Third Rate 64 gun ships of the Royal Navy.

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HMS Ardent (1782)



HMS Ardent was a an Edward Hunt designed Crown Class, 64-gun third rate ship of the line, built by George Parsons and Staves at Bursledon Hants. Ordered on the 15th of October 1779, she was laid down in the October of 1780 and launched on the 24th of December,1782. She was completed between the 24th of December of that year and the 27th of August, 1783 at Portsmouth.

Plan of Ardent



Quarterdeck and forecastle

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Ardent
Ordered:	15 October,1779
Builder:	Staves & Parsons, Bursledon
Laid down:	October 1780
Launched:	21 December 1782
Fate:	Blown up, 1794
General characteristics
Class and type:		Crown Class 64 gun ship of the line
Type:
Tons burthen:		1387 (bm)
Length:		160 ft 8 in (48.9 m) (gundeck)
Beam:		44 ft 7.5 in (13.7 m)
Depth of hold:		19 ft 4 1⁄2 in (5.9 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-pounder guns

Service.

HMS Ardent was commissioned in the March of 1783 as a guardship for Portsmouth. By 1784 she was under the command of Captain Harry Harmood, still serving as a guard ship. This state of affairs continued until the June of 1790 when she was commissioned for sea under Captain James Vashon to serve in the Spanish Armament and then followed by the Russian Armament. She was paid off again in the September of 1791.

In the February of 1793 she was recommissioned under the command of Captain Robert Manners Sutton, her fitting out being completed in the May of that year. She sailed for the Med on the 23rd of the month, and was with Vice-Admiral Lord Hood at Toulon in August. She was part of a force detached under Robert Linzee to take part in the attack on Corsica in the September of that year, and in the October took part in an attack on a Martello Tower.

Fate.

In April 1794 Ardent was stationed off the harbour of Villafranche on the French Med coast in order to observe a pair of French frigates. It is presumed that she accidentally caught fire and blew up, as at the enquiry into her loss no actual cause was ever identified. Berwick, whilst cruising in the Gulf of Genoa in that summer encountered some wreckage which seemed to suggest the cause was fire and an explosion. A portion of Ardent's quarter deck with some gunlocks deeply embedded in it was found floating in the area, as were splinter nettings driven into planking. There were no survivors. Indeed no trace was ever found of any of her crew of 500.

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HMS Argonaut (1782)

HMS Argonaut was a French built 64-gun third rate ship of the line named Le Jason. She was laid down in the January of 1778, launched on the 13th of February, 1779, and completed in the May of that year in Toulon. She was captured by the British on the 19th of April, 1782 and commissioned by them as HMS Argonaut in the same year.
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History
FRANCE
Name:	Jason
Launched:	1779
Captured:	19 April 1782, by Royal Navy
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Argonaut
Acquired:	19 April 1782
Fate:	Broken up, 1831
General characteristics
Class and type:	64 gun third rate ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1451​77⁄94 (bm)
Length:	166 ft 0 in (50.70 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	44 ft 8 1⁄2 in (13.6 m)
Depth of hold:	19 ft 1 in (5.82 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged
Armament:	64 guns Lower Deck: 26x24 pdrs Upper Deck:26x 18 pdrs QD:10x9 pdrs Fc: 2x9 pdrs

In French Service.

On the 2nd of May, 1780, Jason departed Brest with 7 ships of the line and 3 frigates under Admiral Ternay, escorting 36 transports carrying troops in support of the Continental Army fighting the British in the American Revolution. The squadron comprised the 80-gun Duc de Bourgogne, under Admiral Ternay d’Arsac, the 74 gun Neptune, and Conquerant, and the 64-gun Provence, Bernard de Marigny, Jason and Eveille, and the frigates Surveillante,Amazone, and Bellone. Amazone, which constituted the vanguard of the fleet, arrived at Boston on the11th of June, 1780.

In British Service.

On the 19th of April 1782 whilst in the Mona passage Jason was taken by the ships of Admiral Rodney’s squadron, and was registered as a British ship with effect from that date. She was commissioned by Admiral Rodney, under Captain John Alymer for passage home and sailed on the 25th of July for England. She arrived at Plymouth on the 19th of October and was renamed Argonaut . She then underwent a small repair for £12,745.7.4d between the February and July of 1783.She was then fitted and coppered for a further £9,513 between the April and September of that year.She was not recommissioned until the January of 1793 and still under Alymer sailed for Nova Scotia on the 18th of May 1794.

In 1795, now under Captain Alexander Ball, on the 8th of January, she captured the French Republican warship Esperance on the North America Station. Esperance was armed with 22 guns of 4 and 6lb calibre, and a crew of 130 men. She was under the command of a Lieutenant de Vaisseau De St. Laurent and 56 days out from Rochfort, bound for the Chesapeake. Argonaut shared the prize money with Captain Robert Murray’s Oiseaux.
The French ambassador to the United States registered a complaint with the American President stating that Argonaut, by entering Lynnhaven bay, either before she captured Esperance or shortly thereafter, had violated a treaty between France and the United States. The French also accused the British of having brought Esperance into Lynnhaven for refitting for a cruise. The President passed the complaint to the Secretary of State, who forwarded the complaint to the Governor of Virginia. The Governor inquired into the matter of the British Consul who replied that the capture had taken place some 10 leagues off shore. The weather had forced Argonaut and her prize to shelter within the Chesapeake for some days, but that they had left as soon as practicable. Furthermore, Argonaut had paroled her French prisoners when she came into Lynnhaven and as she had entered American territorial waters solely to parole her French prisoners no one should have thought that objectionable. The authorities in Virginia took a number of depositions but ultimately nothing further came from the matter.
Because she was captured in good order and sailed well, Rear Admiral George Murray, the British commander in chief on the North American station, put a British crew aboard her and sent Esperance out on patrol with the Lynx on the 31st of January.

On the 3rd of August in that same year, Argonaut captured the ship Anna.

Fate.

On her return to England, Argonaut was paid off at Chatham in the October of 1896, fitted as a Hospital ship and placed on harbour service in 1797 under Lieutenant Philip Hue, then under Lieutenant George Paul in 1799. In 1804 she came under Lieutenant John James until finally paid off in 1828, and then eventually broken up in 1831.

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HMS Asia (1764)



HMS Asia at the Halifax Naval Yard in 1797. Watercolour by George Gustavus Lennox, who was a lieutenant aboard Asia

HMS Asia was a Sir Thomas Slade designed 64-gun third rate ship of the line, built by M/shipwright Edward Allin to the May of 1762 and completed by Thomas Bucknall at Portsmouth Dockyard. Ordered on the 4th of March, 1758, and confirmed on the 28th of the month, she was laid down in the 18th of April in that year, and launched on the 3rd of March, 1764.
Sir Thomas Slade had designed her as an experimental ship, and one which proved to be particularly groundbreaking in the fact that she was the first true 64 gun vessel. She proved so successful that the Admiralty Board decided not to order any further 60 gun ships, but went on to commission another 39 of the 64s, incorporating alterations learned from trials with Asia. All the subsequent ships built were bigger; consequently, she was the only ship of her class to be built.

History
Great Britain
Name:	HMS Asia
Ordered:	4 March 1758
Builder:	Edward Allin & Thomas Bucknall, Portsmouth Dockyard
Laid down:	18 April 1758
Launched:	3 March 1764
Commissioned:	March 1771
Fate:	Broken up, 1804
General characteristics
Class and type:	Asia Class 64 gun third rate ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1364​46⁄94 (bm)
Length:	158 ft 0 in (48.2 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	44 ft 6 in (13.6 m)
Draught:	10 ft 2 in (3.1 m) forward 16 ft 6 in (5.03 m) aft
Depth of hold:	18 ft 10 in (5.7 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	Gundeck: 26 × 24-pdr guns Upper gundeck: 26 × 18-pdr guns QD: 10 × 9 pdr guns Fc: 2 × 9-pdr guns + 2 x 24 pdr Carronades from 1794. RH: 6x 18 pdr Carronades from 1794

Service.

HMS Asia was commissioned in the March of 1771 as a guardship and finally sailed from Portsmouth on the 10th of June, 1774.

The American Revolution.

Asia saw early service in the American Revolutionary War, as a transport vessel for 500 Marines sent to New York in 1774 to quell rising tensions among the local population. She arrived at New York on the 4th of December, and remained there until later in the month when she joined a flotilla commanded by Admiral Richard Howe.
On her return to New York Harbour, Asia supplied protection for the merchant ship Duchess of Gordon, where H.M.Royal governor William Tryon had established an ad hoc office in October 1775, fearing arrest by the rebels if he remained in the city.

She was present at the Battle of Brooklyn in the August of1776, and later survived a fire ship attack led by the American revolutionary Silas Talbot. The fire ship fouled Asia setting fire to her, but the crew, aided by men from other nearby vessels, were able to extinguish the flames, before they turned into a general conflagration.
On her return to England in 1777 she underwent a small repair at Portsmouth between the April and August of that year costing £12,277.14.0d. She then escorted some East Indiamen to India between 1778 and 1779.
On her return she was paid off in the April of 1781 and fitted and coppered at Chatham from the January to the June of 1782. She was then recommissioned for service in the channel, and paid off once more in the March of 1783, whereupon she underwent a large repair at Chatham between the May of 1786 and the June of 1787 at a cost of £27,030. She was recommissioned in the June of 1790 by Captain Andrew Mitchell for the Spanish Armament and then paid off.

The French Revolution.

During yet another refit between the April to the August of 1793, Asia was recommissioned in the May of that year under Captain John Brown and on the 26th of December she sailed for the West Indies to join the fleet of Admiral Sir John Jervis in early 1794. In the March of that year, Asia participated in the capture of Martinique with an expeditionary force under the command of Jervis and Lieutenant-General Sir Charles. By the 16th of that month, British forces were able to capture all the forts, excepting those of Forts Bourbon and Royal. On the 20th Asia and the Zebra were intended to have entered r the Carenage at Fort Royal in order to fire upon Fort St. Louis. However, Asia did not take up her position as a result of her pilot, M. de Tourelles, who had been a lieutenant of the port, reneging on his agreement to take her in, ostensibly because of a fear of shoals. Instead, Zebra went in alone, with her captain, Richard Faulknor, and crew landing under the guns of the fort and capturing it.


Capture of Fort Saint Louis, Martinique, 1794, with Asia in the background, and Zebra in the foreground; depicted by William Anderson.

Asia returned to England in the July of 1794, and In the following month Captain John M'Dougall assumed command as she joined the Downs squadron, followed by a period in the North sea during 1795. From the June of that year she performed duty as the Flagship of Rear Admiral Thomas Pringle.

At the commencement of 1796 having sailed to the West Indies, on the 29th of April Asia again faced a possible fire, this time in Port Royal. The fire was self-inflicted in that part of a recently stored delivery of 300 powder barrels on the lower gun deck exploded. Some 300 of the vessel's crew jumped overboard in order to escape the consequences should the nearby main Magazine explode. Asia's captain, officers, and a few of the remaining crew were able to put out the fire. In all, the vessel lost 11 men killed and wounded.

Following the fire, from the May of that year she was under the command of Captain Robert Murray, and on the 16th of August, she sailed for Halifax Nova Scotia. In the October of 1798 she was destined to become the flagship of Vice Admiral George Vanderput on that station. During her time At Halifax she picked up a group of 600 Jamaican Maroons who had been deported from Jamaica the previous year and were now to be transferred to Sierra Leone. She departed on the 8th of August and arrived in Sierra Leone on 30 September, disembarking there the group who came to be called the Jamaican Marroons of Sierra Leone.

On her return to England in 1800, she was refitted at Chatham and recommissioned in the February of 1801 under Captain John Dawson in Vice Admiral Charles Pole’s squadron. This commission ended in 1802 and she was paid off in the March of that year

Fate.
She was broken up in August 1804 at Chatham.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.