Third Rate 64 gun ships of the Royal Navy.

[Bligh]

HMS Belliqueux (1780)


Belliqueux

HMS Belliqueux was yet another Thomas Slade designed Ardent Class 64-gun third rate ship of the line, built by John Perry and Hankey at Blackwall Yard. Ordered on the 19th of February 1778, and laid down in the June of that year, she was launched on the 5th of June, 1780, and completed between the 13th of June and the 31st of August in that same year. She was named after the French ship of that same name captured in 1758.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Belliqueux
Ordered:	19 February 1778
Builder:	Perry, Blackwall Yard
Laid down:	June 1778
Launched:	5 June 1780
Honours and awards:	Participated in: Battle of Fort Royal Battle of the Saints
Fate:	Broken up, 1816
Notes:	Prison ship from 1814
General characteristics
Class and type:	Ardent Class 64 gun ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1379 (bm)
Length:	160 ft (48.8 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	44 ft 4.75 in (13.5 m)
Depth of hold:	19 ft (5.8 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
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-pounders

Service.

HMS Belliqueux was commissioned in the May of 1780 and on the 29th of April, 1781 she took part at the Battle of Fort Royal, between fleets of the Royal Navy and the French. After an engagement lasting four hours, the British squadron under Sir Samuel Hood broke off the action and retreated. De Grasse offered a desultory chase before seeing the French convoy safely to port.

In the following year she was at the Battle of the Saints between the 9th and 12th of April 1782.
The French suffered heavy casualties at the Saintes and many were taken prisoner, including the admiral, Comte de Grasse. Four French ships of the line were captured, including the flagship, and one was destroyed. Rodney was credited with pioneering the tactic of "Breaking the line" in the battle, though this is disputed. During the action Belliqueux suffered 4 killed and 10 wounded.

Belliqueux was paid off in the August of 1783 after the completion of her wartime service.
Following a small repair at Plymouth for £13,952.11.8d she was recommissioned in the April of 1793 under Captain William Otway, but soon passed to the command of Captain George Bowen and sailed for Jamaica on the 20th of March 1794. In the May of that year she joined Ford’s Squadron at Port-au- Prince, and in the following month was placed under the command of Captain James Brine. She was paid off in the September of 1995.

In the May of 1796 she was recommissioned and came under the command of Captain John Inglis bound for Duncan’s fleet at the Battle of Camperdown in the October of 1797. Following the battle Inglis who had commanded her bravely was commended for his action.

At the action on the 4th of August 1800, which was. a highly unusual engagement which occurred off the Brazilian coast. A force of French Frigates which had been raiding British commerce off West Africa approached and attempted to attack a convoy of valuable East Indiamen, large and heavily armed merchant vessels sailing from Britain to India and China, two ships sailing for Botany Bay, and a whaler sailing for the South Seas' whale fishery. Belliqueux was escort to the convoy, which otherwise had to rely on the ships' individual armament to protect them from attack. Due to their large size, the East Indiamen could be mistaken for ships of the line at a distance, and the French commander Commodore Jean- Francois- Landolphe was un-nerved when the convoy formed line of battle. Supposing his target to be a fleet of powerful warships he turned to escape and the British commander, Captain Rowley Bulteel, immediately ordered a pursuit. To preserve the impression of warships he also ordered four of his most powerful East Indiamen to join the chase.

Belliqueux rapidly out ran Landolphe's flagship Concorde, leaving Landolphe with no option but to surrender without any serious resistance. The rest of the French squadron continued to flee separately during the night, each pursued by two East Indiamen. After an hour and a half in pursuit, with darkness falling, the East Indiaman Exeter came alongside the French Medee, giving the impression by use of lights that she was a large ship of the line. Believing himself outgunned, Captain Jean-Daniel Coudin surrendered, only discovering his assailant's true identity when he came aboard. The action is the only occasion during the war in which a British merchant vessel captured a large French warship.

On her return to England Belliqueux was repaired by Perry and Co. at Blackwall between the October of 1804 and the March of 1805. She was then fitted at Woolwich in the following month under Captain George Byng, who was to retain this post until 1811.

She sailed for the East Indies in the September of 1805, and joined Popham’s squadron at the Cape of Good Hope. After the Dutch Governor Jansens signed a capitulation on the 18th of January, 1806, and the British established control of Cape Colony, Belliqueux escorted the East Indiamen William Pitt, Jane ,Dutchess of Gordon, Sir William Pulteney, and Comet to Madras. The convoy also included the Northampton, Streatham, Europe, Union, Glory, and Sarah Christiana.

At Madras, the captains of the eight East Indiamen in the convoy joined together to present Captain George Byng, of Belliqueux, a piece of silver plate worth £100 as a token of appreciation for his conduct while they were under his orders. Byng wrote his thank you letter to them on 24 April.

Belliqueux now continued her voyage and joined Pellew’s squadron at Batavia in the November of that same year. One unfortunate incident during this period was the death of Philip Dundas the Lieutenant Governor of Penang whilst aboard Belliqueux on the 8th of April 1807, whilst Belliqueux was crossing the Bay of Bengal.
In 1809 Belliqueux was present at the occupation of Rodrigues, and then continued on to China with a convoy during the June of 1810.

Fate.

On her return to England in the August of 1811 she was paid off at Sheerness.
Belliqueux was fitted as a prison ship at Chatham from the October of 1813 to the February of 1814 serving there under Lieutenant William Lee until she was decommissioned and broken up in the March of 1816.

[Bligh]

HMS Bienfaisant (1758)

Bienfaisant was a Mathurin-Louis Geoffroy designed 64 gun ship of the line of the French Navy, built a Brest between1752 and its launching in 1754.It was completed in the February of 1756.

History
France
Name:	Bienfaisant
Launched:	1754
Captured:	25 July 1758, by Royal Navy
Great Britain
Name:	HMS Bienfaisant
Acquired:	25 July 1758
Fate:	Broken up, 1814
Notes:	Participated in: Battle of Cape St Vincent
General characteristics
Class and type:	64 gun third rate ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1360​7⁄94 (bm)
Length:	153 ft 9 in (46.9 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	44 ft 6 in (13.6 m)
Depth of hold:	19 ft 4 in (5.9 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	64 guns of various weights of shot

Service.

A cutting out expedition on the orders Admiral Edward Boscawen captured her on the night of the 25th of July, 1758 during theseige of Louisbourg Bienfaisant and the 74-gun Prudent were the last remaining ships of the line of the French squadron left in Louisbourg harbour. Prudent had run aground and so her captors set fire to her, but men commanded by Commander George Balfour of the Bomb Ketch HMS Aetna boarded Bienfaisant and brought her out of the harbour. The action provided a decisive moment of the siege as the fortress surrendered on the following day. Bienfaisant was purchased into the Royal Navy on the 10th of April 1759.
She was commissioned as the HMS Bienfaisant and fitted at Portsmouth for £8,645.8.11d between the January and May of 1759.

She was paid off after wartime service in the August of 1763. From the March of 1768 until the June of 1771 she underwent a great repair at Plymouth at a cost of £22,482. Recommissioned in the November of 1776 she served as a guardship until the May of 1777.Then in late 1777 on the North American station Bienfaissant, under Captain McBride, captured the privateer American Tartar, of 24 guns and 200 men. Bienfaissant then accompanied her to St Johns, Newfoundland. During 1779 she wasrefitted and coppered at Plymouth.

She took part in the Battle of St Vincent on the 16th of January,1780, during the encounter she suffered no casualties whatsoever, although damage suffered to her structure has to be repaired between the May and July of that year.

Returning to duty, on the 19th of July, Bienfaisant encountered the French 32-gun frigate Nymphe, returning to Brest from America. Nymphe managed to escape but in the following month Bienfaisant successfully captured The Comte de Artois off Ireland.

Bienfaisant participated, under the command of Captain Braithwaite, in the Battle of Dogger Bank a bloody encounter between a British squadron under Vice Admiral Sir Hyde Parker and a Dutch squadron under Vice Admiral Johan Zoutman, both of which were escorting convoys. With a reduced armament on her lower deck Bienfaisant participated as the last ship in the British line.

She paid off once more after wartime service in the March of 1783 and was fitted for ordinary at Plymouth.

Fate.

Bienfaisant underwent a series of changes in duties over the next few years until 1803 when a series of lieutenants took over her command still residing in Plymouth until she was finally broken up there in the November of 1814.

[Bligh]

French ship Le Caton (1777)

Le Caton was a Caton class, 64-gun ship of the line of the French Navy designed by Marie-Blaise Coulomb. She was built at Toulon between the April of 1770 and the May of 1777 when she was launched.She was completed in the May of 1778.

History
France
Name:	Caton
Builder:	Toulon
Laid down:	April 1770
Launched:	5 July 1777
Completed:	May 1778
Captured:	19 April 1782, by Royal Navy
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	Caton
Acquired:	19 April 1782
In service:	Registered on 29 January 1783
Reclassified:	Hospital ship from August 1790
Fate:	Sold on 9 February 1815
General characteristics
Class and type:	Caton Class 64 gun third rate ship of the line
Tons burthen:	​1,407 23⁄94 (bm)
Length:	166 ft (51 m) (gundeck) 136 ft 4.75 in (41.5735 m) (keel)
Beam:	44 ft 0.5 in (13.424 m)
Depth of hold:	19 ft 4 in (5.89 m)
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Complement:	500 (491 from 1794)
Armament:	LD deck: 26 × 24-pounders UD: 26 × 18-pounders QD: 10 × 9-pounders Fc: 2 × 9-pounders

French Service.

In 1780, Caton was part of the squadron under Guichen, captained by Georges- Francois de Framond. Caton was later attached to the squadron commanded by DE Grasse. She took part in the Battle of Martinique on the 17th of April, 1780, as well as in the two smaller engagements of the15th and 19th of May in that year.
At the Battle of Fort Royal on the 29th of April, 1781, Caton was one of the four ships who came to reinforce the squadron under De Grasse, along with Victoire, Réfléchi and Solitaire. She took part in the Battle of the Chesapeake on the 5th of September in that same year.

On the 10th of April ,1782, in the run-up to the Battle of the Saintes, Caton found herself becalmed and Framond asked for assistance. Despite having been sent a frigate, Framond decided to anchor at Basse-Terre without authorisation from his hierarchy. He thus failed to take part in the Battle of the Saintes, and a few days later, on the 19th of April, Caton was captured at the Battle of the Mona Passage.

British Service.

Caton having been taken was commissioned by Admiral Rodney on the 19th of May, 1782 under Captain Richard Fisher for the journey home and she sailed on the 25th of July bound for England. She arrived at Plymouth on the 19th of October, and had her commission as the 64 gun third rate HMS Caton. This was registered on the 29th of January 1783, backdated to her commissioning date.

She was fitted for ordinary between the January and February of 1784, and in the August of 1790 she became Hospital ship still at Plymouth under Commander James May. Recommissioned in the January of 1794 under Lieutenant William Bevians, her next commander was Lieutenant Richard Brown from the August of 1797 until 1801 when she was recommissioned there again, this time in the role of a prison hospital ship. She came under the command of Lieutenant John Simpson from 1813 to 1814.

Fate.

She was sold out of the service at Plymouth for £2,500 on the 9th of February, 1815.

[Bligh]

HMS Crown (1782)

HMS Crown was a ,1779, Edward Hunt designed Crown Class, 64 gun third rate ship of the line. It was the final British design for a 64 and added a few changes to the earlier designs. Its overall length was extended by 6in, and it incorporated an extra pair of gun ports on the upper deck forrard in the chase position, but had no additional guns supplied.

Built by Perry and Hankey of Blackwall, she was ordered on the 14th of October, 1778, laid down in the September of 1779 and launched on the 15th of March 1782. She was completed at Woolwich on the 18th of May in that same year.


Plan of the Orlop deck of Crown

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Crown
Builder:	Perry, Blackwall yard
Laid down:	September 1779
Launched:	15 March 1782
Fate:	Broken up, 1816
General characteristics
Class and type:	Crown Class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1405 ​8⁄94 (bm)
Length:	160 ft 5 in (48.90 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	44 ft 10 in (13.67 m)
Depth of hold:	19 ft 5.5 in (5.880 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	64 guns: GD: 26 × 24 pdrs UG deck: 26 × 18 pdrs QD: 10 × 9 pdrs+ 2x 24 pdr Carronades from1794 Fc: 2 × 9 pdrs RH: 6x 18 pdr Carronades from 1794.

Service.

HMS Crown was commissioned in the March of 1782, and joined the squadron cruising in the Bay of Biscay in the July of that year. On the 11th of September she joined Howe cruising off Lisbon.
On her return to England in the April of 1784 she was paid off but recommissioned in that same month for use as a guardship at Plymouth.

Paid off again in 1786 she was coppered for a cost of £3496 and that September she was recommissioned still as a guardship. Paid off once more in the October of 1788 she was recommissioned for service at sea at Chatham between the October and November of 1788 and sailed for the East Indies.

She returned to England in 1792 and was paid off once again.

In the May of 1798 she was converted to serve as a prison ship under Lieutenant John Baker until 1801.In the September of that year Lieutenant Benjamin Leigh took over her command, and the following year she was fitted as a powder hulk at Portsmouth. She was refitted as a prison ship again in the June of 1806 and commissioned under Lieutenant John Smith who died in the December of that year. She thus passed to the command of Lieutenant James Rose from 1807 to 1811, and then Lieutenant William Wickham until 1814.

Fate.

HMS Crown was placed into ordinary in 1815, and was broken up in the March 1816 at Portsmouth.

[Bligh]

HMS Diadem (1782)


Diadem at the capture of the Cape of Good Hope by Thomas Whitcombe.

HMS Diadem was a John Williams designed, Intrepid Class, 64 gun, third rate ship of the line, built at Chatham by M/shipwright Israel Pownoll until the April of 1779, and then completed by Nicholas Phillips. Ordered on the 5th of December 1777, she was laid down in the February of 1778, and launched on 19 December 1782, and completed there on the 19th of July 1783 for use as a guardship.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Diadem
Ordered:	5 December 1777
Builder:	Chatham Dockyard
Laid down:	2 November 1778
Launched:	19 December 1782
Commissioned:	March 1783
Honours and awards:	Participated in Battle of Cape St Vincent Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Egypt"
Fate:	Broken up at Plymouth, September 1832
General characteristics
Class and type:	Intrepid Class 64 gun ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1375½ (bm)
Length:	159 ft 10 in (48.72 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	44 ft 5 in (13.54 m)
Depth of hold:	19 ft (5.8 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Complement:	500
Armament:	Gundeck: 26 × 24-pounder guns Upper gundeck: 26 × 18-pounder guns QD: 10 × 4-pounder guns Fc: 2 × 9-pounder guns

Service.

HMS Diadem was commissioned in the March of 1783 to serve as a guardship at Chatham, and then at Plymouth from 1784 where her copper was repaired at a cost of £1.547.3.4d. Following the work she was recommissioned in the February of 1793 under Captain Andrew |Southerland, and sailed for the Med on the 15th of October in that year.

She took part in the Toulon operations during the latter part of 93, and into 1794.
In 1795 she came under the command of Captain Charles Taylor and was in Hotham’s action off Genoa on the 13th of March, during which action she suffered 3 killed and 7 wounded.

On the 13th of July she was in action again, this time off the Hyeres.

In 1796 she was transferred to Nelson’s squadron under Captain George Henry Towry off Genoa in the April of 1796,and then as Nelson’s Flagship at Leghorn in the August of that year. It was under Captain Towry that
she participated in the Battle of St. Vincent on the 14th of February 1797, during which she suffered 2 killed and 7 wounded. From this action she moved onto the blockade of Cadiz in the April of that same year.

In 1798 she was converted to serve as a Troopship at Plymouth for £7,412. Recommissioned under Captain John Dawson in 1799, on the 7th of April she left Portsmouth together with Trompe. They were to carry the West York militia to Dublin.

In 1800 under the command of Post Captain Sir Thomas Livingstone she was employed in the Quiberon operation
and also at Belle Isle under Sir Edward Pellew.

In 1801 under Captain John Larmoor she was with Lord Keith’s squadron in the Med, and employed in the expedition to Cadiz. She also took part ain the landings at Aboukir on the 8th of March 1801.
Because Diadem served in the navy's Egyptian campaign between the 8th of March, 1801 and the 2nd of September, her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal that the Admiralty authorised in 1850 to all surviving claimants.

The ship, paid off at Woolwich April 1802.

Following a small to middling repair at Woolwich between the April of 1804 and the January of 1805, she was recommissioned under Captain Home Popham for Channel service. In the May of that year she came under the command of Captain Charles Grant and then in the January of 1806 Captain Hugh Downman as the Flagship of the now Rear Admiral Popham. She was with him at both the capture of the Cape of Good Hope, and then the River Plate operations. On the 30th of July in that year she took the Spanish Brig Arrogante off Montevideo, Later in the year under Captain Samuel Warren she became the Flagship of Rear Admiral Charles Sterling for further operations in the region of the River Plate.

On her return to England, between the April and July of 1810 Diadem was at Chatham being fitted for service as a troopship of 28 guns. In June she recommissioned under Captain John Phillimore for Lisbon. She then spent some time working with the Spanish anti-French forces on the north coast of Spain. In the January of 1812 she carried released Danish prisoners of war from Plymouth to Chatham. She then sailed to North America. On the 7th of October in that year, Diadem captured the American privateer Baltimore.

Later, she sailed to the Halifax station. Phillimore transferred to command of HMS Eurotas on the 4th of May, 1813 and Diadem came under the command of Captain John Hanchett. On the 22nd of June her boats were involved in an attack on Norfolk Virginia.

Fate.

By the December of 1814 she was back in England and paid off at Plymouth. Fitted there as a receiving ship in the following year, and then as a troopship once more between the years 1822 and 1825, she reverted to her role as a receiving ship in the latter part of that year.

Diadem was broken up at Plymouth in the September of 1832.

[Bligh]

HMS Dictator (1783)

HMS Dictator was a John Williams designed Inflexible Class 64 gun third rate ship of the line, built by Robert Batson at Limehouse. Ordered on the 21st of October, 1778, and laid down in the the May of 1780, she was launched on the 6th of January, 1783 and completed on the 30th of May in that year at Woolwich.


A plan, showing the body, sheer lines, with inboard detail, and longitudinal half breadth of HMS Dictator which may represent her as built in 1783.

.
History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:		HMS Dictator
Ordered:		21 October 1778
Builder:		Batson, Limehouse
Laid down:		May 1780
Launched:		6 January 1783
Honours and awards:		Naval General Service Medal with clasps: "Egypt" "Off Mardoe 6 July 1812"
Fate:		Broken up in 1817
General characteristics
Class and type:	Inflexible Class 64 gun ship of the Line
Tons burthen:	1387 (bm)
Length:	159 ft 4in (48’.01m) (gundeck)
Beam:	44 ft 8.5 in (13.52 m)
Depth of hold:	18 ft in (5.0 m)
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	Gundeck: 26 × 24-pounder guns Upper gundeck: 26 × 18-pounder guns QD: 10 × 9-pdr guns Fc: 2 × 9-pounder guns

Service.

HMS Dictator was commissioned on the 1st of January 1783 as a Guard ship in the Medway. She was paid off in the March of 1876, had a small repair at Chatham in the summer of 1879 costing £4,000.and was recommissioned under Captain Richard Bligh in the August of 1790 as the Flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Richard King.
She was recommissioned in the April of 1791 under Captain Thomas Tonkin as the Flagship of Rear Admiral John Dalrymple and receiving ship at Blackstakes until paid off n the September of that year.

After being refitted for sea at Chatham in the autumn of 1793 she was recommissioned under Captain Edmund Dod, and on the 5th of March 1794 sailed for the West coast of Africa under Captain Nathan Brunton. She returned home late in that year and was paid off once more. Fitted at Portsmouth between the February and July of 1795 for £ 9,323, in the September she was recommissioned under Captain Thomas Totty and sailed for Jamaica on the 26th of February, 1796.

The French Revolutionary Wars.

In 1797 Dictator first came under the command of Captain Thomas Western and then Captain William Rutherford.
The most important colonial expedition of that year was the one which led to the capture of Trinidad. Being based on the Leeward Islands' station, Rear-Admiral Henry Harvey took command of the invasion Squadron which sailed from Port Royal, Martinique on February the 12th Aboard the ships were a body of troops under Lieut. General Sir Ralph Abercromby. At a rendezvous off Carriacou, on the 14th of the month, they picked up reinforcements, and, on the 16th, arrived at Trinidad, and steered for the Gulf of Paria by way of Boca Grande. At 3.30 P.M., just as the British had cleared the channel, in Shagaramus bay, they discovered a Spanish squadron of four sail of the line and a frigate riding at anchor.

As the entrance to the enemy's anchorage appeared to be well protected by a battery of twenty guns and two mortars posted upon the island of Gaspargrande, and also as the day was already far advanced, Harvey sent his transports, protected by the Arethusa, Thorn, and Zebra, to find a berth about five miles from Port of Spain, and ordered the Alarm, and Victorieuse to keep under sail between the enemy and Port of Spain, whilst, he anchored with his ships of the line within long gunshot of the Spanish ships and batteries The intention being that of preventing the foe from escaping during the night, and on the following morning taking measures for their destruction.

To the surprise of the British, the Spaniards, at about 2 A.M. on the 17th, began to set fire to their ships, and, before dawn, four out of the five were almost totally destroyed. The fifth ship, the San Damaso (74) which was undamaged was brought off without resistance by the boats of the squadron, the Spaniards having evacuated Gaspargrande Island. This was occupied in the early morning by part of the Queen's Regiment, and, in the course of the day. Other troops were landed, without interruption, three miles from Port of Spain, which was quietly entered that evening. On the following day the island of Trinidad peacefully capitulated. The Spaniards, it afterwards appeared, had burnt their ships because they had barely half the officers and men that were required to man them.

Those British ships directly involved were:-
The Prince of Wales 98, Captain John Harvey,
Bellona 74, George Wilson,
Invincible 74, William Cayley,
Vengeance 74, Thomas Macnamara Russell,
Favourite 16, James Athol Wood,
and Terror 8, Dunbar Douglas.

Dictator only participated in the latter stages of the action, not having arrived until the 18th of February and the issue of prize money reflecting this late arrival.

Returning to England, Dictator was fitted as a troopship in the May of 1798 under Captain Byam Martin, and then in 1799 Captain John Oakes Hardy until 1801 firstly in the North Sea and then in the Egyptian operations. On the 8th of March, 1801, whilst disembarking the army at the Battle of Aboukir during the French Egyptian campaign, one of Dictator’s seamen was killed and a midshipman, Edward Robinson, fatally wounded.

Prize money for the capture of enemy ships, was as usual, shared with other warships in the squadron.
Because Dictator had served in the navy's Egyptian campaign, her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal, issued in 1847 to all surviving claimants.
The ship was paid off in the March of 1802, and fitted at Chatham as a floating battery costing £6,888., between the February and May of 1803, for service at Sheerness.

The Napoleonic Wars.

Having been recommissioned by Captain John Newhouse, Dictator was placed under the command of Captain Charles Tinling for use as a guardship in Kings Deep, and later in 1804 this duty devolved onto Captain Richard Hawkins. She was then reinstated as a 64 gun ship by Cox and Co for £26.016. between the October of that year and the May of 1805. She was recommissioned in the following month under Captain James Macnamara for service in the North sea, and then between the June of 1807 and 1808 Captain Donald Campbell took over command.
In the late summer of that year, Dictator was part of Admiral Gambier's fleet in the Øresund at the Battle of Copenhagen where she shared prize money with some 126 other British naval ships. She was again in Danish Waters the following year, in Admiral Hood's squadron of four ships-of-the-line together with some smaller vessels, tasked with maintaining the blockade between Jutland and Zealand. Captain Campbell, ordered the sloop HMS Falcon to proceed on her successful patrols to Samsø, Tunø and Endelave.

In the March of 1809 Dictator came under the command of Captain Richard Pearson and in the August of that year she was tasked with the occupation of the Pea Islands to the east of Bornholm but ran aground en route and had to be towed back to Karlskrona for repairs.

In early July 1810, Dictator came under the command of Captain Robert Williams during the Gunboat war with the coalition of Denmark-Norway. Dictator, in company with the Edgar and Alonzo, sighted three Danish gunboats commanded by Lieutenant Peter Nicolay Skibsted, who had captured the Grinder in the April of that year. The gunboats (Husaren, Løberen, and Flink) sought refuge in Grena, on eastern Jutland, where a company of soldiers and their field guns could provide cover. However, the British mounted a cutting out expedition of some 200 men in ten ships’ boats after midnight on the 7th of July, capturing the three gunboats.
At some time during this period the command of Dictator again changed. Her new captain, James Patterson Stewart was to hold the post until the April of the following year.

Throughout the first half of 1812 , from April onward, Dictator was captained by Alexander Schomberg and led a small squadron consisting of three brigs, the 18-gun Calypso, 14-gun Podargus and the 14-gun Flamer. On the 7th of July they encountered the Danish-Norwegian vessels Najaden, a frigate finished in 1811 in part with parts salvaged from a ship-of-the-line destroyed in earlier battles, and three brigs, Kiel, Lolland and Samsøe. Najaden was under the command of Danish naval officer Hans Peter Holm, and In the ensuing Battle of Lyngor Dictator destroyed Najaden and the British took Laaland and Kiel as prizes, but had to abandon them after the two vessels ran aground. The action cost Dictator five killed and 24 wounded. In 1847 the surviving British participants were authorized to apply for the clasp "Off Mardoe 6 July 1812" to the Naval General Service Medal.

The following month Captain William Hanwell assumed command until the ship was paid off in the November of that year.

The War of 1812.

Dictator was fitted as a troopship at chatham between the June and September of 1813, during which process Captain George Crofton was put in command. In the December of that year command devolved onto the shoulders of Commander Henry Dilks Byng. She then came under Lieutenant James Tattnall who sailed her to North America, and she then came under the command of Commander Henry Montressor in the February of 1815.

Fate.

HMS Dictator was among Admiral Alexander Cochrane's fleet moored off New Orleans at the start of 1815, but by the October of that year she was back in Portsmouth where she was laid up, and broken up there in the April of 1817.

[Bligh]

HMS Director (1784)


HMS Director

HMS Director was a Thomas Slade designed Saint Albans Class 64 gun third rate ship of the line, scaled down from his Bellona Class74s.Built William Cleverley at Gravesend, she was ordered on the 2nd of August, 1780, laid down in the November of that year, and launched on the 9th of March, 1784. Completion took place at Woolwich between the 14th of March and the 23rd of July in that year.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Director
Ordered:	2 August 1780
Builder:	Cleverley, Gravesend
Laid down:	November 1780
Launched:	9 March 1784
Fate:	Broken up, Chatham January 1801
Notes:	Participated in: Battle of Camperdown
General characteristics
Class and type:	64-gun St Albans Class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1388 (bm)
Length:	159 ft 1 in (48.5 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	44 ft 6.75 in (13.5 m)
Depth of hold:	18 ft 10 in (5.7 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	Gundeck: 26 × 24-pounder guns Upper gundeck: 26 × 18-pounder guns QD: 10 × 9-pounder guns Fc: 2 × 9-pounder guns

Service.

HMS Director was commissioned under Captain Thomas West in the March of 1879 for service as a guard ship in the Medway. She was fitted in this role at Chatham for the sum of £2643 between the February and July of 1789.
Refitted for the Spanish Armament in 1790, and then back into ordinary in the June of that year.
Fitted as a lazarette at Chatham in for £1,008.in the May of 1794, and then at last fitted as a 64 gun ship in 1796, at Chatham for £10,775., and recommissioned under Captain William Bligh, who would retain his captaincy until 1800.

In early 1797 Director was under his command whilst he surveyed the Humber estuary, preparing a map of the stretch from Spurn Head to the west of Sunk Island. In the May of that year, his crew mutinied during the Mutinies at Spithead and the Nore between the May and June of that year. Their actions were not triggered by any specific actions by Bligh himself. By the 12th of October he had restored order to the crew so successfully that Director was able to take an active part in the Battle of Camperdown, where she captured the Dutch commander, Vice-Admiral Jan de Winter, and his flagship, Vrijheid. Director suffered a total of 7 wounded during the battle.


H.M.S. Director 1784, at St Helena with a view of Jamestown

Fate.

Director was decommissioned in the July of 1800 and broken up at Chatham in the January of 1801.