Third Rate ships of 74 guns.

[Bligh]

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.