Third Rate ships of 74 guns.

[Bligh]

HMS Powerful (1783)



HMS Powerful was a Revised Elizabeth Class 74 gun third rateship of the line, designed by Sir Thomas Slade, ordered on the 8^th of July, 1780 and built by Perry and Co. at Blackwall. She was launched on the 3^rd of April, 1783.






Plan of HMS Powerful

History
Great Britain
Name:	HMS Powerful
Ordered:	8 July 1780
Builder:	Perry, Blackwall Yard
Laid down:	April 1781
Launched:	3 April 1783
Fate:	Broken up 1812
General characteristics
Class and type:	Revised Elizabeth-classship of the line
Tons burthen:	1627 (bm)
Length:	168 ft 6 in (51.36 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	46 ft (14 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

Career.



Powerful was commissioned shortly after launching during the April of 1783 under Captain Thomas Fitzherbert.



By 1785, her crew included John Lyddiard, an American prisoner of war forcibly enlisted into the Royal Navy in 1778, during the American Revolutionary War. In July 1785, Lyddiard wrote to the United States ambassador to Britain, John Adams, to secure Lyddiard's release. In response to an appeal by Adams, the British government ordered the release of Lyddiard.



Paid off in late 1785 she was recommissioned in the May of 1786,under Captain Andrew Southerland as the Flagship of Rear Admiral Thomas Graves.



Between the May of 1788 and March of 1789 she was in for repairs at Plymouth.



Recommissioned under Captain Thomas Hicks, On the 15^th of January 1794 she sailed for Jamaica under Captain William Otway. Paid off in the the August of that year, she recommissioned under Captain Richard Fisher, and then under Captain William O’Bryen Drury from August 1795 until 1799 . Under O’Bryen she took part in the battle of Camperdown on the 11^th of October,1797. Fighting in the Lee column during the battle, she suffered 10 killed and 78 wounded.




Powerful at the Battle of Camperdown 1797, by Nicholas Pocock



Following the battle the ship the ship was refitted at Plymouth before sailing for Med on the 2^nd of June,1798.



Having been refitting from the March to the August 1805, and now under the command of Captain Robert Pamplin, Powerful arrived too late to take part in the Battle of Trafalgar, In the November of that year she was with Duckworth’s Squadron off Cadiz, and then in early 1806 the Med, before being detached to reinforce the East India squadron.

On the 13^th of June, 1806 she captured the French privateer Henriette off Trincomalee, Sri Lanka. Powerful had received intelligence of her presence in the area and set out from Trincomalee on the 11th. Powerful sighted Henriette on the morning of the 13th. After an 11-hour chase, during which Henriette fired her stern guns without any effect. Powerful succeeded in catching her quarry, which surrendered forthwith. During the chase, Henriette's crew had cast four of her 6-pounder guns overboard in an effort to lighten her and thus gain speed. Head money was finally paid for Henriette in the January of 1814.

In an Action of the 9^th of July, 1806, cruising off Ceylon in the guise of an East Indiaman, accompanied by the sloop Rattlesnake, she took the privateer La Bellone, who had been causing serious mischief amongst the British merchantmen in the area. She then joined Pellew’s Squadron off Jarva on the 27^th of November of that year.
In the December of 1807 Powerful was placed under the acting command of Pellew’s son Lieutenant Fleetwood Pellew at Sourabaya. In 1808 she returned to the Cape of Good Hope, and by February 1809 she was back in the North Sea under Captain Charles Johnson at Walcheren.

Fate.



Following the failure of the Walcheren operations she was paid off.
Powerful was broken up at Chatham in the May of 1812.