Third Rate ships of 74 guns.

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HMS Fame (1759)



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

History
Great Britain
Name:	HMS Fame
Ordered:	13 April 1756
Builder:	Bird, Deptford
Launched:	1 January 1759
Renamed:	HMS Guildford, December 1799
Honours and awards:	Participated in: Battle of Grenada Battle of the Saintes
Fate:	Sold out of the service, 1814
General characteristics
Class and type:	74-gun third rateship of the line
Tons burthen:	1565 ​89⁄94 (bm)
Length:	165 ft 6 in (50.44 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	46 ft 7 in (14.20 m)
Depth of hold:	19 ft 10 in (6.05 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	74 guns: Gundeck: 28 × 32 pdrs Upper gundeck: 28 × 18 pdrs Quarterdeck: 14 × 9 pdrs Forecastle: 4 × 9 pdrs

Naval career.

Fame was commissioned in the February of 1759.

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

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

She was again fitted for a guardship there in 1771.

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

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





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





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

Fate.

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

She was eventually sold out of the service on the 30th of September,1814 for the sum of £2,400.

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HMS Fortitude (1780)

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

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

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

Battle of the Dogger Bank.

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


French Revolutionary Wars.

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

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

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

Fate.

Fortitude was paid off in the November of that year. She was then reassigned to the role of a prison ship under acting Captain Thomas Boys. She was recommissioned with the same role in the June of 1798 under Lieutenant John Gourly. From the May of 1802 she was used as a Powder hulk at Portsmouth until finally broken up there in the March of 1820.
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HMS Ganges (1782)

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

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Ganges
Ordered:	14 July 1779
Builder:	Randall, Rotherhithe
Laid down:	April 1780
Launched:	30 March 1782
Fate:	Broken up, 1816
Notes:	·Participated in: ·Battle of Cape Spartel ·Battle of Copenhagen ·Second Battle of Copenhagen
General characteristics
Class and type:	Ganges-class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1678​53⁄94 or 1679 bm
Length:	169 ft 6 in (51.7 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 8 1⁄2 in (14.5 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft 3 in (6.2 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Complement:	590 officers and men
Armament:	·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns ·QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns ·Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

Service.


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

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

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

French Revolutionary Wars.

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

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

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

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



Ganges was one of the ships at Spithead in 1797.

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

Napoleonic Wars.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fate.

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

Ganges was broken up at Plymouth in the March of 1816.

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HMS Goliath (1781)

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

.

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

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

French Revolutionary Wars.

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

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

Napoleonic Wars.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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


Fate.

She then sailed for home, arriving in Portsmouth on the 25th of July, 1813 and departing only 15 days later with another West Indiesconvoy, calling at Falmouth on the 15th of August, and then Cork. She escorted the convoy across the Irish Sea, before heading back to Portsmouth, where she arrived on the 14th of August 1814, the Downs on the day following, and then onto the naval base at Chatham, where, on the 3rd of October she was paid off.
She was broken up there in the June of 1815.

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HMS Hannibal (1786)





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

History
Great Britain
Name:	HMS Hannibal
Ordered:	19 June 1782
Builder:	Perry, Blackwall Yard
Laid down:	April 1783
Launched:	15 April 1786
Honours and awards:	Participated in: First Battle of Algeciras
Captured:	6 July 1801 by the French at the First Battle of Algeciras
France
Name:	Annibal
Acquired:	6 July 1801
General characteristics
Class and type:	Culloden-class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1619​57⁄94 (bm)
Length:	170 ft (51.8 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 6 3⁄4 in (14.5 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft 0 in (6.1 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	· Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns · Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns · QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns · Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

Early service.



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



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

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

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



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



Defeat and loss.



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


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



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

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



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

French service.

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



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

Fate.

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





HMS Hannibal (left foreground) lies aground and dismasted at the First Battle of Algeciras

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HMS Hector (1774)



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

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

Career.


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

During the Hurricane of 1780 she was somewhat damaged.


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



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


Going aboard Hector in 1791

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



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



Fate.



In 1802, under Captain William Skipsey Hector was paid off and laid up at Plymouth, where she was converted for use as a prison ship under Lt. Edmond Nepean in 1808, and then under Lieutenants. Lighterness and Elers until she was finally broken up in 1816.

[Bligh]

HMS Illustrious (1789)

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

Model of HMS Illustrious at Buckler's Hard Maritime Museum

History
Great Britain
Name:	HMS Illustrious
Ordered:	31 December 1781
Builder:	Adams, Bucklers Hard
Laid down:	September 1784
Launched:	7 July 1789
Fate:	Wrecked, 1795
Notes:	·Participated in: ·Battle of Genoa
General characteristics
Class and type:	Edgar classship of the line
Tons burthen:	1615 ​51⁄94 tonnes burthen
Length:	168 ft 2 in (51.26 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	46 ft 11 in (14.30 m)
Draught:	12 ft 6 in (3.81 m)
Depth of hold:	19 ft 9 in (6.02 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	·74 guns: ·Gundeck: 28 × 32 pdrs ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18 pdrs ·Quarterdeck: 14 × 9 pdrs ·Forecastle: 4 × 9 pdrs

Service.

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



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


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

Loss.

After the battle, Meleager was towing Illustrious when she broke free of her tow. Then the accidental firing of a lower deck gun damaged the ship so that she took on water. On the 18^th of March, she attempted to anchor in Valence Bay (between Spezia and Leghorn) to ride out the bad weather that had descended upon her. Her cables broke, however, and she struck on rocks and had to be abandoned. Lowestoffe and Tarleton took off her stores, and all her crew were saved. Her abandoned hull was then burnt on the 28^th of March, 1795.