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.