Third Rate 64 gun ships of the Royal Navy.

[Bligh]

HMS STANDARD (1782)

HMS Standard was the last of the 15 Inreepid Class 64 gun third rate ships of the line built to a design by John Williams, and built by m/shipwright Adam Hayes at Deptford dockyard. Ordered on the 5th of August 1779, she was laid down in the May of 1780, and launched on the 8th of October, 1782. The ship was completed at Woolwich between the 18th of October and the19th of December in that year, her total cost amounting to £34,347.11.4d.


Plan of Standard

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:		HMS Standard
Ordered:		5 August 1779
Builder:		Deptford Dockyard
Laid down:		May 1780
Launched:		8 October 1782
Fate:		Broken up, 1816
General characteristics
Class and type:	Intrepid Class 64 gun ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1369 (bm)
Length:	159 ft 6 in (48.6 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	44 ft 4 in (13.5 m)
Depth of hold: Draught:	19 ft (5.8 m) 12ft 2in x 17ft 1 in
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 Standard was commissioned under Captain William Dickson in the September of 1782, and recommissioned in March 1783 as a guardship at Plymouth, and fitted for this role in the September of that year. She was paid off in the September of 1786, and recommissioned in the same month for the same duty, under Captain Charles Chamberlyane. She was next paid off in the February of 1788.

She was next fitted at Plymouth between the February and June of 1795 for £12,490, recommissioned under Captain Joseph Ellison, for Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren’s squadron, and dispatched forthwith for the Quiberon operations which conclueded in the September of that year. On the 28th of February, 1796 Standard sailed for the East Indies, temporarily under the command of Captain H Lukin. By the October of that year she was back in the North Sea. In the February of 1797 she was under Captain Thomas Parr, and then in the September of that same year Captain Thomas Shivers. From mid April to mid May, Standard was involved in the Nore Mutiny. On the 5th of May her crew had taken over the ship and trained cannon on officer’s enraged over the issue of the dilatory practice of payment in arrears. After the mutiny collapsed, William Wallis, one of the leaders on Standard, shot himself to avoid trial and hanging. William Redfern, her surgeon's mate, was sentenced to death for his role in the mutiny, which was later commuted to transportation for life to the colony of New South Wales. Order having been thus restored she was paid off in the December of that year.

She was recommissioned in February 1799 as a prison ship at Sheerness under lieutenant Thomas Pamp. In November she was fitted as a convalescent ship at Chatham. One month later she was recommissioned under Lieutenant Jacques Dalby as a hospital ship at Sheerness.

Between March and May 1801 Standard was refitted at Chatham, for the sum of £15,110. as a 64 gun ship once more, being commissioned during this time in the April of that year under Captain Charles Stewart, for service in the North Sea. She was paid off in the April of 1802, repaired by Barnard and Co. at Deptford, refitted at various times, and recommissioned in August 1805 under Captain Thomas Harvey, who would remain in command until 1808, and then sailed for the Eastern Mediterranean in order to join Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Louis’s squadron.

During 1807, whilst based in the Med, she took part in Vice admiral Sir John Duckworth’s unsuccessful operation in the Dardanelles On the 19th of February; Standard suffered three crewmen wounded while forcing the passage.


Duckworth's squadron forcing the Dardanelles.

Near a redoubt at Port Pesquies the British encountered a Turkish squadron of one ship of 64 guns, four frigates and eight other vessels, most of which they ran aground. Marines from HMS Pompee spiked the 31 guns on the redoubt, and Standard aided by Thunderer destroyed three Turkish frigates which had run ashore. On the 27th of that month Standard had two men wounded assisting a Royal Marine landing party on the island of Prota.
During their retirement, the British squadron were subjected to fire from the Turkish castle at Abydos. Granite cannonballs weighing 700–800 pounds and measuring well over 6 ft in circumference smote the Active, Standard, and Windsor Castle. the shot itself killing four men aboard Standard. It also started a fire and explosion which led to four seamen jumping overboard. In total, Standard lost four dead, 47 wounded, and four missing (believed drowned). In all, the British ships suffered 29 killed and 138 wounded.

On the 26th of March, 1808, cruising off Cape Blanco, Standard, accompanied by the 38 gun frigate Active, captured the Franco-Italian 18 gun Brig, Friedland. After a chase lasting several hours Captain Richard Mowbray of Active took possession of the Brig. Had she not had the misfortune to lose her topmast, she might well have made her escape. Active accompanied her prize to Malta, together with the prisoners, who included Commodore Don Amilcar Paolucci, commander in chief of the Italian Marine and Knight of the Iron Crown.

On the 16th of June, whilst Standard was cruising off the island of Corfu, she encountered the Italian gunboat Volpe, armed with an iron 4-pounder cannon, escorting the French dispatch boat Legera. The wind having fallen off, Captain Harvey dispatched his ships pinnace, cutter, and yawl in an attempt to capture the enemy ships. The British overhauled their quarry after having rowed for two hours. They captured Volpe despite facing stiff resistance, and then caused the Legera to run aground about four miles north of Cape St. Mary. The French crew took to the rocks above their vessel and kept up a continuous small arms fire on the British seamen who took possession of the vessel and towed her off. They then burnt both vessels. Despite the resistance and small arms fire the British had suffered no casualties.

During 1809 Standard served in the the Baltic under Captain Aiskew Hollis during the Gunboat War. On the 18th of May in that year a squadron consisting of Standard, the frigate HMS Owen Glendower, and the vessels Avenger, Rose, Ranger and Snipe, took the island of Anholt, with a landing party of seamen and marines under the command of Captain William Selby of the Owen Glendower, together with the assistance of Captain Edward Nicholls contingent of Royal Marines from Standard. The Danish garrison of 170 men put up a sharp but ineffectual resistance which only killed one British marine and wounded two others. The garrison then quickly capitulated, and the British took immediate possession of the island.

Hollis, in his report, stated that Anholt was strategically important insofar as it could furnish not onlt supplies of water to His Majesty's fleet, but also afforded a secure anchorage for merchant vessels sailing to and from the Baltic seaports. However, the principal objective of the mission was to restore the lighthouse on the island to its pre-war state to facilitate the movement of British men of war and merchantmen navigating the dangerous seas in the vicinity.

On the 19th of December, 1810, still under Captain Hollis, Standard sailed for the Med again. By the February of 1811 she had reached the Portuguese station, now temporarily under the command of Captain Joshua Horton, and then In May command was passed temporarily to Captain Charles Fleeming.

Fate.

On her return to England, Standard was paid off into ordinary in 1813. She was broken up in the October of 1816 at Sheerness.