HMS Gibraltar.

Spanish ship Fenix (1749)

Name: FenixporRafaelBerenguermeseonavaldeMadrid.jpg Views: 1971 Size: 102.8 KB

Ship-of-the-line Fénix by Rafael Berenguer y Condé, Naval Museum of Madrid

The Fénix was an 80-gun ship-of-the-line (navio) of the Spanish Navy, built by Pedro de Torres at Havana in accordance with the system laid down by Antonio Gaztaneta launched in 1749.

History
Spain
Name: Fenix
Builder: Havana Dockyard
Laid down: 1 July 1747
Launched: 26 February 1749
Commissioned: 1 December 1749
Honours and
awards:
Captured: 16 January 1780, by Royal Navy


United Kingdom

Name: HMS Gibraltar
Acquired: 16 January 1780
Honours and
awards:
Fate: Broken up, 1836
General characteristics.
Class and type: 80-gun third rate ship-of-the-line
Tons burthen: 2,184 ​25⁄94 (bm)
Length:
  • 178 ft 10 3⁄4 in (54.5 m) (gundeck)
  • 144 ft 5 3⁄4 in (44.0 m) (keel)
Beam: 53 ft 3 3⁄4 in (16.2 m)
Depth of hold: 22 ft 4 in (6.8 m)
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Complement: 650
Armament:
  • Lower deck:30 × 24-pounder guns
  • Upper deck:
    • 1780:32 × 18-pounder guns
    • 1781:32 × 24-pounder guns

  • QD:
    • 1780:12 × 9-pounder guns + 2 × 68-pounder carronades
    • 1810:4 × 12-pounder guns + 8 × 32-pounder carronades

  • Fc:
    • 1780:6 × 9-pounder guns
    • 1810:4 × 12-pounder guns + 2 × 32-pounder carronades
Fénix was a Spanish, two deck, ship-of-the-line built in Havana from mahogany. Launched in 1749, her dimensions were 178 feet 10.75 inches (54.5 m) along the gun deck, 144 feet 6 inches (44.0 m) at the keel, with a beam of 52 feet 11.75 inches (16.1 m) and a depth in the hold of 22 feet 1.75 inches (6.8 m). This made her 2,184 ​35⁄94 tons burthen (bm).

Classed as an 80-gun third-rate, Fénix was armed with thirty 24 pounders (11 kg) on her lower gun deck, thirty-two 18 pounders (8.2 kg) on her upper gun deck, twelve 9 pounders (4.1 kg) on the quarterdeck, and six on the forecastle. Her sister ship, Rayo, was later converted to a 100-gun, three-decker. She was wrecked at Trafalgar in 1805.


In 1759, she was sent to bring the new king, Carlos III, from Naples to Barcelona. When Spain entered the American Revolutionary War in June 1779, the Fénix set sail for the English Channel where she was to join a Franco-Spanish fleet of more than 60 ships-of-the-line under Lieutenant General Luis de Córdova y Córdova. The Armada of 1779 was an invasion force of 40,000 troops with orders to capture the British naval base at Portsmouth.

As the flagship of Admiral Juan de Lángara, the ship fought at the Battle of Cape St Vincent on 16 January 1780, where she was captured by the British Royal Navy and commissioned as the third rate HMS Gibraltar in March of that year.

She was copper sheathed and fitted out for British service at Plymouth Dockyard between April and August 1780 at a cost of £16,068.5.3d. The Admiralty changed her armament a number of times: in November 1781 the 18-pounders on her upper deck were upgraded to 24 pounders (11 kg), and the same December two 68 pounders (31 kg) carronades were added. By 1810, the guns on her quarterdeck had been replaced with four 12 pounders (5.4 kg) guns and eight 32 pounders (15 kg) carronades, and on her forecastle with four 12 pounders (5.4 kg) guns and two 32 pounders (15 kg) carronades. Although large, two deck ships were favoured in other European navies, the British preferred to build three-deck third-rates; the extra space making them better suited for flagships. After the capture of Fenix, the Admiralty began to see the advantages of a longer two-deck ship which was less prone to hog, almost as well armed as its three-decked counterparts, and relatively quick.


She spent a short while in the English Channel before joining Samuel Hood's squadron in the West Indies and taking part in the Capture of St Eustatius in February 1781 and the Battle of Fort Royal the following month. Gibraltar and five other ships were sent to stop a French invasion fleet bound for Tobago in May 1781, but found the French too powerful and had to withdraw. In November, her 18-pound guns were replaced with 24-pounders, after which, in February 1782, she sailed to the East Indies and in the following year participated in the Battle of Cuddalore.

At the start of the French Revolutionary War, Gibraltar served in the Channel Fleet, fighting at the Glorious First of June in 1794 before being sent to the Mediterranean in May 1795. In June, the ship was in an action off Hyères; then, in December 1796, she was badly damaged in a storm and had to return to England for major repairs. By June Gibraltar was back in the Mediterranean, serving in the navy's Egyptian campaign, where she remained during and beyond the Peace of Amiens, except for a short period when she was sent home for a refit.

Returning to the Channel in April 1807, Gibraltar joined the fleet under Admiral James Gambier, which fought the Battle of the Basque Roads in 1809. This was her last major action; the ship was taken out of service in 1813 and converted to a powder hulk. She became a lazarette in 1824, then was broken up in November 1836 at Pembroke Dock.