Third Rate 64 gun ships of the Royal Navy.

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HMS Agamemnon (1781)

HMS Agamemnon was a Thomas Slade designed Ardent Class,64 gun third rate ship of the line, built by Henry Adams at Bucklers Hard. Ordered on the 5th of February, 1777, and re-ordered in the April of that year, she was laid down in the following month and launched the 10th of April, 1781. Her completion took place between the 15th of May and the9th of July in that year at Portsmouth. The total cost of her construction was £38,303 15s 4d
She is remembered as being Nelson's favourite ship, and was named after the mythical Greek king of that name, being the first ship of the Royal Navy to bear it.



A painting of the launch of Agamemnon by Harold Wyllie depicts blue skies and scores of spectators

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Agamemnon
Ordered:	8 April 1777
Builder:	Henry Adams Bucklers Hard
Laid down:	May 1777
Launched:	10 April 1781
Fate:	Wrecked in Maldanado Bay Uruguay, 16 June 1809
General characteristics
Class and type:	Ardent Class 74 gun ship of th line
Tons burthen:	1,383 (bm)
Length:	160 ft 2 in (49 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	44 ft 5 in (13.52 m)
Depth of hold:	18 ft 11 in (5.8 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	64 guns: GD: 26 × 24-pounders UD: 26 × 18-pounders QD: 10 × 4-pounders Fc: 2 × 9-pounders

Service.

Agamemnon was commissioned under Captain Benjamin Caldwell on the 28th of March, 1781, and she was soon assigned to Admiral Richard Kempenfeldt’s squadron. The Admiralty having received intelligence that a large French convoy was preparing to sail from Brest under the command of Admiral de Guichen and being comprised of transports carrying naval supplies for the French West Indian Islands and also the French squadrons deployed in the Far East, dispatched orders to Kempenfelt was consequently ordered to intercept this convoy, which he accomplished whilst traversing the Bay of Biscay, south-west of Ushant , on the 12th of December. With the French naval escort to leeward of the convoy, Kempenfelt attacked immediately, capturing 15 of the transports before nightfall. The rest of the convoy scattered, most returning to Brest; only five transports reached the West Indies.

Early in 1782, she sailed to the West Indies as part of Admiral Sir George Rodney’s squadron, and on the 9th of April, she was involved in the Battle of the Saints It commenced in an indecisive skirmish, involving the ships of the the van under Hood, Rodney’s 2ic. His ships were badly mauled and then retreated to make good their damage. Three days later Agamemnon came into action as the second part of the battle evolved. This time it proved to be a decisive victory for the British fleet. Agamemnon’s losses amounted to 2 lieutenants and 14 crewmen killed, and 22 wounded. After wartime service.

Agamemnon returned home and was paid off at Chatham in the June of 1783. From the 29th of October in that year until the June of 1784 she underwent a small repair there had her coppering replaced at a total cost of £12,393.0.9d, and was laid up in ordinary.
She was refitted for sea in the October and November of 1790, but not recommissioned until the February of 1793.

French Revolutionary War.

She was placed under the command of Captain Horatio Nelson, and after provisioning joined the fleet lying at anchor at the Nore, and then sailed to join the Mediterranean fleet, commanded by Vice-Admiral Hood, which was in the process of blockading the French port of Toulon On the 27th of August the town of Toulon declared in favour of the Bourbons, and Hood's fleet moved in to take control of the naval dockyard and capture the 30 French ships of the line in the harbour. Agamemnon then departed for Naples to petition King Ferdinand for reinforcements. Even with his extra contingent of 4,000 men, the revolutionary army, commanded by Napoleon, launched a successful assault against the town and the allied troops were forced into abandoning the defensive works and ultimately the anchorage itself. Agamemnon’s next action took place on the 22nd of October in that same year when she fought against a French frigate squadron off Sardinia.

In the April and May of, 1794, seamen from Agamemnon, led by Nelson himself, assisted in capturing Bastia in Corsica. Agamemnon then sailed to Gib for repairs, in spite of having been refitted in 1793 before her recommissioning. Following the repairs, Agamemnon returned to Corsica At Calvi Agamemnon provided guns and men for the siege. This was the action in which Nelson was wounded and lost the sight in his right eye, from the ricocheting of a French cannon ball which threw gravel and dirt into his face. The town finally surrendered on the 10th of August. During the siege Agamemnon had lost six men killed.

In the December of 1794 Vice-Admiral Williasm Hotham, took command of the fleet and under him
Agamemnon, participated in the Battle of Genoa. On the 10th of March a French fleet of 15 of the line, had been observed. On the 13th as the French had not made any attempt to close with the British Fleet, Admiral Hotham gave orders to the fleet for a general chase. In the French scramble to withdraw, the Ca Ira collided with the Victoire, losing her masts in the process. This allowed the British van to close, and HMS Inconstant caught up with the Ca Ira engaging her until the Agamemnon and Captain could come up to her assistance. The arrival of more French ships who had returned to succour Ca Ira caused Admiral Hotham to signal a general retreat for the British ships engaged with her. Nevertheless, Ça Ira was taken on the following day, together with another French ship, the Censeur, who had been towing the stricken ship.


Agamemnon (left) battling Ca Ira on 13 March 1795.

On 7 July 1795 off Valdo, whilst in company with a small squadron of Frigates, Agamemnon was forced to flee from a French fleet comprising 22 ships of the line and 6 accompanying frigates. They were next sighted on the 13th of July, off the Hyeres islands by the fleet which gave chase once more and caught the French. During the resulting battle, Agamemnon was one of several ships who managed to come up with the French. Agamemnon and HMS Cumberland were just about to engage a French 80-gun ship, when inexplicably. Hotham again signalled for his fleet to break off the action, thus enabling the French to escape once more despite the mauling that they had received. Hotham was taken to task for his ineptitude and was relieved of his command, Admiral Sir John Jervis being instated in his place.

Nelson, having been promoted to Commodore on the 11th of March 1796 took command of his own squadron, and on the 31st of May, boats from Agamemnon and other ships in Nelson's squadron captured a small French convoy close to the Franco-Italian coast.
On the 10th of June, Nelson transferred his pennant to HMS Captain. Command of the Agamemnon passing to Captain John Samuel Smith.

Agamemnon then returned to England and was paid off in the September of that year. She was refitted at Chatham for £10.623 before being recomissioned under Captain Robert Fancourt who was to remain in command until 1802.

Mutiny.

In the May of 1797, whilst under the command of Fancourt, Agamemnon was involved in the Nore Mutiny. On the 29th of that month, the North Sea squadron lying in the Yarmouth Roads was ordered to sea. Only three ships, Agamemnon, Adamant and Glatton, responded to the signal, but the crew of Agamemnon subsequently joined the mutineers, and returned to Yarmouth Roads. The then sailed to join the main mutiny taking place at the Nore. Order was eventually restored aboard Agamemnon, when seamen and marines forcibly ejected the hard-line mutineers from the ship. Captain Fancourt was thus enabled to secure a pardon for the remaining ship's company.
On 18 March 1800, Agamemnon was damaged when she ran onto the Penmark Rocks.
Agamemnon was next sent to the Baltic in the August of 1800 as part of Dixon’s squadron at Elsinore, and then as part of the fleet under Admiral Sir Hyde Parker and Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson to attack the Danish Fleet. Thus it transpired that Agamemnon came to be included in Nelson's division which fought the Battle of Copenhagen on the 2nd of April, 1801. Agamemnon was positioned second in the line to the rear of HMS Edgar, and after passing down the Outer Channel, she grounded whilst attempting to round the southern tip of the Middle Ground shoal. While the battle raged around her Agamemnon, along with Bellona and Russell, both of whom had also run aground, she flew signals of distress. The three stranded ships were eventually pulled off the Middle Ground in the night of the 3rd of April.


Diagram of the Battle of Copenhagen, showing Agamemnon grounded near the Middle Ground

Agamemnon was laid up at Chatham in 1802.

The Napoleonic Wars.

Agamemnon was brought out of ordinary in the September of 1804, having been recommissioned under Captain John Harvey on the 31st of July, and sailed to join the Channel fleet under Admiral William Cornwallis.
Agamemnon was part of Vice-Admiral Robert Calder's squadron which was cruising off Cape Finisterre on the 22nd of July, 1805, when the combined Franco-Spanish fleet from the West Indies was sighted to windward. The British ships formed into line of battle, with Agamemnon fifth in the line, and engaged Admiral Villenuve’s fleet. During the engagement Agamemnon had three men wounded, and lost her mizzen topmast plus her foresail yard. By nightfall, Calder's fleet had become scattered, and he signalled for the action to be discontinued.


The Battle of Trafalgar.


Ship positions at the beginning of the Battle of Trafalgar.HMS Africa and HMS Neptune are erroneously shown in one another's positions

Following the action at Finnesterre, on the 17th of September, 1805, after a small refit in Portsmouth, Captain Harvey was superseded in command of Agamemnon by Captain Sir Edward Berry and on the 3rd of October she sailed from her anchorage at Spithead to join Vice-Admiral Nelson's fleet off Cadiz. On the 21st of October she fought in the weather column at the Battle of Trafalgar, astern HMS Orion and ahead of HMS Minotaur. Once engaged, she was firing both broadsides simultaneously, hammering the Spanish four decker Flagship Santisima Trinidad until it was dismasted, and with 216 of its complement dead, struck its colours. However, before Berry could take possession of the prize, the enemy van division began bearing down on the British line, With Nelson already dying below decks on Victory, his Captain of the Fleet Thomas Hardy ordered Agamemnon and several other ships to intercept them. Three of the enemy ships broke off and ran for Cádiz. After briefly engaging Intrepide, the British ships moved to try to cut off the fleeing ships. Over the course of the battle, Agamemnon suffered just two killed, and eight wounded.

Having undergone repairs after the battle and subsequent storm, at the beginning of 1806 Agamemnon joined Vice-Admiral Duckworth’s squadron in the West Indies, in pursuit of a French fleet carrying troops to Santo Domingo. On the 6th of February in that year, the two squadrons met up at the Battle of San Domingo; Agamemnon assisted Duckworth's flagship Superb, under Captain Richard Keats, in driving the French Vice-Admiral Leissegues flagship Imperial ashore where she was wrecked.


Duckworth's Action off San Domingo, 6 February 1806, by Nicholas Pocock. HMS Agamemnon is visible in the background, third from left.

On the 24th of March, with the aid of Carysfort, Agamemnon captured the 18 gun La Lutine, and on the 30th of the month she also took the 16 gun privateer La Dame Ernouf. In June her new Captain was Joseph Spear, and In October, she escorted a convoy on her return to Britain. November saw another change of commander to Captain William Fahie, and in December she went into Chatham for a well deserved refit.

In 1807 under her new commander, Captain Jonas Rose, Agamemnon participated in Admiral James Gambier’s expedition to take control of the Danish fleet before it could be captured by the French. As a result of this action by the British and after negotiations with the Danes failed, she participated in the second Battle of Copenhagen, and as in the preceding battle of 1801, once again ran aground. After she was refloated, Agamemnon landed guns and shot in Kjörge Bay to form part of a battery being established there to command the city. Firing commenced on the 2nd of September, and persisted until the Danes surrendered on the 7th of that month.
She then proceeded to the West Indies via Portugal.

Sailing for the Tagus on the 1st of January 1808, Agamemnon joined the blockading squadron off Lisbon. From there in the following month Agamemnon sailed with Rear-Admiral Sir Sidney Smith’s flagship Foudroyant to Brazil, where they joined another squadron. At Rio De Janeiro it was discovered that Agamemnon was again quite worn out, with seams in her planking opening and some of her framing bolts broken. In the October of that year, Agamemnon and Monarch anchored in Maldonado Bay, in the mouth of the Rio de la Plata. Whilst there, Monarch ran aground, requiring Agamemnon's assistance to refloat her. The two ships then put to sea, but were forced to return to Maldonado Bay when they encountered bad weather. After the ships returned to Rio in the January of 1809, the ship was fully surveyed by the carpenter, who drew up an extensive list of her defects.

Fate.

On the 16th of June, 1809 Agamemnon, together with the rest of the squadron (which was now under the command of Rear-Admiral Michael de Courcy), put into Maldonado Bay for the third and final time, to shelter from a storm. While working her way between Gorriti island and the shore, Agamemnon struck an uncharted shoal. Captain Jonas Rose attempted to use the ship's boats, together with the stream and Kedge anchors, to refloat her, but the attempt failed.. The ship had dropped anchor on the shoal just prior to grounding, and it was discovered that she had actually run onto it when she grounded, the anchor having pierced the hull. On the 17th of June, with the ship listing heavily to starboard, Agamemnon's stores and all her crew were taken off by boats from other vessels in the squadron, and the following day Captain Rose and his officers left the ship.

The court-martial for the loss of Agamemnon was held at Rio de Janeiro on the 22nd of July, 1809, aboard HMS Bedford. Its findings were that the ship might have been saved if she had not been in such poor general condition, and Captain Rose was honourably acquitted.