four Hercule, in the dusk near the Pointe du Raz on the coast of Brittany. Hercule attempted to escape through the Passage du Raz but the tide was running in the wrong direction and she was forced to anchor, giving Captain Hood the chance to attack at close quarters. The two ships were of equal strength, but Hercule was newly commissioned; after more than an hour and a half of bloody fighting at close quarters she struck her flag, having lost over three hundred men. On Mars 31 men were killed and 60 wounded. Among the dead was Captain Hood himself.



Fight between Mars and Hercule

In the April of 1798 Mars came under Captain George Shirley for a few months until command passed to Captain John Manley in the July of that year.
By the May of 1799 she was under Captain john Monkton as the Flagship of Rear Admiral George Berkely, at the blockade of Rochefort and in the attack on the Spanish squadron in the Aix Roads on the 2nd of July 1799.

On the 1st of January 1801, she came under the command of Captain Robert Lloyd as the Flagship of Rear Admiral Edward Thornbrough, and was at the blockade of Brest in 1802. From the September of that year until the April of 1803 she was undergoing Middling repairs at Plymouth. Recommissioned in the March of 1803 under Captain John Sutton she returned to the blockade of Brest, and was then temporarily placed under the command Of Captain Samuel Pym. In the May of 1804 the command was taken by Captain George Duff as the Flagship of Rear Admiral Thomas Russell, off Ferrol.

On the 21st of October 1805 Mars fought in the Lee coloumn at Trafalgar, where she was heavily damaged as she took fire from five different French and Spanish seventy-fours. Among the 29 killed and 69 wounded in the action was her captain George Duff , who was killed.


In this painting of the Battle of Trafalgar by Nicholas Pocock, Mars is in the right foreground, just behind the captured Spanish ship Bahama.

Following the victory Lieutenant William Hannah succeeded to the command. From the December of 1805 under Captain Robert Oliver, Mars took the 40 gun Le Rhin on the18th of July,1806 off Rochefort, and then from the following month until 1810 she was commanded by Captain William Lukin in Hood’s action off Rochfort on the 25th of September, and in Sir Richard Keats’s fleet for the Copenhagen expedition in the August of 1807, spending the rest of 1807 and 1808 in the Baltic.

Fate.

In 1810 under Captain John Carden she sailed for Portugal, and by 1812 we find her under Captain Henry Reaper in the Baltic once more.
She was laid up in the December of 1812 on her return, and fitted as a receiving ship at Portsmouth in 1813. Mars was then placed in ordinary and was broken up there in the October of 1823.

[Bligh]

HMS Centaur (1797)



HMS Centaur was a Mars class 74-gun third rate ship of the Line designed by Sir John Henslow, ordered on the 17th of January 1778, and built at Woolwich by M/shipwright William Rule until the February of 1793, and completed by John Tovery. She was launched on the 14th of March, 1797.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Centaur
Ordered:	17 January 1788
Builder:	Woolwich Dockyard
Laid down:	November 1790
Launched:	14 March 1797
Honours and awards:	Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Centaur 26 Augt. 1808"
Fate:	Broken up, 1819
General characteristics
Class and type:	Mars-classship of the line74-gun
Tons burthen:	1842​24⁄94 (bm)
Length:	·176 ft (54 m) (gundeck) ·144 ft 11 in (44.0 m) (keel)
Beam:	49 ft 2 in (15 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft 01/2 in (6.1 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns ·Upper gundeck: 30 × 24-pounder guns ·QD: 12 × 9-pounder guns ·Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

Service.


Captain John Markham commissioned Centaur in the March of 1797, and the following year, on the 2nd of June, she sailed for the Med. In the November of that year she participated in the occupation of Minorca.
On the 13th of November, Centaur, HMS Leviathan, and HMS Argo, together with some armed transports, relatively unsuccessfully chased a Spanish squadron. Argo did at least manage to re-capture the British 16-gun Pylades-class sloopHMS Peterel, which the Spanish had taken the previous day.
On the 2nd of February,1798, Centaur pursued two Spanish xebecs and a settee, all privateers in royal Spanish service. She captured the privateer La Vierga del Rosario, which carried fourteen brass 12-pounder guns and had a crew of 90 men. The other two vessels escaped.
A year later, on the16th of February, 1799 Centaur, Argo and Leviathan attacked the town of Cambrils. Once the defenders had abandoned their battery, the boats went in. The British dismounted the guns, burnt five settees and brought out another five settees or tartans laden with wine and wheat. One tartan, the Velon Maria, was a letter of marque, armed with one brass and two iron 12-pounders and two 3-pounders. She had a crew of 14 men.
Then on 16 March 1799, she and Cormorant not only drove the Spanish frigate Guadaloupe of 40 guns aground near Cape Oropesa, but also captured the 14 gun privateer La Vierga del Rosario.
.
In June, Centaur was involved in a brief action off Toulon before elements of Admiral Keith's fleet joined her. Centaur and Montagu fired at a brig-corvette and several settees off Toulon. They were then able to capture and destroy four of the settees.
In the Action on the 18th of June of that year, Markham's squadron, of which Centaur was an integral member, captured a French squadron consisting of the 40-gun Junon, 36-gun Alceste, 32-gun Courageuse, 18-gun Salamine and 14-gun brig Alerte. The British took the captured vessels into service under their existing names, except that Junon became Princess Charlotte and Alerte became Minorca. Shortly following this very active year, Centaur returned to England.
While working in the Channel in late 1800 and early 1801, on the 25th of January of the latter year Centaur sent the Danish galiots Bernstorff and Rodercken into Plymouth. The Danish ships were carrying bale goods and nuts. From the March of the year she came under the command of Captain Sir harry Neale, and then in the October of that year Captain Arthur Legge.From the April of 1802 command passed to Captain Bendall Littlehales as Flagship of Commodore Samuel Hood. Whilst under Captain Littlehales, and serving with the Channel Fleet, Centaur and her sister ship, Mars, collided off the Black Rocks during the night of the10th of March. Centaur lost her main and main-top-mast, which killed two men and injured four others as they fell. Mars lost her head, bowsprit, foremast and main top-topmast and then almost grounded near the Île de Bas. In the last moment Canada was able to get a tow rope on her. Canada then towed Mars into Cawsand Bay. The subsequent court martial acquitted Mars's captain and lieutenant of any negligence, but sentenced a lieutenant from Centaur to the loss of six months' seniority and dismissal from his ship.


Service in the West Indies.

From the April of 1802Centaur came under the command of Captain Bendall Littlehales, as the Flagship of Commodore Samuel Hood until 1810. She then sailed to the West Indies where she joined Vice Admiral Sir John Thomas Duckworth's squadron in Jamaica,On the 26th of June, 1803 Centaur participated in the capture of Saint Lucia and its citadel, Morne Fortunée; three days later the expedition took Tobago from the French. The fleet then went on to capture the Dutch islands. On the 21st of August, Centaur and Netley captured the American ship Fame and her cargo of flour and corn. Then on the 31st Centaur detained the Dutch ship Good Hope, which was carrying wine and cordage.

On the 20th of September the British seized Demerara. The corvette Hippomenes, which was acting as a guard ship at Fort Stabroek, was the only vessel belonging to the Batavian Republic there, and was included in the terms of capitulation. The British took her into service as HMS Hippomenes.
In September Hood also received the assignment to blockade the bays of Fort Royal and Saint Pierre, Martinique. On the 22nd of October Centaur captured the French privateer Vigilante. She was armed with two guns and had a crew of 37 men. Centaur was sailing past Cap des Salinés, Martinique, early in the morning of the 26th of November when a battery fired at her. Hood had Maxwell anchor in Petite Anse d'Arlette. Then a landing party made up of Centaur's marines and about 40 sailors destroyed the battery. They also threw its six 24-pounders over the cliff. The militia guarding the battery had a brass 2-pounder gun but fled without putting up any resistance even though the landing party had to climb a steep, narrow path. Unfortunately, the premature explosion of the battery's magazine cost Centaur one man killed, and three officers and six men wounded, the only casualties from the operation. Then Centaur discovered another battery, this one armed with two 42-pounders and a 32-pounder, between the Grande and Petite Anse d'Arlette. The French here also abandoned the battery when a landing party approached. Once again, Centaur's men threw the guns over the cliff and destroyed a barracks and the ammunition stored there.
Centaur was anchored in Fort Royal Bay, Martinique, when on the morning of the1st of December she sighted a schooner towing a sloop. The pair were about six miles away, and Hood believed that they were on their way to St. Pierre. He therefore instructed Maxwell to take Centaur in pursuit. Their prey did not initially notice them, but when they did, the schooner let go her tow and the vessels separated. After a pursuit that extended over 24 leagues, Centaur captured the schooner. She turned out to be the privateer Ma Sophie, out of Guadeloupe. She had a crew of 46 men and had had eight guns that she had thrown overboard during the chase in an attempt to increase her speed. When Ma Sophie and the sloop separated, Centaur sent the Sarah, an advice boat, after the sloop, which she captured.
Hood decided to use Sophie as a tender to Centaur. Lieutenant William Donnett became her captain with the task of monitoring the channel between Martinique and Diamond Rock, a basalt island south of Fort-de-France, the main port of Martinique, for enemy vessels. Subsequently, Donnett and Sophie frequently visited the Rock to gather both the thick, broad-leaved grass that the crew could weave into sailors' hats, and a spinach-like plant called callaloo. Callaloo, when boiled and served daily, kept the crews of Centaur and Sophie from scurvy and was a nice addition to a menu too long dominated by salt beef.



HMS Centaur and HMS Diamond Rock, Martinique.

In late 1803 and early 1804, Centaur, under Captain Murray Maxwell, established several batteries on Diamond Rock. To ease its administration vis-à-vis the Admiralty, The British commissioned the rock as HMS Diamond Rock. Hood garrisoned it with two lieutenants and 120 men under the command of Lieutenant James Wilkes Maurice, his first lieutenant. Unfortunately, at some point during this period and for an unknown reason, Sophie blew up, killing all but one man of her crew. Diamond Rock fell to an overwhelming French attack on the 3rd of June, 1805.
On the 3rd of February, Centaur sent her boats to cut out the French 18-gun brig-corvette Curieux from the Carénage, under the guns of Fort Edward at Fort-Royal harbour, Martinique. In the fight, the French lost 40 men killed and wounded, and the British had nine men wounded, including all three officers leading the cutting out party. The British took Curieux into the navy as HMS Curieux. Her original commander was Lieutenant Robert Carthew Reynolds, who had led the cutting-out party, but he died of the wounds he had received in the attack. His replacement as her commander was Lieutenant George Bettesworth of Centaur, also a member of the cutting-out party.
On the 25th of April, 1804, Centaur arrived off the Surinam River after a three-week voyage from Barbados. Her flotilla consisted of Pandour, Serapis and Alligator, all three en flute, Hippomenes, Drake, the 10-gun schooner Unique, and transports carrying 2000 troops under Brigadier-General Sir Charles Green. The British proposed surrender terms that the Dutch governor rejected. As an initial step in the campaign, Centaur sent her boats to capture the battery of Friderici. The landing party captured the battery at the cost of four men killed and three wounded. The Dutch surrendered on 5 May and Hood made Captain Conway Shipley of Hippomenes post-captain and appointed him to Centaur. (One day earlier the Admiralty had promoted Shipley into the ex-French 28-gun frigate Sagesse; he later assumed command of her at Jamaica.) Hood next appointed Captain William Richardson of the 28-gun frigate Alligator to command Centaur and the Admiralty confirmed his appointment on 27 September. The British captured two Dutch men-of-war, the 32-gun frigate Proserpine, which they took into service as Amsterdam, and the 18-gun corvette Pylades, which they took into service as Surinam, The British also captured the George, a schooner of 10 guns, and three merchant vessels. On the 30th of July, 1804, Centaur sent her boats into Basseterre Roads, Guadeloupe, where they cut out a schooner of unknown name and of two guns, as well as the privateer Elizabeth, which was pierced for 12 guns but mounting six. She had a crew of 65, most of whom were either killed, drowned, or swam ashore. The boats achieved these captures despite a complete lack of wind and under heavy grape and small arms fire from the batteries and troops that lined the beach. The boats had one man killed and five wounded, and brought out two wounded prisoners. Shipley described Elizabeth as:- "the fastest sailing Privateer out of Guadaloupe, and has been uncommonly fortunate this War."

Centaur also recaptured another Elizabeth, this one of Liverpool, that Decidé (actually Grande Decidé) had captured while Elizabeth was sailing from the coast of Africa with a cargo of slaves. Centaur detained, on suspicion, the "Grecian" ship St. Nicholas, which was carrying produce from Guadeloupe. Centaur also recaptured the schooner Betsey, which had been sailing in ballast. Then in December of that year, Centaur recaptured the English ship Admiral Peckenham, which was carrying produce.
During the early part of 1805 Centaur came, under the command of Captain Charles Richardson and then temporarily that of Captain Henry Whitby. On the 29th of July,Centaur, under Captain Whitby, in company with a squadron under Captain De Courcy, was sailing from Jamaica to join Nelson, when the squadron encountered a hurricane. The storm threw Centaur's masts overboard, carried away her rudder and smashed and sent all her boats overboard. Leaks that had started when Centaur had run aground some weeks before worsened substantially. The crew, especially the marines, labored at her pumps. For sixteen hours they were barely able to offset the water coming in. On the second day of the storm, a huge wave almost brought the first-rate St George crashing into Centaur.



Centaur nearly collides with St. George

As the hurricane lessened and the seas became a little calmer, the crew was able to get a sail underneath Centaur, and use hawsers to lash it to her hull, much reducing the leaks and bracing her shattered frame. To help keep Centaur afloat, the crew also threw all but a dozen or so of the guns overboard. The 74-gun third rateHMS Eagle was then able to get a cable aboard and tow Centaur into HalifaxNova Scotia. At Halifax, Centaur was put on her side for repairs. At that time it was discovered that "14 feet of false keel had been torn off from the fore foot aft, which occasioned the leak."





Officers of HMS Centaur in 1805.

Captain John Talbot took command of Centaur on the 5th of December, 1805, and sailed her home for middling repairs at Plymouth, which were not completed until the June of 1806. Because of the damage she had suffered, Centaur therefore missed joining Nelson and fighting in the Battle of Trafalgar.

The Channel and Eastern Atlantic.

By 1806, Centaur was under the command of Captain W. H. Webley and also served as flagship for Captain Sir Samuel Hood, who was acting as Commodore of the squadron off Rochefort. On the16yh of July, boats from each of the squadron's line-of-battle ships and Indefatigable and Iris engaged in a cutting out expedition on two corvettes and a convoy in the Garonne. Lieutenant Edward Reynolds Sibley, Centaur's First Lieutenant, was badly wounded in the successful attack on the largest corvette, the Caesar which was armed with eighteen guns and had a complement of 86 men, under the command of Monsieur Louis Francois Hector Fourre, lieutenant de vaisseau. One man from Centaur was killed and seven, including Sibley, were wounded. The other French vessels escaped up the river and the British boats that followed them, unsuccessfully, suffered heavy casualties. In addition to the losses from Centaur, the British had five men killed, 29 wounded, and 21 missing, most of whom were apparently taken prisoner.

During the Action of 25 September 1806, Centaur captured Armide, and assisted in the capture of Infatigable, Gloire and Minerve. The British took all of them into the Royal Navy under their existing names. Centaur lost three men killed and three wounded. In addition, a musket ball shattered Hood's arm, which had to be amputated. The wound forced Hood to quit the deck and leave the ship in the charge of Lieutenant William Case.
Towards the end of 1806, Hood having recovered somewhat from his wound, received orders to join a secret expedition at the Cape Verde Islands. However, the expedition sailed before Centaur arrived. Hood then instead, took a squadron under his command to cruise between Madeira and the Canaries.

The Baltic.

In the summer of 1807, Hood had received a promotion to Rear-admiral of the red. On the 26th of July, Centaur, with Hood and Captain William Henry Webley, sailed as a part of a fleet of 38 vessels under Admiral James Gambier bound for Copenhagen. Between the 15th of August and the 20th of October, she took part in the Second Battle of Copenhagen where Gambier, together with General Lord William Cathcart, captured the Danish Navy piecemeal in a pre-emptive attack. Centaur deployed her boats to blockade the harbour in order to intercept any supplies arriving from the Baltic. At some point, her cutter attempted to take a Danish dispatch boat that was trying to sail from Copenhagen past the island of Moen to Bornholm. The Danish boat ran on shore just past a cliff where the Danes had stationed troops with two field pieces. The Danes on the cliff fired on the cutter, killing the lieutenant in charge and wounding a midshipman. Nevertheless, Midshipman Price, Master's Mate Walcott and the cutter's crew succeeded in taking their quarry and towing her off.

By the 24th of December, Centaur was again briefly in the Atlantic, this time participating in General William Beresford's (friendly) occupation of the island of Madeira.

Anglo-Russian War.

In early 1808 Russia initiated the Finnish War in response to Sweden's refusal to bow to Russian pressure to join the anti-British alliance. Russia captured Finland and made it a Grand Duchy under the Russian Empire. The British decided to take counter-measures and in May sent a fleet, including Centaur, under Vice-Admiral Sir James Saumarez to the Baltic.
On the 9th of July, the Russian fleet, under Admiral Peter Khanykov, came out from Kronstadt. The Swedes massed a fleet under Swedish Admiral Cederstrom, consisting of 11 line-of-battle ships and five frigates at Örö and Jungfrusund to oppose them. On the16th of August, Saumarez sent Centaur and Implacable, under Captain Thomas Byam Martin, also a 74-gun third rate, to join the Swedish fleet. They chased two Russian frigates on the 19th of July and joined the Swedes the following day.

On the 22nd of August, the Russian fleet, which consisted of nine ships of the line, five large frigates and six smaller ones, moved from Hanko and appeared off the Örö roads the next day. The Swedish ships from Jungfur Sound had joined Rear-Admiral Nauckhoff and by the evening of 24th of August the combined Anglo-Swedish force had made its preparations. Early the next day they sailed from Örö to meet the Russians.
The Anglo-Swedish force discovered the Russians off Hanko Peninsula; as the Russians retreated the Allied ships followed them. Centaur and Implacable exhibited superior sailing and slowly outdistanced their Swedish allies. At 5am on 26th of August Implacable caught up with a Russian straggler, the 74-gun Vsevolod (also Sewolod), under Captain Rudnew (or Roodneff).
Implacable and Vsevolod exchanged fire for about 20 minutes before Vsevolod ceased firing. Vsevolod hauled down her colours, but Hood recalled Implacable because the Russian fleet was approaching. During the fight Implacable lost six dead and 26 wounded; Vsevolod lost some 48 dead and 80 wounded.
The Russian frigate Poluks then towed Vsevolod towards Rager Vik (Ragerswik or Rogerswick), but when Centaur started to chase them the frigate dropped her tow. The Russians sent out boats to bring her in, in which endeavour they almost succeeded. They did succeed in putting 100 men aboard her as reinforcements and to replace her casualties.
However, just outside the port, Centaur was able to run aboard the Vsevolod. A party of seamen from Centaur then lashed her mizzen to the Russian bowsprit before Centaur opened fire. Vsevolod dropped her anchor and with both ships stuck in place, both sides attempted to board the other vessel. In the meantime, Implacable had come up and added her fire to the melee. After a battle of about half an hour, the Russian vessel struck again.



The Russian Ship Vsevolod burning, after the action with the Implacable and Centaur, August 26, 1808.

Implacable hauled Centaur off. The British removed their prisoners and then set fire to Vsevolod, which blew up some hours later. Centaur lost three killed and 27 wounded. Vsevolod lost another 124 men killed and wounded in the battle with Centaur; 56 Russians escaped by swimming ashore. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with the clasps "Implacable 26 Augt. 1808" and "Centaur 26 Augt. 1808" to all surviving claimants from the action.
Vice-Admiral Saumerez with his entire squadron joined the Anglo-Swedish squadron the next day. They then blockaded Khanykov's squadron for some months. After the British and the Swedes abandoned the blockade, the Russian fleet was able to return to Kronstadt.


Return to the Mediterranean.

Hood now moved to the Med, and on the 2nd of November, 1809 Captain John Chambers White brought Hibernia to Port Mahon to be Hood's flagship. White then took command of HMS Centaur.
Centaur participated in the defence of Tarragona when French forces under Marshal Suchet besieged the city from the May of 1811. Captains Codrington, White, and Adam spent most nights in their gigs carrying out operations under cover of darkness to evacuate women, children and wounded. On the 21st of June the French stormed the town. They then reportedly massacred several thousand men, women and children and took many prisoners before setting fire to the city. The boats of the squadron had only been able to rescue some five or six hundred of the inhabitants. On the 28th of June, Centaur's launch engaged the French on a beach at Tarragona, losing two men killed and three wounded. Centaur returned to Plymouth in the November of 1811 for repairs which were completed in the January of 1813.

Channel Fleet.

Centaur first sailed to Saint Helen's Island, Quebec, and the Western Isles (the Azores), but arrived off Cherbourg by November 1813. On the evening of the 6th ofd April 1814, Centaur arrived at the Gironde. Her objective was to support Egmont in her attack on the French ship of the line Regulus. Also near her were three brigs and some other vessels. All were under the protection of shore batteries there. The plan was that a landing party in boats, to which Centaur had contributed, would storm Fort Talmont while Egmont would take advantage of high tide to attack Regulus. At midnight, before the attack had even begun, it became clear that the French had set fire to their ships, which were totally destroyed by morning. Before dawn on the 9th of April, a landing party of seamen and marines from the 38-gun frigate Belle Poule, under Captain George Harris, successfully entered and destroyed the batteries of Pointe Coubre, Pointe Nègre, Royan, Soulac, and Mèche.

In the January of 1819, the London Gazette reported that Parliament had voted a grant to all those who had served under the command of Lord Viscount Keith, between 1812 and 1814, and in the Gironde. Centaur was listed among the vessels that had served under Keith in the Gironde.

Fate.

After the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Centaur made a few more cruises, including another to Quebec, in in the September of 1814. In the spring of 1815, under Capt. T. G. Caulfield, she sailed with HMS Chatham from Plymouth to the Western Islands again. On the 26th of August she left the Cape of Good Hope for England, arriving on the 13th of November. She was paid off in Plymouth three days later. She was broken up there in the November of 1819.

[Bligh]

HMS Ajax (1798)







Watercolour of HMS Ajax, in the collections of the National Maritime Museum.


HMS Ajax was designed as a revised Triumph. She was given the Classification of an Ajax class 74-gun third rate ship of the line. She was ordered on the 30th of April 1795 and built by John Randall & Co of Rotherhithe with an extra 11foot midsection giving her an extra two gunports per side on both decks. She was launched on the Thames on the 3rd of March, 1798.

.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Ajax
Ordered:	30 April 1795
Builder:	Randall, Rotherhithe
Laid down:	September 1795
Launched:	3 March 1798
Commissioned:	June 1798
Honours and awards:	·Battle of Cape Finisterre ·Battle of Trafalgar ·Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Egypt"
Fate:	Accidentally burnt, 14 February 1807
General characteristics
Class and type:	Ajax-classship of the line
Tons burthen:	1953 ​46⁄94 (bm)
Length:	·182 ft 5 in (55.6 m) (gundeck) ·149 ft 10 5⁄8 in (45.7 m) (keel)
Beam:	49 ft 6 in (15.1 m)
Depth of hold:	21 ft 3 in (6.5 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns ·Upper gundeck: 30 × 24-pounder guns ·QD: 12 × 9-pounder guns ·Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

Service.

CaptainJames Whitshed had been in charge of the vessel during her later construction stages from the January of 1798, but she was eventually commissioned in the June of that year under Captain John Holloway, and on the following month command passed to Captain John Pakenham, for Channel service. After a brief spell under Captain John Osborn in April 1799, the Ajax was placed on the month following under the command of Captain Alexander Cochrane, who was to command her for two years. On the 9th of January,1800 she captured the French privateer Avantageux in the Channel.

In the January of 1801 Cochrane and Ajax sailed for the Med where they participated in the Egyptian operations. On the 31st of January Ajax anchored at Marmorice on the coast of Karamania, and on the 1st of March, some 70 warships, together with transports carrying 16,000 troops, anchored in Aboukir Bay near Alexandria. Bad weather delayed disembarkation by a week, but on the 8th, Cochrane directed a landing by 320 boats, in double line abreast, which brought the troops ashore. French shore batteries opposed the landing, but the British were able to drive them back and by the next day Sir Ralph Abercromby's whole force was ashore. Ajax had two of her seamen killed during the landings.

The naval vessels provided a force of 1,000 seamen to fight alongside the army, with Sir Sidney Smith of the 74-gun HMS Tigre in command. On the13th of March, Ajax lost one man killed and two wounded in an action on shore, whilst on the 21st of March she lost two more killed and a further two wounded.

After the Battle of Alexandria and the subsequent siege, Cochrane in Ajax, with the sixth rateHMS Bonne Citoyenne, sloopHMS Cynthia, the brig-sloops HMS Port Mahon and HMS Victorieuse, and three Turkish corvettes, were the first vessels to enter the harbour.
Because Ajax had served in the Egyptian campaign, 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.

Ajax, now commanded by Captain Bradby, returned to Plymouth from Egypt on the 8th of June,1802 for middling repairs following after the signing of the Treaty of Amiens. The repairs were completed in the August of 1804. She was then recommissioned under Captain the Viscount George Garlies

1805.

In April, AdmiralLord Gardner sent Ajax, now temporally under Captain Christopher Laroche, together with HMS Malta and HMS Terrible to reinforce Vice-AdmiralSir Robert Calder's squadron off Ferrol after a storm had reduced the squadron to only five ships of the line.
On the 31st of May, Captain William Brown took over command of Ajax. On the 22nd of July, Calder's fleet of 15 sail of the line, two frigates, a cutter and a lugger was off Cape Finisterre when it encountered Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve's combined Spanish-French fleet of 20 ships of the line, three large ships armed en flute, five frigates and two brigs.



Battle of Cape Finisterre, by William Anderson, c.1810


Calder sailed towards the French with his force. The battle lasted for more than four hours as the fleets became confused in the failing light and thick patchy fog, which prevented either side from gaining a decisive victory. Still, the British were able to capture two Spanish ships, the 80-gun San Rafael and the 74-gun Firme. The action cost Ajax two men killed and 16 wounded.

After undergoing repairs in Plymouth, on the18th of September, Ajax and Thunderer, the latter under Captain William Lechmere, joined with Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson in HMS Victory and sailed from Plymouth for Cadiz. Captains Brown and Lechmere were later called as witnesses at the court martial of Sir Robert Calder for his failure to resume the battle on the following day, during the action in July. As a result, First LieutenantJohn Pilfold commanded Ajax at the Battle of Trafalgar. Ajax was seventh in line in Nelson’s weather column and she fired on both the French 74-gun Bucentaure and the Spanish 136-gun Santissima Trinidad. During the battle Ajax assisted HMS Orion in forcing the surrender of the French 74-gun Intrépide. Ajax lost two men killed and nine wounded during the battle.

A storm followed the battle and Ajax rescued seamen from ships in danger of sinking. Lieutenant Pilfold received the Trafalgar medal and a direct promotion to Post-captain in December. Although he missed the battle, Brown was still the official captain and so too received the Trafalgar medal. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Trafalgar" to all surviving claimants from the battle.

After Trafalgar, Ajax took part in the blockade of Cadiz. On the 25th of November, Thunderer detained the Ragusan ship Nemesis, which was sailing from Isle de France to Leghorn, Italy, with a cargo of spice, indigo dye, and other goods. Ajax shared the prize money with ten other British warships.
From the January of 1806 Ajax, came under the command of Captain Henry Blackwood.


Fate.



Duckworth's squadron forcing the Dardanelles

On the 1st of February, 1807 Ajax, under Blackwood, joined Admiral Sir John Duckworth's squadron at Malta to participate in the Dardanelles Operation.

During the operation an accidental fire destroyed Ajax. The fire began on the evening of the14th of February while Ajax was anchored off Tenedos. The fire began in the bread-room where the purser and his assistant had negligently left a light burning. As the fire burned out of control, the officers and crew were forced to take to the water. Although 380 people were rescued, 250 lost their lives that night, including many of the crewmen who had been at Trafalgar. Ajax burned through the night and then drifted on to the island of Tenedos where she blew up the following morning. A court martial cleared Captain Blackwood of any culpability for her loss.

[Bligh]

HMS Kent (1798)



HMS Kent was an Ajax Class 74-gunthird-rateship of the line, also based on the Triumph Class with amendments. Ordered on the 30th of April 1795, she was built by John Perry and Co. at Blackwall Yard, and launched on the 17th of January, 1798.



'View of Mr Perry's Yard, Blackwall, commemorating the launch of HM ship Kent


.

History
Great Britain
Name:	HMS Kent
Ordered:	30 April 1795
Builder:	John Perry and Company Blackwall Yard
Laid down:	October 1795
Launched:	17 January 1798
Commissioned:	3 April 1798 at Woolwich Dockyard
In service:	·1798–1804 ·1805–1809 ·1829–1842 ·1855–1881
Honours and awards:	Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Egypt"
Fate:	Broken up, 1881
General characteristics 1798–1817
Class and type:	Ajax-classship of the line
Tons burthen:	1963​73⁄94 (bm)
Length:	·182 ft 8 in (55.68 m) (gundeck) ·149 ft 11 in (45.69 m) (keel)
Beam:	49 ft 7.5 in (15.126 m)
Depth of hold:	21 ft 5 in (6.53 m)
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Complement:	690
Armament:	·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pdrs ·Upper deck: 28 × 24-pdrs ·QD: 14 × 9-pdrs ·Fc: 4 × 9-pdrs
General characteristics 1820–1881
Class and type:	Ajax-classship of the line
Tons burthen:	2009​62⁄94 (bm)
Length:	·184 ft 2.5 in (56.147 m) (gundeck) ·150 ft 10.5 in (45.987 m) (keel)
Beam:	50 ft 0 in (15.24 m)
Depth of hold:	21 ft 10 in (6.65 m)
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pdrs ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 24-pdrs ·QD: 4 × 9-pdrs & 8 x 32-pdr carronades ·Fc: 4 × 9-pdrs

Service.

HMS Kent was commissioned in the March of 1798 under Captain William Hope, as the Flagship of Admiral Duncan.
In the June of 1800 she sailed for the Med.
In 1801 she was involved in the Egyptian operations.
On 9 May of that year Kent, Hector and Cruelle unsuccessfully chased the French corvette Heliopolis, which eluded them and slipped into Alexandria, and in the August of that year she Joined Nelson’s Fleet.

Because Kent had served in the Navy's Egyptian campaign from the 8th of March to the 8th of September 1801, all her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal which was authorised by the Admiralty in 1850, to be issued to all surviving claimants.
From 1802 Kentcame under the command of Captain Edward O’Brien as Flagship to Rear Admiral Sir Richard Bickerton.In the August of 1803 she came under Captain John Stuart and was paid off in 1804. She underwent repairs and a refit at Chatham between the May and November of 1805, being recommissioned under Captain Henry Garrett as the Flagship of Vice Admiral Edward Thornbrough from that date.

On 13th of December, 1809 350 sailors and 250 marines from Kent,and two other 74-gun third rates, Cambrian and Ajax, attacked Palamós. (The sloops Sparrowhawk and Minstrel covered the landing.) The landing party destroyed six of eight merchant vessels with supplies for the French army at Barcelona, as well as their escorts, a national ketch of 14 guns and 60 men and two xebecs of three guns and thirty men each. The vessels were lying inside the mole under the protection of 250 French troops, a battery of two 24-pounders, and a 13" mortar in a battery on a commanding height. Although the attack was successful, the withdrawal was not. The British lost 33 men killed, 89 wounded, and 86 taken prisoner, plus one seaman who took the opportunity to desert.

Kent was laid off and placed into ordinary at Plymouth in the January of 1813. Following a large repair including the addition of a circular stern in a rebuild between the June of 1817 and the October of 1820 she was laid up once more. From 1826 to 1830 she acted as a Guard ship at Plymouth. She was re-rated as a 76 gun ship in 1829.




Model from the National Marritime Museum Greenwich.

Fate.



Following Admiralty Orders of the 27th of October 1854 she was fitted as a sheer hulk as a replacement for the Spartiate, from the December of 1855 to the January of 1857.
On the 12th of November 1880, by Admiralty Orders, she was ordered to be broken up, and this took place during 1881.

[Bligh]

HMS Superb (1798)



HMS Superb was a 74-gun third rateship of the line, derived from the French Le Pompee . she was the fourth vessel to bear that name, having been ordered on the 30th of April 1795 and built by Thomas Pitcher at Northfleet. She was launched on the19th of March 1798.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Superb
Ordered:	10 June 1795
Builder:	Pitcher, Northfleet
Laid down:	August 1795
Launched:	19 March 1798
Fate:	Broken up, 1826
Notes:	·Participated in: ·Battle of Algeciras ·Battle of San Domingo ·Bombardment of Algiers (1816)
General characteristics
Class and type:	Pompée-classship of the line
Tons burthen:	1,919 bm
Length:	182 ft 2 in (55.52 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	49 ft (15 m)
Depth of hold:	21 ft (6.4 m)
Sail plan:	Full-rigged ship
Armament:	·74 guns: ·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns ·Upper gundeck: 30 × 18-pounder guns ·QD: 12 × 9-pounder guns ·Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

Service.



HMS Superb was commissioned in the May of 1798 under Captain John Sutton and sailed for the Med in the July of 1799. Between 1801 and 1806 she was commanded by Captain Richard Goodwin Keats.


Battle of Algeciras Bay.



In the July of 1801 the Superb was stationed off Cadiz and took part in the second Battle of Algeciras Bay. During the French and Spanish retreat Admiral Sir James Saumarez hailed the Superb and ordered Keats to catch the allied fleet's rear and engage. The Superb was a relatively new ship and had not been long on blockade duty. As a consequence she was the fastest sailing ship-of-the-line in the fleet. As night fell on 12 July, Keats sailed the Superb alongside the 112-gun Real Carlos on her starboard side. Another Spanish ship, the 112-gun San Hermenegildo, was sailing abreast, on the port side, of the Real Carlos. Keats fired into the Real Carlos and some shot passed her and struck the San Hermenegildo. The Real Carlos caught fire and Keats disengaged her to continue up the line. In the darkness the two Spanish ships confused one another for British ships and began a furious duel. With the Real Carlos aflame the captain of the Hermenegildo determined to take advantage and crossed the Real Carlos’ stern in order to deal a fatal broadside that would run the length of the ship through the unprotected stern. A sudden gust of wind brought the two ships together and entangled their rigging. The Hermenegildo also caught fire and the two enormous three-deck ships exploded.







HMS Superb sails away from the Spanish fleet at Algeciras Bay, while the Hermenegildo and Real Carlos explode in the background after mistakenly firing on one other. Drawing by Antoine Léon Morel-Fatio.

The Superb continued on relatively unscathed and engaged the French 74-gun St. Antoine under Commodore Julien le Roy. The St. Antoine struck after a brief exchange of broadsides.

In the August of 1804 Superb joined theToulon Squadron as flagship of Vice Admiral John Thomas Duckworth which involved her in the chase to the West Indies in 1805.


Battle of San Domingo.


By 1806 she was still the flagship of Admiral Duckworth when the battle of San Domingo was fought on the 6th of February. During the action Superb suffered 6 killed and 56 wounded. Keats was appointed Commodore in the August of that year for the squadron off Rochfort.

In the October of 1807 Superb came under the command of Captain Donald M’Leod as Flagship to the now Rear Admiral Sir Richard Keats for the Copenhagen expedition.
In the February of 1808 she came under the temporary command of Lieutenant Thomas Alexander with Strachen’s Squadron to the Med. On the 26th of July, Superb, Mars, Monkey, and Baltic captured Falck and Kline Wilhelm.

Copenhagen and the Baltic.


Superb was commissioned in December 1809 under the command of Captain Samuel Jackson. She went out to the Baltic again as Keats's flagship, and was part of the squadron there under Admiral Sir James Saumarez. She returned to Portsmouth, and underwent middling repairs between the September of 1811 and the November of 1812, recommissioning in the September under Captain Charles Paget for Channel service.


War of 1812.


Paget had been appointed to command Superb as part of the Channel Fleet, and during a cruise in the Bay of Biscay he took several prizes. By the opening of 1813 he was on his way to in Bermuda continuing his depredations, and on the 13th of February, Star, which had been sailing from New York to Bordeaux, arrived at Bideford. She was a prize to Superb. Captain Paget described the prize as "the fine American brig Star, of three hundred and fifty tons, six guns, and thirty-five men." His next victim was the six gun privateer Viper, taken on the 15th of April, with the aid of Pyramus.
In 1814 Superb now under Captain Alexander Gordon was employed on the coast of North America as Flagship of Rear Admiral Henry Hotham.
In the April of 1815 Captain Humphrey Senhouse took command only to be superseded in the September of that year by Captain Charles Ekins.
Back in Plymouth by the July of 1816 she was fitted for foreign service and then dispatched to Algiers where she took part in the bombardment of that port, losing 8 killed and 84 wounded in the process.
Back in Plymouth by the May of 1818 she was fitted as a guardship, but recommissioned in the November of that year under Captain Thomas Hardy for the South American station. She was placed under captain Thomas White in the August of that year when Hardy was raised to the rank of Commodore. Her next Captain was Adam McKenzie from the June of 1821 until his death in 1823, when she reverted to the role of guardship at Plymouth.

Fate.

Her final years of service were spent under Captain Sir Thomas Staines, from the October of 1823, firstly on the Jamaica station, and then at Lisbon until she was paid off in the December of1825.
She was then broken up at Plymouth, which was completed by the 17th of April, 1826.

[Bligh]

HMS Achille (1798)



HMS Achille was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line. Ordered on the 30th of April, 1795 she was built by William Cleverley, in his private shipyard at Gravesend. Her design was based on the lines of the captured French ship Pompée. She was the fourth Royal Navy ship to be named after the Greek hero Achilles in the French style and was launched on the 16th of April, 1798.
.

History.
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Achille
Ordered:	10 June 1795
Builder:	Cleverley, Gravesend
Laid down:	October 1795
Launched:	16 April 1798
Honours and awards:	Participated in: Battle of Trafalgar
Fate:	Sold, 1865
General characteristics
Class and type:	Pompée-classship of the line
Tons burthen:	1,981
Length:	182 ft 2 in (55.52 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	49 ft (15 m)
Depth of hold:	21 ft (6.4 m)
Sail plan:	Full-rigged ship
Armament:	74 guns: Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounders Upper gundeck: 30 × 18-pounders Quarterdeck: 12 × 9-pounders Forecastle: 4 × 9-pounders

Service.

HMS Achille was commissioned in the June of 1798, under Captain Henry Stanhope for Channel service. In the April of 1799 she came under the command of Captain George Murray until 1801 and took part in the blockade of Cadiz.
She was refitted in the February of 1800and from the May of 1801 came under Captain Edward Buller until the November of that year when she was temporally commanded by Captain James Wallis. In the May of 1802 her captain became John Hardy. Recommissioned in the May of 1805 under Captain Richard King until 1811 she sailed for the Channel.

Achille at Trafalgar.

On the 21st of October, 1805, under the command of Captain King, Achille was in Admiral Collingwood's Lee column at the Battle of Trafalgar, seventh in the line, between Colossus and Revenge. Achille opened fire on the rear of the French and Spanish fleet at 12.15, engaging the 74-gun Montanes, for fifteen minutes, before sailing on to meet Argonauta of 80 guns, which had already been battling with other British ships. After hours of fierce fighting, Argonauta fell silent and closed her gunports, but before Achille could accept her surrender, her French namesake Achille of 74 guns, moved in to engage the British ship. After exchanging broadsides, the French ship sailed on and was replaced on the starboard side by the 74-gun French ship Berwick, and for the next hour and a quarter she lay close alongside Achille, receiving a pounding that eventually forced Berwick to surrender with over 250 casualties – almost half her crew. Achille took possession, and transferred some of her crew back on board as prisoners. Achille suffered 13 killed and 59 wounded in the battle, in stark comparison to the heavy losses she inflicted on her French and Spanish adversaries.

In 1806, on the 24th and 25th of September Achille took part in Hood’s action off Rochefort, and was also at the blockade of Ferrol in 1807. She was at the Walcheren operation in 1809 and under the temporary command oF Captain John Hayes in the July of that year. On the 18th of February 1810 she sailed for the Med and took part in the siege of Cadiz.

In January of 1811 she came under the command of Captain Askew Hollis, from then until 1815, and sailed to the Adriatic. In the April of that year she came under the temporary command of George Dundas anr then reverted to Captain Hollis. On the 17th of July of that year, boats from Achille and Cerberus captured or destroyed 12 enemy trabaccolos off Venice.

She sailed to the East Indies in early 1814, and continued in active service until 1815, when she was paid off.

Fate.

decommissioned at Chatham,where she was rebuilt with a circular stern between 1817 and 1822 and then went into ordinary there.
Laid up at Sheerness from 1829 to 1847 she was then. She was rerated as a 76 gun ship in 1839 and survived in this state until 1865, when she was sold to Castle and Beech on the first of November for £3,600 to be broken up at Charlton.