Third Rate 64 gun ships of the Royal Navy.

[Bligh]

HMS STATELY (1784)



HMS Stately was a Thomas Slade designed, Ardent Class, 64 gun third rate ship of the line, built by Thomas Raymond at Northam. Ordered on the 5th and confirmed on the 10th of February, 1777, she was laid down on the 25th of May, 1779, and launched on the 27th of December, 1784. The ship was completed between the 30th of that month and the 25th of February 1785 at Portsmouth at a cost of £25,037.9.11d plus £6,735 for extras.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Stately
Ordered:	5 December 1778
Builder:	Raymond, Northam
Laid down:	25 May 1779
Launched:	27 December 1784
Honours and awards:	Naval General Service Medal with clasps: "Egypt" "Stately 22 March 1808"
Fate:	Broken up, 1814
General characteristics
Class and type:	Ardent class 64 gun ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1388 (bm)
Length:	160 ft 0.5 in (49 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	44 ft6.5 in (13.5 m)
Depth of hold:	19 ft 9 in (5.8 m)
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	Lower deck: 26 × 24-pounder guns Upper deck: 26 × 18-pounder guns QD: 10 × 4-pounder guns Fc: 2 × 9-pounder guns

Service.

Starting life in ordinary at Portsmouth, HMS Stately underwent a small repair and coppering between the September of 1787 and the April of 1788. She was partly fitted for The Spanish Armament under Captain Robert Calder in 1790 but saw no service.


In 1793 Stately was commissioned under Captain John Samuel Smith as the flagship of Vice Admiral Sir Richard King who took command at Portsmouth on the 24th of July in that year, as was reported in The Times newspaper.
In 1794 she came under Captain Richard fisher and then in 1795 Captain Billy Douglas, and sailed for the East Indies on the 12th of March. She then joined Elphinstone’s squadron at the Cape of Good Hope, where on the 7th of July, 1796 accompanied by other vessels she took the privateer Milanie. On the 17th of August in that year she took part in the capture of the Dutch squadron at Saldanha Bay. In the March of 1797 she was under the command of Captain Patrick Campbell until the August of that year, when Captain Andrew Todd took over her command.

In the August of 1798 she came under Captain John Spanger, followed in the November, by Captain John Osbourn.
It was during this year of Stately’s sojourn at the Cape that she became the venue for the court-martial of Mr. Reid, second mate of the East Indiaman King George. Whilst they were both on shore, Reid had struck Captain Richard Colnett, captain of the ship. The court-martial sentenced Reid to two years in the Marshallsea prison. This was because Colnett held a Letter of Marque Certificate. King George being a "private man-of-war", and the Navy's Articles of War applying only at sea. Had Reid struck Colnett aboard ship, the charge would have been mutiny, for which the penalty would have been hanging.

The Admiralty had Stately converted for use a troopship between the June and August of 1799.
Having been recommissioned in that July by Captain George Scott for service in the Med, she sailed for that theatre in the April of 1800. In 1801 she took part in the Egyptian operations armed en flute, and remained in this guise until 1804 when she returned home for necessary repairs performed by Perry and Co. at Blackwall between the November of 1804 and the May of 1805, at a cost of £22,422. Because Stately served in the navy's Egyptian campaign (8 March to 2 September 1801), her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal that the Admiralty authorised to all surviving claimants in 1847.

Napoleonic Wars.

In the April of 1805 was refitted under Captain George Parker, as a fully armed 64 gun warship intended for North Sea service but by 1808 she was in the Baltic, where on the 22nd of March, accompanied by the Nassau she took and burnt the Danish 74 gun ship Prinds Christian Frederick near Grenaa off Zealand Point.



Stately and Nassau destroying the last Danish ship of the line, Prinds Christian Frederick, commanded by Captain C.W.Jessen, at the Battle of Zealand Point.

In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasps "Stately 22 March 1808" and "Nassau 22 March 1808" to any still surviving crew members of those vessels that chose to claim them.
In the June of 1808 Stately came under Captain William Cumberland’s command, and shortly afterwards returned to England. Between the August and September of that year she underwent a trifling small repair at Portsmouth for £6,402.

In the April of 1809 her Captain was thought to be James Whitley Dundas acting as the Flagship of Rear Admiral Thomas Bertie, once more in the Baltic, bur by the February of 1810 she was back at Portsmouth for repairs which took until April. She next came under the command of Captain Robert Campbell and sailed for the Med on the 28th of December in that year. Her next commander was Captain Edward Dixon, who was in turn superseded by Captain William Stewart in the August of 1812. From then until 1813 she served off Portugal, although she had another change of Captain in the November of 1812 when command passed to Captain Charles Bateman. During 1813 she came under Captain Charles Englis for her final duty as the Flagship of Vice Admiral George Martin.

Fate.

Stately was broken up at Portsmouth in the July of 1814.