Third Rate 64 gun ships of the Royal Navy.

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HMS Trident (1768)

HMS Trident was one of only three Exeter Class, 64 gun, third rate ships of the line designed by William Bately, and built by M/shipwright Israel Pownoll at Plymouth Dockyard. Ordered on the 4th of December 1762 and approved on the 2nd of February 1763, she was laid down in the October of that year and launched on the 20th of April 1768. She was completed in the January of 1771.


Trident, Prudent and Europe.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Trident
Ordered:	4 December 1762
Builder:	Plymouth Dockyard
Launched:	20 April 1768
Fate:	Sold out of the service, 1816
General characteristics
Class and type:	Exeter Class 64 gun ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1366​86⁄94 (bm)
Length:	159 ft 0 in (48.39 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	44 ft 4 in (13 m)
Depth of hold:	19 ft 4 in (5.82 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	Gundeck: 26 × 24-pounder guns Upper gundeck: 26 × 18-pounder guns QD: 10 × 4-pounder guns Fc: 2 × 9-pounder guns

Service.

HMS Trident was commissioned in the May of 1771 for service in the Med. On the 30th of January, 1772, whilst anchored in Gibraltar harbour during a severe winter storm, the Danish ship-of-the-line Prinsesse Wilhelmine Caroline dragged its anchor, colliding with the bow of HMS Trident before running aground.
Between the May and July of that year she was fitted as a Flagship at a cost of £3,644.6.8d.
She was paid off in the September of 1774.

She was then fitted for ordinary at Chatham in the January of 1775. She underwent a very small repair and refit for £10,070.7.10d between the October of 1776 and the June of 1777. Having been recommissioned during the refit, from the April of 1778 until the June of that year she was under the command of Captain John Inglis. She was paid off again in the September of 1781 after wartime service.

Between the November of that year and the December of 1783 she underwent a Great Repair and coppering for the sum of £25,855.4.0d and was then laid up. Fitted for sea again between the February and July of 1795, in the April of that year she was recommissioned under Captain Theophilus Jones as the flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Charles Pole from the September of that year. By the November her new captain was Edward Osborne, who would continue in command until 1798. Under him Trident sailed for the East Indies on the 16th of May 1796 and was thus on hand at the Cape for the surrender of the Dutch squadron in Saldanha Bay on the 17th of August of .that year.

Temporally placed under Captain Edward Packenham in the June of 1798, in quick succession she then came under captain’s Simon Miller in the June of 1799, and John Turner in the October of that year. He died in the January of 1801, and his place was taken by Captain Henry Lidgbird Ball in 1801, and then in temporily Commander’s Peter Haywood, Charles James Johnson, and finally Captain George Ralph Collier in the East Indies in 1802. During the period 18 04 to 1805 Trident came under the command of Captain Thomas Surridge as the Flagship of Vice Admiral Peter Rainier, and then under Captain Benjamin Page for her voyage home. On her return to England in the October of 1805 she was paid off and not recommissioned, and went into Ordinary at Chatham until 1807. By Admiralty Orders on the 12th of August in that year she was fitted at Chatham as a guard and receiving ship for Malta.between the September of that year and the April of 1808 under the supervision of Captain Robert Campbell. She spent her time between 1809 and 1815 in this role at Malta, and under Captain Richard Vincent from 1812 as the Flagship of Rear Admiral John Laugharne.

Fate.

In 1816 Trident came under the command of Commander Charles Hope Reid until the 3rd of July in that year when she was sold out of the service at Malta to Vicenzo Casuli for £1,516.10.0d.

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HMS Veteran (1787)

HMS Veteran was a Sir Edward Hunt designed Crown Class 64 gun third rate ship of the line, built by Robert Fabian until his death in 1786, and completed by his son of the same name, at East Cowes. Ordered on the 3rd of September 1780, and laid down in the July of 1781, she was launched on the 14th of August, 1787, and completed between the 15th of that month and the 13th of September of that same year at Portsmouth before going into Ordinary. The final cost being £24,259.12.0d to build, plus £9,695 for fitting and coppering.


Plan of the Orlop deck of Veteran

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Veteran
Ordered:	3 August 1780
Builder:	Fabian, East Cowes
Laid down:	July 1781
Launched:	14 August 1787
Fate:	Broken up, 1816
Notes:	Participated in: The Battle of Copenhagen
General characteristics
Class and type:	Crown Class, 64 gun third rate ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1,396 ¾ (bm)
Length:	160 ft 4 ½ in (48.9 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	44 ft 8 in (13.6 m)
Depth of hold:	19 ft 5 in (5.9 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	Gundeck: 26 × 24-pounder guns Upper gundeck: 26 × 18-pounder guns QD: 10 × 4-pounder guns Fc: 2 × 9-pounder guns

Service.

HMS Veteran was commissioned under Captain Charles Nugent for Howe’s fleet in the March of 1793, and sailed for the Leeward Islands on the 26th of November in that year. In 1794 she was under Captain Lewis Robinson and in the March of that year she was at Martinique where Robinson was killed. By June she was at Guadeloupe now under Captain George Bowen, and later Captain Sampson Edwards.

However, in 1795 she was under the command of Captain Hancock Kelly, still stationed at the Leeward Islands. She then returned to England and was paid off in the October of 1796.

Veteran was recommissioned under Captain Abraham Guyot in the May of 1797, and in the August of that same year she came under the command of Captain George Gregory and at the Battle of Camperdown on the 11th of October served in the Lee column, suffering 4 killed and 21 wounded.

At end-February 1798 Veteran and HMS Astraea were responsible for the towing of the General Elliott into Great Yarmouth following her abandonment by the crew. In the following month the command of Veteran was transferred to Captain James Walker, followed by Captain J Moss in the June of that year, when she became the Flagship of Vice Admiral Archibald Dixon.

In the February of 1799 she came under the command of Captain Archibald Collingwood Dixon until 1801, and took part in Mitchell’s operations off the Dutch coast in the August of that year.

Veteran’s next assignment took place in the Baltic in 1801, where she was present at the Battle o Copenhagen, as part of Admiral Sir Hyde Parker’s reserve fleet.

In the January of 1804 Veteran was placed under the command of Captain Richard King who was replaced in the June of that year by Captain James Newman.

In 1805, Veteran was captained by Capt. Andrew Evans in Jamaica. She subsequently served as the Flagship of both Vice-Admiral James Richard Dacres, then second in command on the station, and on his recall, Vice Admiral Bartholomew Rowley in 1808.

Fate.

On her return to England in 1809 Veteran was fitted as a prison ship at Portsmouth in the July of that year, and was commissioned under Lieutenant Henry Marshall until 1811. In 1813 she came under Lieutenant William Henry Boyce, and in 1814 Lieutenant Stephen Donovan. In 1815 she was placed in Ordinary, and broken up at Portsmouth in the June of 1816.

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HMS Vigilant (1774)

HMS Vigilant was a John Williams designed Intrepid Class,64 gun, third rate ship of the line, built by Henry and Anthony Adams at Bucklers Hard, Ordered on the 14th of January, 1771, and laid down in the February of that year, a month before she was approved, she was launched on the 6th of October, 1774, and completed at Portsmouth between the 29th of October in that year and the 11th of July, 1778.


Vigilant

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Vigilant
Ordered:	14 January 1771
Builder:	Adams, Bucklers Hard
Laid down:	February 1771
Launched:	6 October 1774
Fate:	Broken up, 1816
General characteristics
Class and type:	Intrepid Class, 64 gun ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1376 (bm)
Length:	159 ft 6.5 in (48.62 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	44 ft 5.5 in (13.51 m)
Depth of hold:	19 ft (5.8 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	64 guns: Gundeck: 26 × 24 pdrs Upper gundeck: 26 × 18 pdrs Quarterdeck: 10 × 4 pdrs Forecastle: 2 × 9 pdrs

Service.

HMS Vigilant was commissioned in the March of 1778 for service in the American Revolution, but by 1779 she had been deemed unseaworthy by the navy. She was stripped of her sails and used as a floating battery to support the amphibious landing of British troops on Port Royal Island, South Carolina prior to the Battle of Beaufort. On her return to England she was paid off after wartime service in the September of 1781. Between the October of that year and the March of 1782 she was repaired, fitted and coppered at Chatham for the sum of £11,467.13.11d. Temporally recommissioned, she was paid off again in the July of the following year. Then, between the March and April of 1795 she was fitted as a prison ship at Portsmouth at a cost of £2,722. and again in the October of 1796 for £1,712. Recommissioned under Lieutenant Robert Young in this role, she then continued as such with a regular change in commanders until the January of1806, when she sank in Portsmouth Harbour. Raised again in the April of that year and repaired, she was recommissioned under Lieutenant John McDonald , and then in the August of that year command passed to Lieutenant Somerville until the end of1811, when Lieutenant James M’Aurthur assumed command for 1813. In 1814, still acting as a prison ship, her final commander was destined to be Lieutenant William Stone.

Fate.

HMS Vigilant, which could be deemed to arguably have been be the least active and most unseaworthy ship in this whole period, was broken up at Portsmouth in the April of.1816.

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HMS Yarmouth (1745)



HMS Yarmouth was a 64 gun third rate ship of the line, built at Deptford Dockyard by M/shipwright Joseph Allin, Jnr. Ordered on the 16th of June, 1742, and laid down on the 25th of November of that year, launched on the 8th of March, 1745, and completed on the 10th of May in that same year, at a cost of £30,527.4.9d. She had been previously ordered to the dimensions specified in the 1741 proposals for modifications to the 1719 Establishment, but the Admiralty had very quickly concluded that these were too small, and as an experiment in 1742 authorized an addition of 6ft to the planned length Yarmouth was thus re-ordered to the enlarged design in the June of that year. She had been built at Deptford because the Admiralty felt they could best observe the effectiveness of the added size at close quarters.


Plan of Yarmouth

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Yarmouth
Ordered:	16 June 1742
Builder:	Deptford Dockyard
Laid down:	25 November 1742
Launched:	8 March 1745
Commissioned:	February 1745
In service:	1745–1807
Honours and awards:	Second Battle of Cape Finisterre, 1747 Seven Years’War. American Revolutionary War. Battle of the Saints 1782
Fate:	Broken up, April 1811
General characteristics
Class and type:	1741 proposals 64 gun third rate ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1359 ​38⁄94 (bm)
Length:	160 ft (48.8 m) (gundeck) 131 ft 8 in (39.8 m) (keel)
Beam:	44 ft 3 in (13.5 m)
Depth of hold:	18 ft 11in (5.8 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	Gundeck: 26 × 32-pounder guns Upper gundeck: 26 × 18-pounder guns Quarterdeck: 10 × 9-pounder guns Forecastle: 2 × 9-pounder guns

Service.

HMS Yarmouth was commissioned under Captain Roger Martin in the February of 1745 for the Western squadron in the Downs during the winter of 1745.

The War of the Austrian Succession.

In 1746, still with the Western squadron she was the Flagship of W. Martin. And on the 15th of April took the privateer Le Chasseur. Later in that year, on the 9th of October, now under Captain Piercy Brett, she joined Admiral George Anson’s Fleet cruising off Cape Finisterre.

In the following year, on the 14th of May 1747, she served as one of the ships in Anson’s squadron at the First Battle of Cape Finisterre. This action saw 14 British ships attack a French 30-ship convoy commanded by Admiral de la Jonquiere. The British captured 4 ships of the line, 2 Frigates and 7 merchantmen, in a five-hour battle. One French frigate, one French East India warship and the other merchantmen escaped.

In later 1747, temporarily under Captain Charles Saunders she took part in the second battle of Finisterre, but by 1748 she was back under Brett’s command again this time with Warren’s fleet.

By Admiralty Orders, on the 22nd of November 1748 Yarmouth was reduced to guard ship duties at Chatham, and was then paid off in 1752. In the September of 1753 she removed to Sheerness still in the role of a guard ship under Captain George Cockburn.

Refitted for Channel service in 1754,in the March of 1755 she came under Captain Harry Norris and sailed as a reinforcement for Boscawen.

The Seven Years’ War.

In the January of 1756 she joined Osborne’s Fleet, but by the June of that year, now under Captain Chaloner Ogle, she was back with Boscawen. In the November of that year, under Captain Robert Frankland she became the flagship of the now Rear Admiral Norris with Knowles’s Fleet, and on the10th of March 1757 she sailed for the East Indies.

In 1758 HMS Yarmouth served under Captain John Harrison as Flagship to Vice Admiral George Pocock at the Battle of Cuddalore which took place on the 29th of April of that year off the Carnatic coast of India and was an indecisive battle fought between the British squadron and a French squadron under the command of the Comte d’Ache. British casualties were 29 killed and 89 wounded, whilst the French lost 99 killed and 321 wounded. Although the battle itself was indecisive, the French fleet was able to achieve its primary objective in delivering the reinforcements for which the defenders of Pondicherry had been awaiting.
The two squadrons clashed again on the 3rd of August at the Battle of Negapatam and finally on the 10th of September at the Battle of Pondicherry.

Yarmouth returned to England to pay off in 1760.On the 4th of November in that year she underwent a survey, and during the period between the 11th of September 1761 and the July of 1763 she underwent a great repair at Chatham costing £30,338.9.3d.

Recommissioned inthe May of that year under Captain Charles Proby, who was to command her until 1766, she took up guard duties at Chatham. In 1767 she removed to Sheerness to continue in this role, now under Captain James Gambier, and thence to Chatham once more.
In 1770 she came under the command of Captain Edward Vernon back at Sheerness once more, and later under Captain Western Verlo.

A change of fortune for Yarmouth came in 1777 when she recommissioned under Captain Nicholas Vincent, and on the 9th of September in that year she sailed for the Leeward Islands.

The American Revolution.

On the 7th of March, 1778 Yarmouth was attacked by the American frigate Randolph which had half the number of Yarmouth’s guns and estimatedly less than a quarter of her firepower. The frigate managed to cause some minor damage to two of Yarmouth's topmasts and a portion of her bowsprit, and now having established superior manoeuvrability, attempted to rake the Yarmouth. Randolph was now managing 3 broadsides to each one with which Yarmouth could reply, however the 12 lb shot failed to do substantial damage or to penetrate Yarmouth's hull, whilst Yarmouth's 18 and 32-pounders were able to penetrate any part of her comparatively lightly armoured opponent with impunity. Having taken a critical hit, most probably having entered her magazine, Randolph exploded during the engagement,killing all but four of her crew. Part of her wreckage landed on Yarmouth's decks, including Randolph's ensign. Yarmouth was forced to repair two damaged topmasts, but otherwise suffered no significant damage, and no fatalities or serious injuries.

Later in 1778 she came under the Captaincy of Nathaniel Bateman, who would be dismissed in 1780 by Court Martial. On the 6th of August 1779 Yarmouth took part in the Battle of Grenada, taking her place at the van of the rear squadron, and in the following year, on the 17th of April, 1780, in Admiral Rodney’s Fleet at in the Battle of Martinique. By the end of the month she was under Captain John Duckworth for the actions at St Lucia from the 15th and 17th of May in that year. Following this action she proceeded with Rodney to New York and thence home to England.

In 1781,Yarmouth was under Captain Skeffington Ludwidge until she paid off in the March of that year in order for her to be reduced in armament to become a 60 gun Fourth Rate ship. She was ,however, re-established as a 74 gun ship of the Line by Admiralty Orders given on the 18th of April and was fitted as such for Home Service between the May and October of that year. Recommissioned by Captain William Denne for Derby’s fleet in the autumn of that year, in the January of 1782, under Captain Anthony Parrey she sailed for the Leeward Islands once more.

On the 9th of April of that year she saw action in the Dominica Channel, and on the 12th of the month at the Battle of the Saints, and following this an action at the Mona Passage on the 19th of the month. On the 21st of July she sailed for New York with Pigot, and then to the blockade of Cape Francois. In the January? of 1783, she came under Captain Edward Herbert and returned to the Leeward Islands. From there she returned home and was paid off in the June of that year.

Fate.

Fitted as a receiving ship at Plymouth between the November and December of that same year she remained in this role until 1807.
In the April of 1811, Yarmouth was broken up there.

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HMS Agincourt (1796)

HMS Agincourt was a 64 gun third rate ship of the line, built by Perry and Co. at Blackwall Yard. Registered and named Earl Talbot in 1795 she was launched on the 23rd of July, 1796. By which time she had been purchased by the Admiralty, whilst still on the stocks, from the Honorable East India Company, who had named her the Earl Talbot. She was completed between the 27th of August, 1796, and the 31st of March, 1797, at Woolwich.



Plan of Agincourt

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Agincourt
Builder:	Perry, Blackwall Yard
Launched:	23 July 1796
Christened:	Earl Talbot
Decommissioned:	1809
Renamed:	1796:HMS Agincourt 1812:HMS Bristol
Honours and awards:	Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Egypt"
Fate:	Sold, 1814
General characteristics
Class and type:	64 gun third rate ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1438 (bm)
Length:	172 ft 8 in (52.63 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	43 ft 4½ in (13.21 m)
Depth of hold:	19 ft 8¾ in (6.02 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament: As a troopship	Guns LD: 28 x 24pdrs UD:28 x 18pdrs QD: 6 x 9pdrs Fc: 2 x 9pdrs LD: nil UD: 28 x 18pdrs QD: 2 x 9pdrs + 8 x 24pdr Carronades FC: 2 x 9pdrs + 8 24pdr Carronades

Service.

HMS Agincourt was commissioned by Captain John Williamson in the October of 1796.
She was at Gravesend during the Nore Mutiny in 1797. On the 11th of October in that year, under Captain Williamson, in Admiral Duncan’s Fleet, she took part in the Battle of Camperdown in the Lee column. Although slightly damaged, she received no casualties.

In the January of 1798 she came under the command of Captain John Lawford, and then in the March of that year Captain John Bligh, as the Flagship of Vice Admiral William Waldegrave, and voyaged to Newfoundland in the summer of that year. By the December she was back in England and underwent a refit at Portsmouth for £9,235. between the December of that year and the January of 1799. She then proceeded to aid in the blockade of Rochefort, still in the role of Waldegrave’s Flagship.

In 1800 the command of Agincourt was assumed by Captain George Ryves, a post which he would hold until 1804. Under him, the ship sailed for the Med in the January of 1801 as the flagship of Rear Admiral Charles Pole. Agincourt was to serve in the navy's Egyptian campaign between 8 March 1801 and 2 September, which qualified her officers and crew for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal that the Admiralty authorized in 1850 to all surviving claimants.

In the August of 1803 Agincourt was temporarily taken under the command of Captain Charles Schomberg, and on Ryves finally leaving the post in 1804, she came under Captain Thomas Briggs until 1805, destined for the Channel Fleet, then between 1806 and 1807 she served under Captain Richard Hill in the North Sea.
On her return to port she was fitted as a victualler at Chatham between the February and October of 1808. Recommissioned under Captain Robert Henderson in the same roll for the Downs, in the November of that year, she came under Captain William Kent who would hold the command until 1811.

Fate.

Agincourt was decommissioned in 1809 and converted to a 28 gun troop ship between the July and October of 1810. On the 6th of January, 1812, she was recommissioned under the name HMS Bristol.
In the July of that year she was serving in the Med under Captain John Thompson, and then Captain John Wyndham during 1813 in the North sea, where on the 21st of March in that year she took the 4 gun privateer La Petite louise as her last hurrah!

On the 15th of December, 1814, she was sold out of the service for £4,500.

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HMS Ardent (1796)


Ardent off Lowestoft on 16 October 1797. Note the Jury rigged sails.

HMS Ardent was a 64 gun third rate ship of the line, built by Thomas Pitcher at Northfleet. Registered and named on the 14th of July, 1795, and launched on the 9th of April 1796. She was completed between the 26th of April and the 7th of August, 1796 at Woolwich.

Her total cost was £22,652 for building including coppering, plus £5,262 for fitting.
Like Agincourt before her, she was originally designed and laid down for the Honorable East India Company which was going to name her Princess Royal, but the Navy purchased her before launching, in the March of 1795, for service as a warship in the French Revolutionary War.


Ardent

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Ardent
Builder:	Pitcher, Northfleet
Launched:	9 April 1796
Acquired:	March 1795 (on the stocks)
Honours and awards:	Participated in: Battle of Camperdown Battle of Copenhagen
Fate:	Broken up, 1824
General characteristics
Class and type:	64 gun third rate ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1,416​24⁄94 (bm)
Length:	173 ft 3 in (52.81 m) (overall) 144 ft 0 in (43.89 m) (keel)
Beam:	43 ft 0 in (13.11 m)
Depth of hold:	19 ft 10 in (6.05 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	Lower deck: 26 x 24-pounder guns Upper deck: 26 x 18-pounder guns QD: 10 x 9-pounder guns FC: 2 x 9-pounder guns

Service.


HMS Ardent was commissioned under Captain Richard Burges in the May of 1796 for service in Admiral Duncan’s Fleet in the North Sea.

In the May of 1797, whilst anchored at the Nore, she became caught up in the Great Mutiny which had spread from Spithead.Ardent played only a minor role in the upheaval, but at one point, came under fire from the mutineers aboard HMS Monmouth.


The Battle of Camperdown by Derek Gardner.

She finally got to sea on the 10th of June, and on the 11th of October in that year, she took part in the Battle of Camperdown serving in Duncan’s weather column. During the action Ardent suffered 41 killed, including Captain Burges, and a further 107 wounded.


Captain Burgess' memorial in St Pauls Cathedral.

On the 8th of November of that year, now under Captain Thomas Bertie, who would command her until 1801, she joined Mitchell’s squadron on the Dutch coast.

In 1801, as the Flagship of Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, on the second of April Ardent took part in the Battle of Copenhagen. Her casualties amounted to 30 killed, and 64 wounded. In the june of that year she had another change of captains, Her new commander was Captain George M’Kinley, and later Captain William Nowell. A small repair at Chatham followed this and took place between the August of 1802 and the April of 1803 costing £11,829. She had been recommissioned in the previous month by Captain Robert Winthrop who took command until 1805. Under him she joined Pellew’s squadron off Ferrol at the beginning of November. On the 28th of that month Ardent gave chase to the French 32 gun, Corvette, La Bayonnaise in Finisterre Bay. The corvette's crew ran her ashore and then in order to prevent the British from capturing her, set her on fire and blew her up. Captain Winthrop described Bayonnaise as “a frigate of 32 guns and 220 men, which had been sailing from Havana to Ferrol”. In actual fact, Bayonnaise was armed en flute with only six 8-pounder guns, and was returning from the Antilles.

In the February of 1805 Ardent became the temporary Flagship of Admiral Lord George Keith in the North Sea. She was recommissioned in the July of 1806 under Captain George Eyre, and in the September of that year Captain Ross Donnelly took command. In the May of 1807 she had another new Captain assigned to her. This time it was Captain Edwin Chamberline, who in the September of that year took her to join the River Plate operations.

On returning to England, in the February of 1808 she came under Captain William Parkinson, and was fitted as a guardship at Sheerness between the May and June of that year to serve at Leith.
Recommissioned under Captain James Giles Vashon, she served as the Flagship to Vice Admiral James Vashon, and from the August of the year was commanded by Captain John Bligh.

The April of 1809 saw Ardent under the command of Captain Robert Honeyman, who would remain as her commander until 1811 for service in the Baltic. On her return to Chatham, between rhe February and June of 1811 she was fitted as a troopship once more bound for the Baltic under Captain John Davie, and later Captain George Bell.

Fate.

On her return to England in 1812 Ardent was paid off and fitted for harbour service at Portsmouth and then between the February and May of 1813 as a prison ship for service in Bermuda under Captain John Cochet. Between the May of 1814 and1815 she was under the command of Commander Sir William Burnaby, before being hulked at Halifax from 1817 until 1822. She was finally broken up at Bermuda in the March of 1824.

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HMS Monmouth (1796)

HMS Monmouth was a 64 gun third rate ship of the line, built by Randall& Co. at Rotherhithe. Belmont was registered and named Monmouth on the 14th of July, 1795 and was launched on the 23rd of April, 1796, being completed at Deptford Dockyard by the 31st of October in that same year. Monmouth was designed and laid down for the Honourable East India Company under the name of Belmont, but the Navy purchased her after the start of the French Revolutionary wars.






Original EIC Ship plan for the Monmouth 1796

GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Monmouth
Builder:	Randall & Co, Rotherhithe
Launched:	23 April 1796
Completed:	31 October 1796
Acquired:	14 July 1795
Honours and awards:	Naval General Service Medal with clasps: "Camperdown" "Egypt"
Fate:	Broken up in May 1834
General characteristics
Class and type:	64 gun third rate ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1,439​ 51⁄94 (bm)
Length:	173 ft 1 in (52.8 m) (overall) 144 ft 1 1⁄2 in (43.9 m) (keel)
Beam:	43 ft 4 in (13.2 m)
Depth of hold: Draught:	19 ft 8 in (6.0 m) 10 ft 7 in / 15 ft 9 in
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Complement:	491
Armament:	Lower deck: 26 x 24 pdr guns Upper deck: 26 x 18 pdr guns QD: 10 x 9 pdr guns Fc: 2 x 9 pdr guns

Service.

HMS Monmouth was commissioned in the September of 1796 under Captain Lord William Carnegie Earl of Northesk.

The French Revolutionary Wars.

She was initially assigned to serve in the North Sea, and in the May of 1797 was one of the ships involved in the Mutiny at the Nore. The crew took her first lieutenant Charles Bullen prisoner, and threatened to execute him. Northesk intervened and Bullen was able to carry messages ashore from the crew. These are reputed to have helped in ending the mutiny. After the mutiny Northesk resigned his commission. Order was restored in a matter of weeks, and Monmouth was placed under Commander James Walker., in an acting captaincy. Walker had been planning to attack the mutinous ships at anchor with a squadron of gunboats only a few weeks previously.
I n 1797, Walker commanded Monmouth in the Lee column at the Battle of Camperdown on the 11th of October when Admiral Adam Duncan led the British Fleet against the Dutch.

Before the battle Walker had addressed the crew, saying:

"Now, my lads, you see your enemy before you. I shall lay you close on board, and thus give you an opportunity of washing the stain off your characters with the blood of your foes. Go to your quarters, and do your duty."
Monmouth was engaged in heavy combat with the Dutch ships Alkmaar and the Delft, capturing both vessels, although Delft later sank. During the action Monmouth suffered five men killed and 22 wounded. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Camperdown" to all surviving claimants from the action.

During the February of 1798 Monmouth underwent repairs as a consequence of the battle at a cost of £4,577. She was then recommissioned in the following month and Robert Deans became her new captain. Monmouth was among the seven vessels of Lord Duncan's fleet that shared in the prize money for the privateer Jupiter, captured on the 27th of April in that year.

In January 1799 Vice-Admiral Archibald Dickson raised his flag in her, but she then went into Sheerness in March for repairs costing £4,873.In April command passed to Captain George Hart, who retained the post until 1805. Monmouth was among the vessels sharing in the prize money from sundry Dutch doggers, schuyts, and fishing vessels, taken in April and May of that year. She was also part of a squadron that on the 12th of May captured Roose, Genet, next Polly, American, Forsigtigheid, and Bergen, two days later, Des Finch on the 21st, and Vrow Dorothea on the 30th.

That August, Monmouth took part in the Helder operation, a joint Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland under the command of Vice-AdmiralAndrew Mitchell. At the Neiuw Diep the British captured seven warships and 13 Dutch East Indiamen along with several transports. Mitchell then contrived the surrender of a squadron of the Batavian Navy in the Vlieter Incident. The Dutch surrendered twelve vessels ranging down in size from the 74 gun Washington to the 16 gun Brig Galathea. Following this feat majeure, on the 17th of August, Monmouth was among the vessels sharing in the capture of Adelarde, and on the 15th of September, in concert with several other British vessels and two Russians, to high acclaim, she arrived at Sheerness as escort to five captured Dutch ships of the line, three frigates and one sloop.

Monmouth sailed for the Mediterranean in the June of 1801. She therefore came to share in the proceeds of the capture of Almas di Purgatoria off Alexandria on the 28th of July in that year. Because Monmouth 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 for all surviving claimants in 1850.

The Napoleonic Wars.

In 1803 Monmouth, still under Hart's command, was at Gibraltar. There Hart received the report from Captain John Gore of the Medusa about his taking of Esperance, a French privateer’s Felucca, off the Straits of Gibraltar, and also of the destruction of another, the Sorcier. By the July of that year, Monmouth had joined the Mediterranean squadron blockading Toulon.

Following Monmouth’s return to home waters in 1804, and after his promotion to Rear Admiral in the April of the year, Thomas McNamara Russell adopted Monmouth as his Flagship for service in the North Sea.
Monmouth was recommissioned again in the March of 1807 under Captain Edward Durnford King, and on the 7th of September in that year she became the Flagship of Rear-Admiral William O’Bryen Drury, and then on the 15th of that month she sailed as escort to a convoy of nine East Indiamen for the Indian sub continent. Seven of the ships were bound for the coast, and two further vessels for Bombay.. The vessels being escorted included the Ann, Diana, Glory, Northampton, Sarah Christiana, Sir William Pulteney, and Union.

During the voyage, on the 25th of January, 1808 Monmouth took the Danish ship Nancy. Following this, on the 12th of February, she arrived off the Danish possession of Tranquebar in time to witness the !4th Regiment of Foot and the HEIC's artillery being disembarked by the Russell. The British marched to capture the settlement and the adjacent fort, both of which capitulated without a show of resistance. Monmouth returned to Britain in the September of that year, having escorted another convoy of Indiamen. Shortly after her arrival she was paid off on the 24th of that month.

By the August of 1809, Monmouth was involved in the Walcheren Expedition, the objective of which was to destroy the dockyards and arsenals of Antwerp, Flushing, and Terneuzen.By the end of the month, Admiral Sir Richard Strachan had ordered her return to England for watering and inn the October of that same year she was fitted and recommissioned as a victualing ship under Commander Michael Dod, for service in the Downs.

Dod’s successor on the 7th of November, 1810 was Captain Francis Beauman. At the time Monmouth was destined to become the flagship of Vice-Admiral George Campbell, Commander-in-Chief of the Downs station. In the April of 1811 Captain Hyde Parker took command of Monmouth, and later in the year she came under Captain William Nowell until 1813.His successor was Captain William Wilkinson. Throughout this period she served, in addition to still being a victualler, as the flagship to Vice-Admiral Thomas Foley, Campbell's successor. Monmouth received payment for smuggled goods which had been seized on the 1sat of March, 1814.

Fate.

Monmouth was laid up in ordinary at Woolwich in 1815. In the June of 1815 she then was hulked at Deptford, becoming a sheer hulk at Woolwich from 1828 th 1833. She was broken up at Deptford in the May of 1834.Despite this she still appeared on the Navy Lists for several more years.