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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