Third Rate ships of 74 guns.

[Bligh]

HMS Royal Oak (1769)



HMS 'Royal Oak', 1773-1775. By Marshall Joseph

HMS Royal Oak was a 74-gun third rateship of the line, The named ship for its class designed by Sir John Williams with less sharp bows than the typical Slade design. Ordered on the 16th of November 1765, her M/shipwright was Israel Pownoll for the Plymouth Dockyard. She was launched on the 13th of November, 1769 at Plymouth.

GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Royal Oak
Ordered:	16 November 1765
Builder:	Plymouth Dockyard
Laid down:	May 1766
Launched:	13 November 1769
Fate:	Broken up, 1815
Notes:	·Participated in: ·Battle of the Chesapeake
General characteristics
Class and type:	Royal Oak- class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1606 ​21⁄94 (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:	·74 guns: ·Gundeck: 28 × 32 pdrs ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18 pdrs ·Quarterdeck: 14 × 9 pdrs ·Forecastle: 4 × 9 pdrs

History.

Commissioned in the November of 1770 for the Falkland Islands dispute, Royal Oakwas refitted as a guardship at Plymouth in 1771 and yearly thereafter until 1778, she was one of the ships reviewed by King George on his visit to Portsmouth in the June of 1773.


George III reviewing the Fleet at Spithead, 22 June 1773, depicting HMS 'Royal Oak'

Refitted and coppered at Portsmouth between the January and March of 1780, she fought at the Battle of the Chesapeake on the 5th of September 1781 under Captain John Plumer Ardesoif. During the battle she suffered 4 killed and 5 wounded.
She was paid off again, in the June of 1783 following wartime service.

Fate.

Royal Oak was converted for use as a prison ship at Portsmouth in the November of 1796, She then went through a series of commissioning under various Lieutenants commencing with Stephen Liddle in the July of 1803 and concluding in the September of 1805 under Lieutenant James M’Arthur. At this juncture she was renamed Assistance and came under Lieutenant Thomas Sherwin from 1806 to 1807. Then Commodore Hugh Downman from 1808 to 1811, and finally Captain Robert Mends from 1812 to 1813. After this she went into ordinary in 1814, and was broken up at Portsmouth on the 2nd of November, 1815.