Third Rate 64 gun ships of the Royal Navy.

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HMS Raisonnable (1768)

HMS Raisonnable, also spelt Raisonable, was an Ardent Class, 64 gun third rate ship of the line, designed by Thomas Slade and built by M/shipwright Edward Allin until the July of 1767 and completed by Joseph Harris at Chatham Dockyard. Ordered on the 4th of December 1762 and confirmed on the 11th of January 1763, she was laid down in the November of 1765, launched on the 10th of December, 1768, and completed on the 15th of March 1771. Raisonnable was named on the 30th of April, 1763 after the ship of the same name captured from the French in 1758.

Raisonnable
History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Raisonnable
Ordered:	11 January 1763
Builder:	Chatham Dockyard
Laid down:	November 1765
Launched:	10 December 1768
Honours and awards:	Participated in: Battle of Copenhagen Battle of Cape Finisterre
Fate:	Broken up, 1815
General characteristics
Class and type:	Ardent Class 64 gun ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1386
Length:	160 ft 1 in (49 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	44 ft 6 in (13.51 m)
Depth of hold: Draught:	19 ft (5.8 m) 12ft 1 in / 17ft 4in
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Complement:	500 officers and men
Armament:	64 guns: Gundeck: 26 × 24 pdrs Upper gundeck: 26 × 18 pdrs QD: 10 × 4 pdrs Fc: 2 × 9 pdrs

Service.

HMS Raisonnable was commissioned under Captain Maurice Suckling on the 17th of November, 1770 for the Falkland Islands dispute. Suckling was Horatio Nelson’s maternal uncle, and this was the first ship in which Nelson served. The ship was paid off on the 15th of May, 1771 to be fitted as a guardship for the Medway, and at this time, Suckling took command of the 74 gun HMS Triumph, and took Nelson with him. Just 10 days later on the 25th, Raisonnable was recommissioned under Captain Henry St. John St for service with the Channel Fleet. On the 23rd of January, 1773, command passed to Captain Thomas Greaves. Raisonnable paid off at Plymouth on the 23rd of September, 1775. After a small repair she was refitted once more as a guardship for £11,964.16.3d.

The American Revolution.

Raisonnable was re-commissioned on the 25th of February, 1776 under Captain Thomas Fitzherbert, and fitted for sea between the February and March of 1777. In the July of 1778 she was despatched to the North American Station to join Lord Howe’s squadron, which was lying off Sandy Hook in opposition to French Admiral d’ Estang’s large fleet The engagement in battle by the two fleets was only prevented by the inclement weather and sea conditions, which compelled both fleets to disperse.


Raisonnable seen here in the far left background firing into Hunter on the Penobscot Expedition

On the 5th of December, 1778, command of Raisonnable passed to Captain Henry Francis Evans, and in the May of the following year, serving in Commodore Sir George Collier's squadron, she took part in the attack upon Hampton Roads. On the 1st of the month following, Raisonnable was in action upon the river Hudson, during which time, two forts were invested and taken. In August, with Sir George now aboard her, Raisonnable sailed for Penobscot Bay to join British forces who were suffering a siege. On arrival Collier's squadron of only 7 ships engaged a rebel fleet of 41, 2 of which were captured, and the rest either sunk or destroyed to prevent capture.
In the January of 1780, Raisonnable joined Vice Admiral Mariot Arbuthnot’s squadron in the siege of Charleston, although Raisonnable, returned to New York before the siege began.

On the 30th of August in that year, command passed to Captain Sir Digby Dent and Raisonnable returned to England to be paid off in January of the following year after wartime service. On the 11th of May she went into Portsmouth dockyard to undergo middling repairs and re-coppering at a total cost of £17,885.19.4d.
She was recommissioned on on the14th of January, 1782, under Captain Lord Hervey for West Indies service, but returned to Chatham in the August of that year for decommissioning. Her crew were to be discharged to other vessels, but there were delays in finalising their departures and they became mutinous. Captain Hervey made an unsuccessful appeal to the crew to return to their stations, and then had the ringleaders of the mutiny arrested at gunpoint. The mutiny promptly collapsed, and Raisonnable was sailed to Sheerness Dockyard where she was placed under guard. Four of the mutineers were then sentenced to death for their part in the uprising.

With the American war petering out and Raisonnable being surplus to requirements she sailed for home and was laid up in ordinary. From the May of 1785 until theApril of 1786 she underwent a large repair for £26,339. And then in 1791 another small repair.

French Revolutionary War.

When war with France broke out in 1793, Raisonnable, along with many other vessels, was brought out of ordinary, and made ready for service once more. On the 31st of January she was re-commissioned under Captain James, Lord Cranston for service on the Irish station. However, changing circumstances dictated that she joined the Channel Fleet in the April of that year, but by the 14th of January, 1794 she was back in Portsmouth for a refit costing £ 7,323. In the September of that year, under Captain Robert Packer, she once more re-joined the Channel Fleet on the1st of November, and remained on active service firstly under Packer, and then Captain Charles Boyle from the December of 1795 until the14th October, 1796 when she was docked at Plymouth for re-coppering between the end of October of that year and the January of 1797 costing £9,124. In that month she returned to duty still under Boyle’s command. Docked again between the April and August of 1800, she was recommissioned on the 21st of January, 1801, when Captain John Dilks was appointed as Raisonnable's commanding officer.

The ship then rejoined the North sea Squadron. 1801 saw the creation of an alliance between the Danes, Norwegians, and Prussians with Russia in the League of Armed Neutrality which would effectively cut Britain off from the supplies relied upon from the Baltic in order to maintain its ships as seaworthy.

Raisonnable was dispatched as part of Admiral Sir Hyde Parker’s fleet's fleet sent to neutralize the Danish Fleet based at Copenhagen. On the second of April, after negotiations failed, and with the prospect of the Leagues ships combining once the thaw set in, Hyde Parker reluctantly attacked. Although present, Raisonnable took no active part in the Battle of Copenhagen. Following the battle, she was attached to a squadron under Captain George Murray in HMS Edgar, tasked with monitoring the activities of the Swedish Navy based at Karlskrona.. Once the situation in the Baltic had been satisfactorily resolved from the British point of view, Raisonnable returned to the North Sea, prior to being paid off in the April of 1802.

With the Treaty of Amiens having been signed in the March of that year, Raisonnable had defects made good and then underwent a refit at Chatham, and Sheerness. Her copper was repaired at a cost of £10,848, all this being undertaken between the April of that year and the May of 1803.

The Napoleonic Wars.

Having been recommissioned for Channel service in March by Captain William Hotham, once war broke out again with France in that same month Raisonnable was almost ready for sea. She sailed to joined Admiral William Cornwallis and the Channel Fleet, participating in the blockade of Brest.

In the April of 1804 she came under Captain Charles Malcolm, and then in the September of that year Captain Robert Barton. On the 11th of November, Raisonable, together with, Eagle, Glatton, Princess of Orange, Africane, Majestic, Inspector, Beaver, and the hired armed vessels Swift and Agnes, all shared in the capture of Upstalsboom, In the September of that same year Hotham was replaced by Captain Robert Barton, and in the April of 1805 he in turn was replaced by Captain Josais Rowley.
By the end of the following month, she was with Admiral Sir Robert Calder’s squadron off Ferrol, when they uncovered Villeneuve’s combined Franco-Spanish fleet. The ensuing Battle of Cape Finisterre although inconclusive, at least forced the Combined Fleet to seek sanctuary in Vigo in order to refit. During the action Raisonnable lost 2 killed and six wounded.

Raisonnable remained on blockade duty she sailed from Cork in late 1805 for the Cape of Good Hope with Commodore Sir Home Riggs Popham's squadron. This consisted of 9 vessels, which also contained Raisonnable's sister ship, Belliqueux, The following campaign, documented more fully in one of my previous posts, saw British troops drive the Dutch out of Cape town, and the annexation of the Cape Colony by the British. In April 1806, after receiving news that the populous of Buenos Aires were discontented under Spanish rule, and it was rumoured that they would welcome the British as liberators, Popham, without consulting the British Government or Admiralty, unilaterally sailed with his squadron to the Rio de La Plata. Unsuprisingly, Popham was superseded by Rear Admiral Murray and, following a disastrous second attempt to take Buenos Aires, Raisonnable returned to the Cape. In 1809, Captain Rowley with Raisonnable as his flagship, was in command of a squadron which proceeded to blockade the Isle of Mauritius, known to the French as the Isle de France,and Reunion, the Isle de Bourbon. On the 20th of September, Rowley, commanding the squadron from HMS Nereide, captured the town of Saint Paul, the batteries defending it, a 40 gun Frigate Caroline, a 16 gun brig, and 2 merchantmen, as well as rescuing two East India Company ships, the Europe and Streatham. Captain Rowley transferred to HMS Boadicea during the March of 1810, and command of Raisonnable devolved onto the shoulders of Captain John Hatley, who returned with her to England where she was paid off in the July of that year.

Fate.

Between the August and the November of 1810, Raisonnable was fitted as a receiving ship at Chatham, and towed to Sheerness where she was recommissioned under Commander Francis Dickinson as a guardship and receiving ship. In 1811 she came under Commander Thomas New, followed in the May of 1812 by Commander Charles Hewitt, and in the July of that year Captain Edward Clay who was to be her final commander befor she was paid off for the last time in the June of 1814, and going to the breakers yard in the March of 1815.