Third Rate 64 gun ships of the Royal Navy.

[Bligh]

HMS Ardent (1782)



HMS Ardent was a an Edward Hunt designed Crown Class, 64-gun third rate ship of the line, built by George Parsons and Staves at Bursledon Hants. Ordered on the 15th of October 1779, she was laid down in the October of 1780 and launched on the 24th of December,1782. She was completed between the 24th of December of that year and the 27th of August, 1783 at Portsmouth.

Plan of Ardent



Quarterdeck and forecastle

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Ardent
Ordered:	15 October,1779
Builder:	Staves & Parsons, Bursledon
Laid down:	October 1780
Launched:	21 December 1782
Fate:	Blown up, 1794
General characteristics
Class and type:		Crown Class 64 gun ship of the line
Type:
Tons burthen:		1387 (bm)
Length:		160 ft 8 in (48.9 m) (gundeck)
Beam:		44 ft 7.5 in (13.7 m)
Depth of hold:		19 ft 4 1⁄2 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 Ardent was commissioned in the March of 1783 as a guardship for Portsmouth. By 1784 she was under the command of Captain Harry Harmood, still serving as a guard ship. This state of affairs continued until the June of 1790 when she was commissioned for sea under Captain James Vashon to serve in the Spanish Armament and then followed by the Russian Armament. She was paid off again in the September of 1791.

In the February of 1793 she was recommissioned under the command of Captain Robert Manners Sutton, her fitting out being completed in the May of that year. She sailed for the Med on the 23rd of the month, and was with Vice-Admiral Lord Hood at Toulon in August. She was part of a force detached under Robert Linzee to take part in the attack on Corsica in the September of that year, and in the October took part in an attack on a Martello Tower.

Fate.

In April 1794 Ardent was stationed off the harbour of Villafranche on the French Med coast in order to observe a pair of French frigates. It is presumed that she accidentally caught fire and blew up, as at the enquiry into her loss no actual cause was ever identified. Berwick, whilst cruising in the Gulf of Genoa in that summer encountered some wreckage which seemed to suggest the cause was fire and an explosion. A portion of Ardent's quarter deck with some gunlocks deeply embedded in it was found floating in the area, as were splinter nettings driven into planking. There were no survivors. Indeed no trace was ever found of any of her crew of 500.