Third Rate ships of 74 guns.

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HMS Leviathan (1790)



HMS Leviathan was a Carnatic Class, 3rd rate, 74 gun ship of the line of the Common Type, ordered on the 9^th of December 1779, and built in the Royal Dockyard, Chatham, by M/shipwright Nicholas Phillips to the July of 1790 and completed by John Nelson. She was launched there on the 9^th of October of that year.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Leviathan
Ordered:	9 December 1779
Builder:	Chatham Dockyard
Laid down:	May 1782
Launched:	9 October 1790
Honours and awards:	·Participated in: ·Battle of Trafalgar
Fate:	Sold and broken up, 1848
General characteristics
Class and type:	Carnatic classship of the line
Tons burthen:	1707​89⁄94 (bm)
Length:	172 ft 3 in (52.50 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 10 in (14.55 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft 9 in (6.3 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

Career.

HMS Leviathan was commissioned in the January of 1793 under Captain Hugh Conway and fitted at Sheerness until the April of that year. On the 22^nd of May she sailed for the Med and with the aid of HMS Colossus took the French Privateer Le Vrai Patriot in the July of that year. By October she was under the command of Captain Benjamin hallowell at Toulon, and then returned to Portsmouth for a refit in the April of 1794.

Her next action saw her at the Battle of the Glorious First of June, off Ushant under Captain Lord Hugh Seymour, losing ten killed and thirty three wounded.
In 1795 her Captain was Captain John Duckworth under whom she sailed to the Caribbean and Jamaica on the 14^th of May of that year.



In 1796 she was at Leogane on the 23^rd of March, and thence returned to Plymouth for a refit completed in the August of 1797, when she came under the Captaincy of Joseph Bingham on the the Irish station, with Duckworth flying his broad pennant aboard her.

On the 10^th of September in that year, Leviathan, Pompee, Anson, Melpomene, and Childers shared in the proceeds of the capture of the Tordenskiold.



Later whilst under the command of Captain Henry Digby, on the 2^nd of June,1798, she sailed once again for the Med. She was at the capture of Minorca in the November of that year, and in February 1799 was made Flagship of the now Rear Admiral Duckworth, Captain James May. He was superceeded by Captain James Carpenter who commanded her at the blockade of Cadiz, where she took, with the aid of HMS Emerald, the 36 gun ships Carmen and Florentina on the 7^th of April 1800. In June under Commander Edward D King she sailed for the leeward Islands, and then in 1801, sailed firstly under Commander Christopher Cole, and in 1802 Captain Richard Dunn still in the role of Duckworth’s Flagship. She was paid off in the December of 1803 for a much needed refit at Portsmouth, and recommissioned in the January of 1804 under Captain Henry Bayntun.

She sailed for the Med on the 26^th of April in time to take part in the blockade of Toulon, and then in Nelson’s chase of Gantheaume to the West Indies .

At the Battle of Trafalgar still under Henry William Bayntun, she was near the front of the weather column led by Admiral Lord Nelson himself, aboard his flagship, HMS Victory, and captured the Spanish ship San Augustin. During the battle she lost four killed and twenty two wounded. A flag said to have been flown by the Leviathan at Trafalgar was sold at auction by Arthur Cory in March 2016. Bayntun is thought to have given it to his friend the Duke of Clarence (later William IV), who then gave it to Arthur Cory's direct ancestor Nicholas Cory, a senior officer on William's royal yacht HMS Royal Sovereign, in thanks for helping the yacht win a race and a bet.



After repairs at Plymouth n 1808 she was recommissioned under Captain John Harvey and returned to the Med. On the 7^th of February, 1809 Leviathan was serving in Martin’s squadron, and on the 23^rd of October of that year she was in the attack on Baudin’s convoy. On the 25^th the 80 gun Robuste, and 74 gun Le Lion were run ashore and burnt near Frontignan.

In the August of 1811 under Captain Patrick Campbell, Leviathan’s boats attacked shipping near Frejus.


On 27 June 1812, Leviathan, HMS Imperieuse, HMS Curacoa and HMS Eclair attacked an 18-strong French convoy at Laigueglia and Alassio in Liguria, northern Italy.



Attack on convoy of eighteen French merchant ships at Laigrelia, 1812

In 1814 she was again on the Jamaica station under Captain Adam Drummond and in April of that year at Lisbon under Captain Thomas Briggs. Thence back to the Med until 1816 when she was paid off.

Fate.

With the end of the Napoleonic Wars, in the October of 1816 at Portsmouth she was converted into a prison ship, was scuttled there as a target ship in 1846 and in 1848 was sold to a Mr Burns and broken up.

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HMS Magnificent (1766)

HMS Magnificent was a Ramillies-class 74-gun third-rate ship of the line Designed by Sir Thomas Slade. She was ordered on the 16^th of December, 1761, M/shipwright Adam Hayes, and was launched on the 20^th of September, 1766 at Deptford Dockyard. She was one of the ships built to update the Navy and replace those lost in the Seven Years' War.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Magnificent
Ordered:	16 December 1761
Builder:	Deptford Dockyard
Laid down:	15 April 1762
Launched:	20 September 1766
Commissioned:	July 1778
Fate:	Wrecked off Brest, 25 March 1804
Notes:	·Participated in: ·Battle of Grenada ·Battle of Martinique ·Battle of the Saintes
General characteristics
Class and type:	Ramillies-classship of the line
Tons burthen:	1612​64⁄94 (bm)
Length:	168 ft 6 in (51.36 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:	·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns ·QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns ·Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

On completion she was laid up at Sheerness on the 22^nd of September 1766. It was not until after small repairs between the February of 1772 and the November of 1774 that she was finally fitted for sea in the September of 1778.

On 21 December 1779, HMS Magnificent with the 74-gun ships HMS Suffolk and HMS Vengeance, and the 64-gun HMS Stirling Castle under Rear-Admiral Joshua Rowley, fell in with the 32-gun French frigates Fortunee and Blanche and the 28-gun Elise, when off Guadeloupe. The French ships were in bad order; their crews were excessively weak; and thus they could not escape the vastly superior British force. The Blanche was overtaken and captured on the evening of the 21st; the Fortunes, by throwing her quarter-deck guns overboard, kept away a little longer, but was captured at last in the early morning of 22 December, an hour before the Elise.

Magnificent ‘s war service in the American Revolution was conducted with Admiral Rodney’s fleet in the Caribbean, where under Captain John Elphinstone she served in the vanguard at battle off Grenada in 1779. Martinique on the 17^th of April1780, and The Saintes under Captain Robert Linzee between the 9th and 11th of April, 1782, where she suffered six killed and eleven wounded.

Paid off again in 1783 after wartime service, she was coppered and fitted at Portsmouth between the October of 1784 and April of 1785. Recommissioned in the June of 1787 under Captain George Berkeley, she was designated as a guardship at Portsmouth. She then passed to the command of Captain Richard Onslow at Weymouth between the July and August of 1789. Paid off in 1791 she was sent to Chatham for repairs in 1794 which were completed in the July of 1795. Recommissioned in the June of that year under Captain Matthew Squire for Channel service, she was paid off once more in the March of 1796 for a middling repair.

The Napoleonic Wars.

From the August of 1798 Magnificent was under Captain Edward Bowater. Magnificent ‘s duties mainly consisted of blockade work off the French coast, because at Plymouth between the March of 1796 and the October of 1798, the ship had received a complete overhaul designed to extend her service life and improve her ability at performing these close blockade duties.

After a recommission in the July of 1799 under Captain Peter Bover, in the March of 1801, Magnificent next came under the command of Captain John Giffard upon his transfer from HMS Active. Early in 1802, she sailed for the Leeward Islands, arriving at the time of the 8th West India Regiment revolt in Dominica where they had killed three officers, imprisoned the others and taken over Fort Shirley. On the day following, HMS Magnificent, which was anchored in Prince Rupert's Bay sent a party of marines ashore to restore order. The mutineers fired upon the Magnificent with no effect. On the 12th of April, Governor Cochrane entered Fort Shirley with the Royal Scots Regiment and the 68th Regiment of Foot. The rebels were drawn up on the Upper Battery of Fort Shirley with three of their officers as prisoners and presented arms to the other troops. They obeyed Cochrane's command to ground their arms but refused his order to step forward. The mutineers picked up their arms and fired a volley. Shots were returned, followed by a bayonet charge that broke their ranks and a close range fire fight ensued. Those mutineers who tried to escape over the precipice to the sea were exposed to grape-shot and canister fire from Magnificent. The 74-gunExcellent, the frigate Severn, and the sloop Gaiete assisted Magnificent, also supplying marines.


At the close of that year she returned to Portsmouth, and was recommissioned in the May of 1803 under Captain William Ricketts Jervis.

On the morning of 25 March 1804, during her duties blockading the French port of Brest, commanded by Captain Jervis, Magnificent, struck an uncharted reef close to the Black Rocks that bordered the port and rapidly began to founder.



Loss of the Magnificent by John Christian Schetky


The rest of the blockading squadron closed on her and rescued the majority of her crew, the remainder taking to the boats as the ship went down, only one and a half hours after hitting the reef, at about 10.30am. Although the whole crew survived, one boat carrying 86 men became separated from the rest and was driven ashore by the prevailing wind and tide, where the men were taken prisoner and remained captives of the French for almost a decade.

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HMS Majestic (1785)

HMS Majestic was a Modified Canada Class 74-gun third-rate ship of the line, ordered on the 23^rd of July 1781, originally designed by William Batley, M/shipwright William Barnard. She was launched on the 11^th of December, 1785 at Deptford

GREAT BRITAIN.
Name:	HMS Majestic
Ordered:	23 August 1781
Builder:	Adams & Barnard, Deptford
Laid down:	June 1782
Launched:	11 December 1785
Honours and awards:	Participated in: Battle of the Nile
Fate:	Broken up, April 1816
General characteristics
Class and type:	Canada-class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1623 (bm)
Length:	170 ft (52 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	46 ft 9 in (14.25 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft 6 in (6.25 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	As third rate: Gundeck (GD): 28 × 32-pounder guns Upper gundeck (UG): 28 × 18-pounder guns QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns As fourth rate: GD: 28 × 42-pounder carronades UG: 28 × 32-pounder guns QD: 2 × 12-pounder guns

Career.

In 1790, Majestic came under the command of Captain William Waldegrave before being partly fitted, and then undergoing a very small unspecified repair at Chatham costing £4,581.8.5d., between the September of 1790 and October 1791.

Commissioned under Captain Charles Cotton, for Howe’s Fleet at the Glorious First of June on the 1st of June, 1794, she lost 3 killed and 18 wounded during the action.

In the January of 1795, under Captain George Westcott, Majestic became the flagship of Vice Admiral Benjamin Caldwell on the Leeward Islands station. She was later the flagship of Admiral Sir John Laforey before returning from the West Indies in the March of 1796.

On the 8^th of January 1797 in the company of several other ships she sank the French storeship Le Suffren off Brest.

After making repairs at Plymouth, in the of that year she set sail for the Med, where on the 14^th of November she captured the 16 gun El Bolador.

Her next encounter with the enemy came on the 1^st of August, 1798, at the Battle of the Nile, where she engaged the French ships Tonnant and Heureux, helping to force their surrenders. She was still under the captaincy of George Blagdon Westcott, who was unfortunately killed in the battle along with 50 of the crew and with a further 143 wounded.



Tonnant at the Battle of the Nile, by Louis Lebreton. HMS Majestic is seen in the background.


She then came under the command of Lt. Robert Cuthbert, acting from the 1^st of August until the July of 1779. On 22 February of that year , Majestic was in sight when Espoir, under the command of Captain James Sanders, captured the Spanish 14-gun xebec Africa some three leagues (14 km) from Marbello on the Spanish coast. Captain Cuthbert, of Majestic, transmitted Sanders's letter, adding his own endorsement extolling "the meritorious Conduct of Captain Sanders and his Ship's Company on the Occasion." Espoir and Majestic shared the prize money for the xebec, whose full name was Nostra Senora de Africa.

On 4 April, Majestic and Transfer destroyed a French privateer of unknown name. Head money was paid in 1828, almost 30 years later.

From the July of 1799 command devolved upon Captain George Hope, until she was paid off at Naples in the December of that year.

Recommissioned in the March of 1801, under Captain Davidge Gould she served for a time in the Channel, before sailing for the West Indies on the 11^th of February 1802. She was again paid off in the October of that year, and in the June of 1803 came under the captaincy of Lord Amelius Beauclerk and then in the following year, temporarily Captain Edward Hawker. On the 11^th of November, C,and Glatton, together with Eagle, Princess of Orange, Raisonable, Africiane, Inspector, Beaver, and the hired armed vessels Swift and Agnes, shared in the capture of Upstalsboom, whose Master was one H.L. De Haase.
In 1805, Captain Joseph Hanwell commanded Majestic as the Flagship of Vice Admiral Thomas Macnamara Russell in the North Sea.

In 1807, still acting as Russell’s Flagship, she came under the captaincy of George Hart. On the 4^th of September of that year, Majestic, anchored off the Island of Heligoland, enforcing its capitulation to the British.
She then had a quick succession of captains during 1808 until coming under Captain Frederic Watkins command in the January of 1809 in the Baltic. Later that year under Captain Thomas Harvey her boats took the two gun Spider .
Having been paid off and laid up at Chatham in the January of 1810, Majestic was razeed into a 58-gun fourth-rate frigate between the January and May of 1813. She was then refitted for sea, and under Captain John Hayes sailed for North America on the second of June of that year.

On the 3^rd of February, 1814, Majestic encountered the French frigates Terpsichore and Atalante, a 20-gun ship, and an apparently unarmed brig. Majestic was able to catch up with and engage the stern-most of the French vessels. After an engagement lasting two and a half hours, the frigate struck. She turned out to be the Terpsichore, of 44 guns and 320 men, under the command of "capitaine de frigate Breton Francois de Sire". In the action, Terpsichore lost three men killed, six wounded, and two drowned as the prisoners were being transported to Majestic; British casualties were nil. Because of the weather and the approach of night, Majestic was unable to pursue the other three French vessels, which therefore escaped. The Royal Navy named Terpsichore HMS Modeste, but never commissioned her.

On 22 May 1814 Majestic recaptured the former British naval schooner Dominica,sailing as a privateer under American colours, the American privateer Decatur having captured her in the year previous. At the time of her recapture, Dominica was sailing under letters of marque, had a crew of 38 men, and was armed with four 6-pounder guns. With HMS Endymion and others she also took the USS President on the 15^th of January, 1815.

Fate.

Paid off in the July of 1815, Majestic was finally broken up at Pembroke in the April of 1816 after stranding.

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HMS Minotaur (1793)





HMS Minotaur was a 74-gun third-rate Carnatic class ship of the line, designed on the lines of the French Courageux 74. Ordered on the 3rd of December, 1782, she was built by Woolwich dockyard. Her M/shipwright was John Nelson until the August of 1790 and thereafter to her completion by William Rule. Minotaur was launched on the 6^th of November, 1793 at Woolwich, and she was named after the mythological bull-headed monster of Crete.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Minotaur
Ordered:	3 December 1782
Builder:	Woolwich Dockyard
Laid down:	January 1788
Launched:	6 November 1793
Honours and awards:	·Participated in: ·Battle of the Nile ·Battle of Trafalgar ·Battle of Copenhagen (1807) ·Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Egypt"
Fate:	Wrecked, 22 December 1810
General characteristics
Class and type:	Carnatic class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1723 (bm)
Length:	172 ft 3 in (52.50 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 9 in (14.55 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft 9 1⁄2 in (6.3 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.

Minotaurwas Commissioned in the February of 1794, under Captain Thomas Louis, as the Flagship of Rear Admiral John Macbride in Montagu’s Squadron. Then from the August of 1795 under the temporary captaincy of Captain Charles Jones she joined Vice Admiral William Waldegrave as his Flagship in the West Indies.


On the 26th of September, 1795 Minotaur and Porcupine recaptured the Walsingham Packet. The French corvette brig Insolent, of 18 guns and 90 men, had previously captured her, whilst she was sailing from Falmouth to Lisbon on the 13th of September. Insolent, herself, narrowly escaped being captured at the recapture of the Walsingham Packet, narrowly slipping into Lorient as the British ships steadily closed their range upon her.



Minotaur was involved in the mutiny at Spithead during the April and May of 1797, but in the June of that year sailed for the Med. During the Battle of the Nile on the 1st^t of August, 1798, she fought an engagement alongside HMS Theseus forcing the French 74 Aquilon to surrender. In the battle Minotaur lost a total of 23 men killed and 64 wounded.



Later that year Minotaur served at the blockade of Malta, and in the September of 1799 at Naples became the Flagship of Vice Admiral Lord George Keith. After the French surrendered Rome on the 29^th of September, Captain Thomas Louis had his barge crew row him up the Tiber River where he raised the Union Jack over the Capitol.
In the May of 1800, Minotaur still under Vice-Admiral Keith took part in the siege of Genoa. On the 28^th of April, the squadron captured the Proteus, just off the city, and on the 3^rd of September. Her ships boats accompanied with those from the HMS Niger succeeded in cutting out the Esmeralda and Paz at Barcelona.



Having then sailed to Egypt, . Minotaur on the 8th of January, 1801 witnessed the Penelope’s capture of the French bombard St. Roche, which was carrying wine, liqueurs, ironware, Delft cloth, and various other merchandise, from Marseilles to Alexandria. As the HMS Swiftsure, Tigre, Minotaur, Northumberland, Florentina, and the schooner Malta, were all in sight at the time they thus all qualified for a share in the proceeds from the capture.



She was also present at the landings in Aboukir Bay during the invasion of Egypt in 1801 where she lost a total of three men killed, and six wounded. Because Minotaur 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 to all surviving claimants.
Having returned to Chatham for minor repairs between the March and November of 1802, she was recommissioned in the march of 1803 under Captain Charles John Moore Mansfield, who remained in command until 1807. Sailing to take up service in the channel, on the 28th of May, 1803 Minotaur, in company with Thunderer, and later joined by Albion, captured the French frigate LaFranchise. 33 days out of Port-au-Prince, and being pierced for twenty-eight 12-pounder guns on her main deck and sixteen 9-pounders on her quarterdeck and forecastle, ten of which were stowed in her hold. She had a crew of 187 men under the command of one Captain Jurien.



Minotaur was present at the surrender of the French garrison at Civitavecchia on 21 September 1804. She shared the prize money for the capture of the town and fortress with Culloden, Mutine, Transfer, and the bomb vesselPerseus. The British also captured the French polacca Il Reconniscento.



On the 21^st of October 1805 Minotaur, under Captain Mansfield, saw action in the Battle of Trafalgar, Minotaur was towards the rear of Nelson's wing of the fleet just ahead of Spartiate and astern of the Prince of Wales. Before the commencement of the battle Mansfield had promised his crew that he would “stick to any ship he engaged till either she strikes or sinks – or I sink". Late in the battle and aided by Spartiate he deliberately interposed the Minotaur between the damaged HMS Victory and Dumanoir’s attacking French ships. Minotaur also managed to isolate the 80 gun Spanish ship Neptuno and was responsible for causing the Spanish ship, to strike her colours. However, Neptuno's crew were able to recaptured her shortly afterwards in the storm that occurred after the battle. The total of Minotaur’s losses in this Pell Mell action was surprisingly light. In all she only suffered 3 killed and 23 wounded.



For his gallantry in this action, Mansfield was later awarded a sword and gold medal. Both of which can now be seen displayed at the National Maritime Museum.



During 1806 Minotaur became the Flagship of Rear Admiral John Child Purvis in the Med, and in 1807 Minotaur went on to serve as the flagship of Rear-Admiral William Essington on the Lisbon station, and then in the Copenhagen expedition in the August of that year. At the end of 1807 she came under the command of Captain Norborn Thompson and then temporarily under Captain Robert Neve. From the December of that year she came under Thompson once more as Flagship to Vice Admiral Sir Charles Cotton in the North sea during 1808.



Then during the Anglo-Russian War, on the 25th of July 1809, Minotaur, now under the command of Captain John Barrett, took part in an action where some 17 boats from the British Baltic squadron consisting of Minotaur, Princess Caroline, Cerberus and Prometheus, under the overall command of Captain Charles Pater, attacked a flotilla of four Russian gunboats and a brig offf Aspö Head near Fredrickshaven in the Grand Duchy of Finland, Russia (present-day Hamina, Finland). Captain Forrest of Prometheus commanded the boats and succeeded in capturing gunboats Nos. 62, 65, and 66, and the transport brig No. 11. In the action the British lost 19 men killed and 51 wounded, and the Russians lost 28 men killed and 59 wounded. Minotaur alone lost eight men killed and had 30 wounded, of whom, four died of their wounds during the next few days.

In 1847 the Admiralty issued the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "25 July Boat Service 1809" to surviving claimants from the action.




The shipwreck of the Minotaur, oil on canvas, by J. M. W. Turner

Fate.


Whilst sailing from Gothenburg to Britain, still under the command of John Barrett, Minotaur in darkness and heavy weather struck the Haak Bank, or Razende Bol, on the Texel off the Netherlands, then part of the First French Empire, in the evening of the 22^nd of December, 1810, after becoming separated from her consorts, HMS Plantagenet and Loire. Minotaur grounded on the sand, rolled onto her side and rapidly began to take on water. All the masts were cut away to lighten the ship and lower her centre of gravity, however, whilst carrying out this process several of her boats were damaged or destroyed. Despite this action, by the early hours of the morning the ship had taken on so much water that her forecastle was awash. Waves battered her hull, and about 8:00am, the hull began to break up. The crew, having taking refuge on the poop deck, attempted to evacuate from the ship by using the only remaining Launch and a couple of Yawls. Firstly 32 men escaped aboard one of the yawls. On reaching the Dutch coast, another eighty-five men observing this took to the Launch and they were also successful in making it to the shore. Finally, Captain Barrett, accompanied by almost hundred of the remaining crew, attempted to achieve the same result by using the remaining Yawl. Unfortunately, the Yawl was overwhelmed by the heavy seas, and all the men aboard her were drowned including the Captain. At about 14:00hrs, the Minotaur turned turtle, drowning the remaining members of her crew. The 110 men of her crew who had survived informed the Dutch authorities about the disaster. This resulted in a further twenty survivors being rescued by a pilot vessel. The authorities placed the survivors under custody and refused to hazard further rescue vessels until the following morning. On doing so they discovered, that apart from four men who had reached shore by clinging onto floating wreckage, there were no further survivors on the vessel, or in the surrounding waters. The death toll amounted to somewhere between 370 and 400 souls all told. All of the survivors were dispatched to France as prisoners of war.




The Noorderhaaks bank, in the mouth of the Texel, is today an island

Footnote.



Some three and a half years later, on the release of the imprisoned seamen, a Courts Martial was held to apportion the blame for the loss of the Minotaur. The court concluded that the blame for steering the ship into an unsafe position, resulting in her loss, devolved solely onto the shoulders of the deceased pilots, due to them having misjudged their location by more than 60 miles, which mistake had been induced by the inclement weather at the time.

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HMS Monarch (1765)

HMS Monarch was a 74-gun Ramillies Class third rate ship of the line,designed by Sir Thomas Slade. Ordered on the 22nd of November 1760, and built by M/shipwright Adam Hayes at Deptford Dockyard. She was launched on the 20th of July, 1765.

History.
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Monarch
Ordered:	22 November 1760
Builder:	Deptford Dockyard
Launched:	20 July 1765
Fate:	Broken up, 1813
General characteristics.
Class and type:	Ramillies-class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1612 bm
Length:	168 ft 6 in (51.36 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 pdrs Upper gundeck: 28 × 18 pdrs Quarterdeck: 14 × 9 pdrs Forecastle: 4 × 9 pdrs

Monarch was commissioned, after a small repair at Portsmouth, in the October of 1776, initially as a guardship there until the October of 1777. Following this she had a very active career, fighting in her first battle on the 27th of July, 1778 at the Battle of Ushant under Admiral Kepple and her second, captained by Adam Duncan, later First Viscount Duncan, under Admiral Rodney at Cape St. Vincent on the 16th of January, 1780. Monarch suffered 3 killed and 26 wounded.

In the May of 1780 she was coppered and refitted at Portsmouth.
She fought in the van of Graves' fleet at the Battle of the Chesapeake, also known as the Battle of the Virginia Capes, under Captain Francis Reynolds on the 5th of September 1781, and received no casualties in the battle.



Jong(1807) - Zeegevecht (near Sint Eustatius Island, 1781)

In the February of 1781 was actively engaged at the Capture of Sint Eustatius, under Admiral Sir George Rodney, the Battle of Saint Kitts, also known as the Battle of Frigate Bay, which took place on the 25th and 26th of January,1782 during the American Revolutionary War between a British fleet under Rear-Admiral Sir Samuel Hood and a larger French fleet under the Comte de Grasse. Next up was the Battle of the Saintes (known to the French as the Bataille de la Dominique), or Battle of Dominica, which was an important naval battle in the Caribbean between the British and the French that took place from the 9th to the 12th of April, of that year. Monarch still under Captain Francis Reynolds, serving with the British fleet under Admiral Sir George Rodney defeated a French fleet under the Comte de Grasse, forcing the French and Spanish to abandon a planned invasion of Jamaica. Casualties for Monarch amounted to 16 killed and 33 wounded.

Between the August of 1787 and the January of 1790 Monarch underwent a great repair at Chatham.
She was fitted for Channel service in the July of that year under Captain Peter Rainier and paid off in the September of 1791. The next change was when she was recommissioned in the December of 1792 under Captain Sir James Wallace. Fitted as a Guardship in the January of 1793, she, however, sailed for the Leeward Islands. From the 5th of February to the 24th of March 1794, she took part in the attack on Martinique.



The Capture of Fort Saint Louis, Martinique, 20 March 1794' painting by William Anderson


Wallace was appointed a Rear Admiral in the April following the surrender, and from that date Monarch came under Captain Frank Sotheron as Wallace’s Flagship.

In the April of 1795, she changed command to Captain John Elphinstone, as Flagship of Rear Admiral Sir George Elphinstone and sailed for the Cape of Good Hope. On arrival she was deployed as part of the small fleet under Admiral Elphinstone at the capture of the Cape of Good Hope from the Dutch East India Company at the Battle of Muizenberg. Major-General Sir James Henry Craig was supported by Craig's forces were supplemented with 1,000 sailors from Elphinstone's squadron redeployed on land under captains Temple Hardy and John William Spranger. Among this force were a number of American citizens who immediately deserted to the Dutch and were promised repatriation. At noon on 7 August, HMS America, HMS Stately, HMS Echo and HMS Rattlesnake opened fire on Dutch forward positions. Return fire from Dutch field guns killed two men on America and wounded three more, while Craig's troops were able to advance against the Dutch positions and seize them, with the Dutch defenders falling back in confusion. A second attack by soldiers of the 78th captured a rocky height nearby and a Dutch counterattack the following morning was driven off by Hardy's sailors and marines. The Dutch Governor finally capitulated on the 15th of September.

On the 17^th of August 1796 Monarch aided in the capture of Lucas’s Squadron at Saldanha Bay.
She sailed for home and was refitted at Portsmouth, and from the August of 1797 came under the command of Captain Edward O’Brien as Vice Admiral Richard Onslow's flagship in the Lee coloumn at the Battle of Camperdown, on the 11th of October, 1797 where she lost 36 men killed and 100 wounded.
In the October of 1798 Monarch was in the North Sea under Captain Samuel Sutton, and from the May of 1799 under Captain Archibald Collingwood she served as the Flagship of Sir Archibald Dickson.


HMS Monarch in the lead, forcing the Passage of the Sound, 30 March 1801, prior to the Battle of Copenhagen

On the 2^nd of April,1801 she was part of Admiral Nelson's fleet at the Battle of Copenhagen, where her then captain, James Robert Mosse was killed as she suffered over 200 casualties including 55 dead, which was the highest number of casualties of any ship engaged in the battle.

Having made good her damage at Chatham,in the August of that same year she came under firstly Captain Thomas Peyton and then in November Captain Peter Puget.

After another refit in 1803 she came under Captain John Clarke Searle as the Flagship to Admiral Lord Keith in catamaran attempts on invasion craft berthed at Boulogne on the 1st of August, 1804.
Under Captain Richard Lee she took part in a boats attack on the Gironde on the 15^th of July 1806 resulting in the capture of the 16 gun Le Cesar.

In Sir Sydney Smith’s squadron at Lisbon in the November of 1807, she helped escort the Portuguese royal family in its flight from Portugal to Brazil.

Fate.

In 1809 she took part in the Walcheren operations. After som further time in the North sea she was paid off in 1812.
Monarch was broken up at Chatham in the March of 1813.

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HMS Montagu (1779)





HMS Montagu by Serres, Dominic.



HMS Montagu was a 74-gun Alfred Class third rateship of the line,designed by Sir John Williams and ordered on the 16th of July, 1774. Built at Chatham dockyard by M/shipwright Israel Pownoll until the April of1779 and then completed by Nicholas Phillips. She was launched on the 28th of August, 1779.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Montagu
Ordered:	16 July 1774
Builder:	Chatham Dockyard
Laid down:	30 January 1775
Launched:	28 August 1779
Fate:	Broken up, 1818
Notes:	·Participated in: ·Battle of Cape St Vincent ·Glorious First of June
General characteristics
Class and type:	Alfred-classship of the line
Tons burthen:	1631 (bm)
Length:	169 ft (51.5 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 2 in (14.4 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft (6 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

HMS Montagu was commissioned in the August of 1779.
Her first action was on the 16^th of January.1780 when she took part in the Battle of Cape St Vincent. , under Captain John Houlton. She suffered no losses during the battle.


She was driven ashore and damaged at Saint Lucia in the Great Hurricane of 1780 in the Antilles, but recovered.


She was paid off in 1782 after wartime service.


Between the November of 1782 and the June of 1783 she underwent repairs at Portsmouth.


She was not recommissioned until the February of 1793 under Captain James Montagu and then joined Admiral Howe’s fleet. On the 1^st of June 1794 she took part in te battle of The Glorious First of June off Ushant. In this action she lost 4 killed, including Montagu, and 13 wounded. After the battle Lt Ross Donnelly became acting captain for a short period. Later in 1794 she came under the command of Captain William Fooks and sailed for the Leeward Islands on the 25^th of October in that year. On the 30^th of October Montague and Ganges captured the French corvette Le Jacobine. Jacobine was armed with twenty-four 12-pounder guns, and had a crew of 220 men; she was only nine days out of Brest and had taken no prizes. The Royal Navy took Jacobin into service as HMS Matilda.

Paid off in November 1795 for a small repair she recommissioned in the August of 1796 under Captain John knight.

At the Battle of Camperdown, on the 11^th of October 1797, in the Lee Division, Montagu, still under John Knight’s command, suffered slight damage and had three men killed and five wounded.

On the 2^nd of June in the following year she sailed for the Med, where she remained until the end of 1779 under the command of Captain Charles Patterson.

In 1801 under Captain Robert Cuthbert she sailed for Jamaica. In the March of that year under Captain Edmond Nagle in Calder’s squadron, Montagu was in hot pursuit of Ganteaume’s squadron.

After her return to Portsmouth between the January of 1802 and the March of 1803 she was undergoing major repairs.I suspect from this painting below that she had been involved in a great storm which would account for the time spent in dock, but only have the above reference to her repairs to go upon.
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The situation of H.M. Ship Montagu at 10 mins after 12 o'clock on the night of the 13th February 1801 off Cape Ortagol


Recommissioned in the March of 1803 under Captain Robert Otway, she took part in the blockade of Brest, and the attempt on the French Fleet on the 21^st of August, 1803.


She was in Strachan’s squadron from May to September 1806, and then refitted at Portsmouth from May to June 1807. From here, as the Flagship of Rear Admiral George Martin she sailed for the Med on the 3^rd of June.

In 1809 she was still in the Med now commanded by Captain Richard Moubray, and then in 1811 by Captain John Halliday.

After a small repair and refit for Foreign service at Chatham between the December of that year and the April of 1812, she was placed under the command of Captain Manley Hall Dixon, as Flagship of Rear Admiral Manley Dixon and sailed for South America on the15th of May of that year.She served in Brazil until 1813 , and then in the North sea from the July of that year under Captain Peter Heywood, and afterwards in the Mediterranean under Lord Exmouth, until July 1816 when she was paid off and laid up at Chatham.


Fate.


Montagu was broken up there in 1818.

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HMS Orion (1787)

Model of HMS Orion at the Vancouver Maritime Museum

HMS Orion was a Canada-class 74-gun third rateship of the line, designed by William Batley. Ordered on the 2^nd of October, 1782, M/shipwright William Barnard. She was launched at Deptford on the first of June, 1787.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Orion
Ordered:	2 October 1782
Builder:	Barnard, Deptford
Laid down:	February 1783
Launched:	1 June 1787
Honours and awards:	·Participated in: ·Glorious First of June ·Battle of Groix ·Battle of Cape St. Vincent ·Battle of the Nile ·Battle of Trafalgar
Fate:	Broken up, 1814
General characteristics
Class and type:	Canada classship of the line
Tons burthen:	1646 (bm)
Length:	170 ft (52 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	46 ft 9 in (14.25 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft 6 in (6.25 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

Completed on the 1^st of November 1787 she was fitted as a guardship at Plymouth and commissioned in the July of 1788 under Captain Andrew Southerland. Continuing as a guardship from 1789 until the end of the Spanish armament under Captain Charles Chamberlayne , she was recommissioned in the September of 1791 under Captain john Duckworth sailing for the Leeward Islands in the March of 1793.She took the privateer Le Sans-Culotte off the American coast on the 25^th of August of that year before returning to home waters.

On the first of June,1794 she fought in Howe’s Fleet at the Glorious First of June , still under Captain Duckworth, suffering three killed but no wounded.

In early 1795, Captain James Saumarez was appointed to the command of Orion. She took part in Bridport’s defeat of the French fleet at the Battle of Groix off Lorient on the 23^rd of June, and also at the blockades of Brest and Rochefort.
Having been refitted at Portsmouth, Orion sailed for the Med on the 4^th of January, 1797. she joined the Mediterranean Fleet and distinguished herself at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent on the14th of February, losing only 9 men wounded. She then took part in the blockade of Cadiz from the March of 1797 until the April of 1798, when she was dispatched to the Med once again as part of a small squadron under the command of Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson. On the 1^st of August of that year, Nelson finally caught up with the French fleet, resulting in the Battle of the Nile. Orion lost 13 killed and 29 wounded of which Captain Saumarez was one.

Paid off in 1799 for a refit at Plymouth she was recommissioned in the March of 1801. Between the 31^st of March. 1801 and the 10^th of July, 1802, the Surgeon's First Mate on board the Orion was Henry Plowman. On the 15^th of January, 1802, whilst still on board the Orion, anchored at Spithead, he wrote his will which is witnessed by his Captain, Robert Cuthbert.

After a refit at Portsmouth between the April and July of 1805, Orion was recommissioned under Captain Edward Codrington and joined Nelson’s fleet off Cadiz.

On October the 21st, she took part in the Battle of Trafalgar where, in the lee column to the rear of Agamemnon and Ajax and with the aid of the latter ship she forced the surrender of the French 74-gun ship Intrépide. Her casualties incurred during the battle totalled only one killed and 23 wounded.


After Trafalgar, Orion continued in the blockade of Cadiz, and on the 25^th of November, HMS Thundererr captured the Ragusan ship Nemesis, sailing from the Isle de France to Leghorn, Italy, with a cargo of spices, Indigo dye, plus other general merchandise. Being in sight of the action, Orion took a share in the prize money along with ten other Royal Naval ships.

In the December of 1806 Orion came under the command of Captain Sir Archibald Dixon, and under him she was at the Second battle of Copenhagen in the August of 1807, having sailed in Admiral Gambier’s Squadron.

Fate.

From 1808 to 1809 she served both in the Baltic and North Sea as the Flagship of Rear Admiral Thomas Bertie.

Paid off from this service in the January of 1814,Orion was broken up at Pmouth in the July of that year.

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