Third Rate ships of 74 guns.

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HMS Alexander (1778)



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:	Participated in Battle of the Nile Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Egypt"
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.


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.

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HMS Arrogant (1761)


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​54⁄94 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

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.

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HMS Audacious (1785)






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.




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.





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.

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HMS Bedford (1775)


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.



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:	Participated in: Battle of Saint Kitts Battle of the Saintes Battle of Cape St Vincent Raid on Genoa Battle of Genoa
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.


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.

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HMS Bellerophon (1786)







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 ​78⁄94 (bm)
Length:	·168 ft (51.2 m) (gundeck) ·138 ft (42.1 m) (keel)
Beam:	46 ft 10 1⁄2 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.




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.




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.




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.




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.




The Admiralty ordered her to be sold at Plymouth on the 21st of January,1836, and she was then broken up.

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HMS Bellona (1760)






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

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.



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

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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.

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:	Participated in: First Battle of Ushant Battle of Dogger Bank Action of 8 March 1795
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​56⁄94 (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.



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.



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.


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.





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.

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HMS Tremendous (1784)

HMS Tremendous was a Ganges class, 74-gun third rateship of the line, ordered on the 1st of January 1782, designed by Edward Hunt, and built by William Barnard at Deptford Green. She was launched on the 30th of October, 1784.
History.
GREAT BRITAIN.
Name:	HMS Tremendous
Ordered:	1 January 1782
Builder:	Barnard, Deptford
Laid down:	August 1782
Launched:	30 October 1784
Renamed:	HMS Grampus, 1845
Fate:	Sold, 1897
General characteristics
Class and type:	Ganges-classship of the line
Tons burthen:	1,656​64⁄94 (bm)
Length:	169 ft 6 in (51.66 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 8 1⁄2 in (14.542 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft 3 in (6.17 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.

HMS Tremendous was commissioned in the March of 1793 under Captain James Pigot for Howe’s Fleet. Throughout the May of 1794, Tremendous, whilst under the command of Captain James Pigot, participated in the campaign which culminated in the Battle of the Glorious First of June of that year off Ushant. Pigot had kept his ship too far to windward of the enemy to make best use of his guns in the battle, during which Tremendous suffered 3 killed and eight wounded. The captain was one of several officers denied medals in the aftermath of the battle.

Later in 1794 she came under the command of Captain William Bentink, until the March of 1795 when firstly Captain Hope took command followed in the June of that year by Captain Samuel Ballard. In 1796 she came under Captain John Aylmer as the Flagship of Rear Admiral Thomas Pringle and sailed for the Cape of Good Hope on the 1st of May in that year. At some time in mid year she came under Captain Charles Brisbane, and on the 17th of August was involved in the capture of Lucas’s squadron in Saldanha bay.
In 1797 Tremendous temporally came under Captain George Stephens and then Commander Askew Hollis during the Mutiny.In 1798 Captain John Osborne took command, and later in the year John Searle, as Flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Hugh Christian on the Cape of Good Hope station. By 1799 she was once more under John Osborne, and whilst operating in the Indian Ocean, on the 25th of April Tremendous, accompanied by HMS Jupiter, and Adamant recaptured the Chance as she lay at anchor under the guns of the battery at Connonies-Point, Île de France. The French frigate Forte had captured Chance, which was carrying a cargo of rice, in Balasore Roads. The squadron also recaptured another ship that a French privateer had captured in the Bay of Bengal. Lastly, after the French had driven the American ship Pacific onshore at River Noir, Adamant, Jupiter, and Tremendous came on the scene and sent in their boats, which removed much of Pacific's cargo of bale goods and sugar. The British then set the Pacific on fire.

In 1803 Tremendous proceeded to the East Indies, and on her return, on the 21st of April 1806, she fought an inconclusive action against Canonnière



The Action of 21 April 1806 as depicted by Pierre-Julien Gilbert.

In the foreground, HMS Tremendous aborts her attempt at raking Cannonière under the threat of being outmanoeuvred and raked herself by her more agile opponent. In the background, the Indiaman Charlton fires her parting broadside at Cannonière. The two events depicted in the painting were in fact separated by several hours.

On the13th of May she was present at the surrender of Naples during the Neapolitan War. A British squadron, consisting of Tremendous, the frigate Alcmene, the sloop Partridge, and the brig-sloop Grasshopper blockaded the port and destroyed all the gunboats there. Parliament voted a grant of £150,000 to the officers and men of the squadron for the property captured at the time, with the money being paid in May 1819.

However, on the 11th of December of 1806 Adamant had another successful encounter, when she destroyed the 36 gun La Preneuse off Mauritius.

In 1807 she went into Ordinary at Chatham for a large repair which turned into a complete reconstruction between 1807 and 1811 with Seppings diagonal frames. She was not recommissioned until the December of 1810 under Captain Robert Campbell for duty with Gore’s squadron off Lorient. Early in the September of that year, Primus, carrying tar and hemp, Worksam, in ballast, Experiment, carrying iron, Columbus, carrying linseed, Neptunus, carrying timber, and Hector, carrying sundry goods, came into Yarmouth. They were all prizes to Tremendous, Ranger, Calypso, Algerine, Musquito, Earnest. and Portia.

Fate.

At the commencement of 1812 she was off the Texel, but later that year on the 15th of August she sailed for the Med.
After a stint there she returned home to be paid off on the 8th of September, 1815. She underwent middling repairs at Chatham before being laid up at Sheerness in the September of 1819. She then became a receiving ship between 1822 and 1842 , after which she was renamed Grampus, and cut down into a 50 gun 4th Rate Frigate, and fitted for sea at Woolwich between 1844 and 1846. In 1866 she was fitted as a powder depot at Portsmouth, and lent to theWar Department for the stowage of Naval Mines in the December of 1883. She was finally sold out of the Navy to John Read in 1897.

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HMS Triumph (1764)


A sketch of HMS Triumph



HMS Triumph was the Class name ship of its type. A 74-gun third-rateship of the line, designed as a copy of the captured French ship L’ Invincible. Triumph was ordered on the 21st of May 1757, and built at Woolwich dockyard under M/shipwright Israel Pownoll until the May of 1762, and then completed by Joseph Harris. She was launched on the 3rd of March, 1764.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Triumph
Ordered:	21 May 1757
Builder:	Woolwich Dockyard
Launched:	3 March 1764
Honours and awards:	·Participated in: ·Battle of Camperdown ·Battle of Cape Finisterre (1805)
Fate:	Broken up, 1850
General characteristics
Class and type:	Triumph class ship of the line.
Tons burthen:	1825 (bm)
Length:	172 ft (52 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	49 ft 8 in (15.14 m)
Depth of hold:	22 ft 5 in (6.83 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns ·Upper gundeck: 30 × 24-pounder guns ·QD: 10 × 9-pounder guns ·Fc: 2 × 9-pounder guns

A proposal for a 74-gun two-decker third rate, based on Triumph



Service.


Triumph was commissioned in the January of 1771 for the Falkland Island dispute, but in the December of that year was fitted as a guardship at Sheerness.Between the August of 1778 and the March of 1779 she was refitted for wartime service. She was dispatched to the West Indies, and saw service both there and in North America until the November of 1781. Having been refitted and coppered , in the August of 1783 she was fitted as a guardship at Portsmouth.

Between the January’s of 1792 and 1795 she underwent a great repair, and during this time, was recommissioned in the November of 1794 under Captain Sir Erasmus Gower.

Between the 16th and 17th of June,1795 she took part in Cornwallis’s retreat.
Under the command of Captain William Essington from the September of 1797, she was ordered to the North sea where she took part in the Battle of Camperdown,on the 11th of October of that year, e suffering a total of 29 killed and 55 wounded.


In the May of 1799 she came under the command of Captain Thomas Seccombe as the Flagship of Vice Admiral Lord Collingwood from the June of that year in the Med. In 1800 Triumph came under Captain Eliab Harvey in the Channel, and in 1801 Captain Sir Robert Barlow until 1804.when she joined the Toulon blockade. Paid off in the April of that year she refitted at Portsmouth and was recommissioned under Captain Henry Inman in the April of 1805,
On the 22nd of July of that year Triumph was part of Admiral Calder's fleet at the Battle of Cape Finisterre, losing 5 killed and 6 wounded.
.

Following this she joined Strachan’s squadron in the chase of Leissegues and Willaumez. From the May of 1806 until 1809 Triumph was placed under the command of Captain Sir Thomas Hardy. During his tenure, in 1807, Strachan’s squadron sailed to Halifax, returning to join Beresford’s squadron off Lorient in the January of 1809 . She then passed to the command of Captain Samuel Hood Linzee and sailed for Portugal on the 22nd of April in that year.


During 1810 Triumph and Phipps, salvaged a load of elemental mercury from a wrecked Spanish vessel near Cadiz. The bladders containing the mercury soon ruptured, poisoning the crew with mercury vapour. She remained in the offing of Cadiz during 1811, but was paid off into ordinary at Plymouth in 1812, and fitted as a Lazarette between the July and October of 1813.

Fate.

Triumph was on harbour service at Milford Haven from 1813 onwards, and was not finally broken up at Pembroke until the June of 1850.

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HMS Valiant (1759)





Valiant



HMS Valiant was a 74-gun third rateship of the line, ordered on the 21st of May 1757,designed on the lines of the captured French ship Invincible and built by M/shipwright John Lock at Chatham Dockyard. She was launched on the10th of August ,1759.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Valiant
Ordered:	21 May 1757
Builder:	Chatham Dockyard
Launched:	10 August 1759
Fate:	Broken up, 1826
Notes:	Harbour service from 1799
General characteristics
Class and type:	Triumph Class ship of the Line.
Tons burthen: Length	1799 (bm) 139 ft 9in
Beam:	49 ft 4 in (15.14 m)
Depth of hold:	21 ft 2 3/4 in (6.83 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns Upper gundeck: 30 × 24-pounder guns QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns Fc: 2 × 9-pounder guns

Perspective (bow) View of the Valiant Man of War (ship model)


Service.



Commissioned in the August of 1759 under Captain William Brett. From 1761 she was under Captain Adam Duncan until paid off in 1764. During this time she served under Augustus Keppel during the Seven Years' War, and was with him at the Capture of Havana, in 1762.


In the July of 1764 she was paid off and underwent a large repair at Chatham between the October of 1771 and the May of 1775 . She was recommissioned in the November of 1777, and then was coppered at Portsmouth in 1780.


In 1782 she was under Captain Samuel Granston Goodall in Sir George Rodney’s Fleet at the Battle of the Saintes, which took place between the 9th and 12th of April of that year. During the action Valiant suffered a total of 10 killed and 28 wounded. In 1783 Valiant also served under Admiral Prince William in 1789. She was fitted for Channel service between the May and June of 1790 and recommissioned under HRH the Duke of Clarence for the Spanish Armament and then paid off once more. Recommissioned in 1793 under Captain Thomas Pringle for Howe’s Fleet, she fought at the Glorious First , off Ushant on the Ist of June,1794. Where she suffered 2 killed and 9 wounded.


On the 23rd of June 1795 she was in action again at the Ile Groix, and came under Captain James Larcom in the following month, and subsequently Captain Eliab Harvey in the September of that year. In the following August she sailed for Jamaica, and in 1797 under Captain Edmund Crawley, along with Thunderer, she destroyed the French 44 gun L’Harmonie at San Domingo.

In 1798 she captured the French 16 gun privateer corvette Magicienne.


Fate.


In 1799 under Captain John Crochet, on return to England she was fitted as a Lazarette at Chatham for duty at Stansgate creek, It is possible that she then served under Captain John Bligh in Jamaica from 1803 to 1804.
Valiant was eventually broken up at Sheerness in the April of 1826.