HMS Bulwark (1807)
HMS Bulwark was the only ship of her Class. She was a 74 gun, third rate ship of the line, ordered on the 6th of November 1784. She was designed by Sir William Rule as one of the large class 74s, and was the only ship built to her specifications. As a large 74, she carried 24-pounder guns on her upper gun deck instead of the 18 pounders found on the middling and common class 74s. Laid down in the April of 1804 and built at Portsmouth Dockyard by M/shipwright Nicholas Diddams, she was launched on the 23rd of April, 1807.
Great Britain Name: HMS Bulwark Ordered: 6 November 1794 Builder: Portsmouth Dockyard Laid down: April 1804 Launched: 23 April 1807 Fate: Broken up, 1825 Class and type: Bulwark Class 74-gun third rate ship of the line Tons burthen: 1,93980⁄94 (bm) Length: ·181 ft 10 in (55.4 m) (gundeck);
·150 ft 4 1⁄4 in (45.8 m) (keel)Beam: 49 ft 3 in (15.0 m) Depth of hold: 20 ft 7 in (6.3 m) Propulsion: Sails Sail plan: Full rigged ship Armament: ·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
·Upper gundeck: 30 × 24-pounder guns
·QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns. Later 4x 12- pounders + 10 32- pounder Carronades
·Fc: 2× 9-pounder guns. Later 2x 12- pounders and 2x32-pounder Carronades
·Rh: 6x18-pounder Carronades.
Service.
HMS Bulwark was commissioned in the March of 1807 by Captain Charles Fleming, and sailed for the Med on the 12th of October in that year. From 1807 to 1809 she served at the blockade of Cadiz, and returned to Plymouth for middling and large repairs between the May of 1811 and the January of 1812, during which time she was under first Captain Joshua Horton and from the December of 1811 Captain James Worth. On the 24th of March 1812, Bulwark was in company with Tonnant, Hogue, Colossus and Poictiers when they captured Emilie.
From the May of 1812 and throughout 1813 Bulwark served as the Flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Philip Durham in the Channel.
From the December of 1813 she came under Captain David Milne, and sailed for North America early in 1814.On the 22nd of May, Bulwark recaptured Tiger, Cowan, master. The American privateer Yankee had captured Tiger as Tiger was sailing from Malaga to London. Tiger arrived at Halifax on the 28th of July. The records of the Vice admiralty court at Halifax show that Tyger, Henry Davidson, master, had been sailing from Malaga to Stettin, and that Bulwark had recaptured her on the 24th of July.
On the 3rd of September, she took a hand in the destruction of the US Corvette Adams in the Penobscott river, and on the 23rd of October Bulwark captured the American 10 gun privateer schooner Harlequin, which had been out port for only four days when she was captured.
In the December of 1814 she was given a new captain. He was Farmery Epworth and lost no time in taking over the mantle of command by capturing the American privateer schooner Tomahawk, of Baltimore on the 22nd of January,1815. She was of 210 tons (bm), had a crew of 84 men under the command of Philip Besson, and was armed with eight 9-pounder carronades and a 24-pounder on a pivot carriage. She had been commissioned on the 11th of January and was two days out of Boston, having not been given the opportunity to capture anything.
In the June of 1815 Bulwark returned home to England and was paid off. She was fitted as a guard ship and served in this capacity at Sheerness from the December of 1815 until the July of 1816. After a small repair she continued in the role of a guardship this time at Chatham, between the February of 1819 and the March of 1822.
HMS Bulwark (centre left) as a hulk in Portsmouth in 1826
Fate.
Bulwark was broken up at Portsmouth, which operation was completed on the 26th of September,1826.
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