Third Rate 64 gun ships of the Royal Navy.

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HMS Nonsuch (1774)

HMS Nonsuch was a John Williams designed Intrepid Class,64-gun, third rate ship of the line, built by M/shipwrightand Israel Pownoll at Plymouth Dockyard. Ordered on the 30th th of November, 1769, and approved on the 12th of March 1770, she was laid down in the January of 1772, and launched on the 17th of December, 1774. She was completed on the 25th of April, 1776.


Nonsuch

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Nonsuch
Ordered:	30 November 1769
Builder:	Plymouth Dockyard
Laid down:	January 1772
Launched:	17 December 1774
Fate:	Broken up, 1802
General characteristics
Class and type:	Intrepid Class 64 gun ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1373 (bm)
Length:	159 ft 5 in (48.6 m) (gundeck);130 ft 10 1⁄2 in (39.9 m) (keel)
Beam:	44 ft 0 7⁄8 in (13.4 m)
Depth of hold:	19 ft 0 1⁄2 in (5.8 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship.
Complement:	As a third rate: 500 (491 from 1794) As floating battery: 230 officers and men, 14 Marines, and 50 supernumeraries.
Armament:	As third rate: Gundeck: 26 × 24-pounder guns Upper gundeck: 26 × 18-pounder guns QD: 10 × 4-pounder guns Fc: 2 × 9-pounder guns As floating battery: Lower deck: 20 x 68-pounder Carronades Upper deck: 26 x 24-pounder guns

Service.

HMS Nonsuch was commissioned in the August of 1775 as a guardship at Plymouth, and refitted as such again in the December of 1776. She was next refitted for service in North America, and sailed on the 23rd of March, 1777.

The American Revolution.


The Nonsuch is pictured here in this depiction of Barrington's action at St Lucia in 1778, by Domonic Serres.

On her return to England in 1779 she was paid off and underwent a small repair and coppering at Chatham between the January and the May of 1780 at the cost of £10,339.12.7d.
On the 7th of July in that year, Nonsuch, now under the command of Sir James Wallace, captured the Brig-rigged Curtter Hussard of Saint Malo. Hussard was armed with eighteen 6 pounder guns. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Echo.
On the 14th of July, Nonsuch captured the 26-gun Frigate Belle Poule off the Loire. The Royal Navy took her into service under her existing name.
In April of 1781, Nonsuch formed part of Admiral George Darby’s's relief fleet during the Seige of Gibraltar . Then on the 14th of May, on her homeward voyage, whilst scouting ahead, Nonsuch chased and brought to action the French 74-gun Actif, hoping to detain her until some others ships in the fleet came up. However, Actif was able to repulse Nonsuch, causing her to suffer 26 men killed and 64 wounded, and continued on to Brest unmolested.
After this action Nonsuch was paid off, and underwent repairs at Portsmouth between the June and September of that year, costing £9,146.2.1d. following her refit she sailed for the West Indies on the 15th of January 1782. at the Battle of the Saints on the 12 th of April in that year, Nonsuch was fourth in the line attacking the French fleet under the command of Captain Truscott, and suffered only 3 killed and 3 wounded.

Late in the year, Nonsuch and Zebra formed the escort to Jamaica of a fleet from Georgia "with the principal inhabitants, their Negroes, and their Effects". Returning to England at the conclusion of her wartime service in 1783 she was paid off once more.

Floating battery.

By Admiralty Orders issued on the 3rd of February 1794 Nonsuch was at Chatham, being cut down and fitted as a floating battery at a cost of £ 7,998. Recommissioned by Captain Billy Douglas in the March of that year, the alterations were completed two months later. In June she was removed to Jersey under Captain Philipe d’ Auvergne,Prince de Bouillon, and Senior Officer of Gunboats in the Channel Islands, in charge of a small flotilla of obsolete gunvessels, which included the Eagle, Lion, Repulse, Scorpion, and Tigre. The Navy was to disposed of most of them within a year or so. Nonsuch was paid off in the December of that year and recommissioned in the February of 1795 by Captain William Mitchell as a floating battery at Hull in the Humber estuary. In the August of that year, Captain Henry Blackwell succeeded to the command and Nonsuch's logs state that she arrived in the Humber at the end of June, having sailed up from Chatham under Blackwood's command. By the 2nd of July she had been established at her permanent mooring in Hull Roads.

In April 1796 Captain Robert Dudley Oliver replaced Blackwood, only to be superseded himself in the October of the following year by her final commander, Captain Isaac Woolley, who held the commission until 1799.

Fate.

In the June of 1802 Nonsuch was broken up at Sheerness.