3rd Rate ships of the Royal Navy. 1793 to 1815.

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HMS Mars (1794)





HMS Mars was the name ship of its class. a 74-gun third-rate,designed by Sir John Henslow, and ordered on the17th of January, 1788. Built by M/shipwright Martin Ware at Deptford Dockyard, and launched on the 25th of October. 1794.


Figurehead of HMS Mars.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Mars
Ordered:	17 January 1788
Builder:	Deptford Dockyard
Laid down:	10 October 1789
Launched:	25 October 1794
Fate:	Broken up, 1823
Notes:	·Participated in: ·Battle of Trafalgar
General characteristics
Class and type:	Mars-class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	​1,842 24⁄94 bm
Length:	176 ft (54 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	49 ft (15 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft (6.1 m)
Sail plan:	Full-rigged ship
Armament:	·74 guns: ·Gundeck: 28 × 32 pdrs ·Upper gundeck: 30 × 24 pdrs ·Quarterdeck: 12 × 9 pdrs ·Forecastle: 4 × 9 pdrs

Career.


HMS Mars was commissioned in the November of 1794 under Captain Charles Cotton. In the early part of the French Revolutionary Wars she was assigned to the Channel Fleet. One of her first encounters was during Cornwallis’s retreat between the 16th and 17th of June 1795.

In the February of 1797 she came under the command of Captain Alexander Hood and was involved in the Mutiny at Spithead in the April of that year. On the 24th of April 1798 at the Battle of the Raz de Sein she fought a famous single-ship duel with the French seventy-four Hercule, in the dusk near the Pointe du Raz on the coast of Brittany. Hercule attempted to escape through the Passage du Raz but the tide was running in the wrong direction and she was forced to anchor, giving Captain Hood the chance to attack at close quarters. The two ships were of equal strength, but Hercule was newly commissioned; after more than an hour and a half of bloody fighting at close quarters she struck her flag, having lost over three hundred men. On Mars 31 men were killed and 60 wounded. Among the dead was Captain Hood himself.



Fight between Mars and Hercule

In the April of 1798 Mars came under Captain George Shirley for a few months until command passed to Captain John Manley in the July of that year.
By the May of 1799 she was under Captain john Monkton as the Flagship of Rear Admiral George Berkely, at the blockade of Rochefort and in the attack on the Spanish squadron in the Aix Roads on the 2nd of July 1799.

On the 1st of January 1801, she came under the command of Captain Robert Lloyd as the Flagship of Rear Admiral Edward Thornbrough, and was at the blockade of Brest in 1802. From the September of that year until the April of 1803 she was undergoing Middling repairs at Plymouth. Recommissioned in the March of 1803 under Captain John Sutton she returned to the blockade of Brest, and was then temporarily placed under the command Of Captain Samuel Pym. In the May of 1804 the command was taken by Captain George Duff as the Flagship of Rear Admiral Thomas Russell, off Ferrol.

On the 21st of October 1805 Mars fought in the Lee coloumn at Trafalgar, where she was heavily damaged as she took fire from five different French and Spanish seventy-fours. Among the 29 killed and 69 wounded in the action was her captain George Duff , who was killed.


In this painting of the Battle of Trafalgar by Nicholas Pocock, Mars is in the right foreground, just behind the captured Spanish ship Bahama.

Following the victory Lieutenant William Hannah succeeded to the command. From the December of 1805 under Captain Robert Oliver, Mars took the 40 gun Le Rhin on the18th of July,1806 off Rochefort, and then from the following month until 1810 she was commanded by Captain William Lukin in Hood’s action off Rochfort on the 25th of September, and in Sir Richard Keats’s fleet for the Copenhagen expedition in the August of 1807, spending the rest of 1807 and 1808 in the Baltic.

Fate.

In 1810 under Captain John Carden she sailed for Portugal, and by 1812 we find her under Captain Henry Reaper in the Baltic once more.
She was laid up in the December of 1812 on her return, and fitted as a receiving ship at Portsmouth in 1813. Mars was then placed in ordinary and was broken up there in the October of 1823.

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HMS Centaur (1797)



HMS Centaur was a Mars class 74-gun third rate ship of the Line designed by Sir John Henslow, ordered on the 17th of January 1778, and built at Woolwich by M/shipwright William Rule until the February of 1793, and completed by John Tovery. She was launched on the 14th of March, 1797.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Centaur
Ordered:	17 January 1788
Builder:	Woolwich Dockyard
Laid down:	November 1790
Launched:	14 March 1797
Honours and awards:	Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Centaur 26 Augt. 1808"
Fate:	Broken up, 1819
General characteristics
Class and type:	Mars-classship of the line74-gun
Tons burthen:	1842​24⁄94 (bm)
Length:	·176 ft (54 m) (gundeck) ·144 ft 11 in (44.0 m) (keel)
Beam:	49 ft 2 in (15 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft 01/2 in (6.1 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns ·Upper gundeck: 30 × 24-pounder guns ·QD: 12 × 9-pounder guns ·Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

Service.


Captain John Markham commissioned Centaur in the March of 1797, and the following year, on the 2nd of June, she sailed for the Med. In the November of that year she participated in the occupation of Minorca.
On the 13th of November, Centaur, HMS Leviathan, and HMS Argo, together with some armed transports, relatively unsuccessfully chased a Spanish squadron. Argo did at least manage to re-capture the British 16-gun Pylades-class sloopHMS Peterel, which the Spanish had taken the previous day.
On the 2nd of February,1798, Centaur pursued two Spanish xebecs and a settee, all privateers in royal Spanish service. She captured the privateer La Vierga del Rosario, which carried fourteen brass 12-pounder guns and had a crew of 90 men. The other two vessels escaped.
A year later, on the16th of February, 1799 Centaur, Argo and Leviathan attacked the town of Cambrils. Once the defenders had abandoned their battery, the boats went in. The British dismounted the guns, burnt five settees and brought out another five settees or tartans laden with wine and wheat. One tartan, the Velon Maria, was a letter of marque, armed with one brass and two iron 12-pounders and two 3-pounders. She had a crew of 14 men.
Then on 16 March 1799, she and Cormorant not only drove the Spanish frigate Guadaloupe of 40 guns aground near Cape Oropesa, but also captured the 14 gun privateer La Vierga del Rosario.
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In June, Centaur was involved in a brief action off Toulon before elements of Admiral Keith's fleet joined her. Centaur and Montagu fired at a brig-corvette and several settees off Toulon. They were then able to capture and destroy four of the settees.
In the Action on the 18th of June of that year, Markham's squadron, of which Centaur was an integral member, captured a French squadron consisting of the 40-gun Junon, 36-gun Alceste, 32-gun Courageuse, 18-gun Salamine and 14-gun brig Alerte. The British took the captured vessels into service under their existing names, except that Junon became Princess Charlotte and Alerte became Minorca. Shortly following this very active year, Centaur returned to England.
While working in the Channel in late 1800 and early 1801, on the 25th of January of the latter year Centaur sent the Danish galiots Bernstorff and Rodercken into Plymouth. The Danish ships were carrying bale goods and nuts. From the March of the year she came under the command of Captain Sir harry Neale, and then in the October of that year Captain Arthur Legge.From the April of 1802 command passed to Captain Bendall Littlehales as Flagship of Commodore Samuel Hood. Whilst under Captain Littlehales, and serving with the Channel Fleet, Centaur and her sister ship, Mars, collided off the Black Rocks during the night of the10th of March. Centaur lost her main and main-top-mast, which killed two men and injured four others as they fell. Mars lost her head, bowsprit, foremast and main top-topmast and then almost grounded near the Île de Bas. In the last moment Canada was able to get a tow rope on her. Canada then towed Mars into Cawsand Bay. The subsequent court martial acquitted Mars's captain and lieutenant of any negligence, but sentenced a lieutenant from Centaur to the loss of six months' seniority and dismissal from his ship.


Service in the West Indies.

From the April of 1802Centaur came under the command of Captain Bendall Littlehales, as the Flagship of Commodore Samuel Hood until 1810. She then sailed to the West Indies where she joined Vice Admiral Sir John Thomas Duckworth's squadron in Jamaica,On the 26th of June, 1803 Centaur participated in the capture of Saint Lucia and its citadel, Morne Fortunée; three days later the expedition took Tobago from the French. The fleet then went on to capture the Dutch islands. On the 21st of August, Centaur and Netley captured the American ship Fame and her cargo of flour and corn. Then on the 31st Centaur detained the Dutch ship Good Hope, which was carrying wine and cordage.

On the 20th of September the British seized Demerara. The corvette Hippomenes, which was acting as a guard ship at Fort Stabroek, was the only vessel belonging to the Batavian Republic there, and was included in the terms of capitulation. The British took her into service as HMS Hippomenes.
In September Hood also received the assignment to blockade the bays of Fort Royal and Saint Pierre, Martinique. On the 22nd of October Centaur captured the French privateer Vigilante. She was armed with two guns and had a crew of 37 men. Centaur was sailing past Cap des Salinés, Martinique, early in the morning of the 26th of November when a battery fired at her. Hood had Maxwell anchor in Petite Anse d'Arlette. Then a landing party made up of Centaur's marines and about 40 sailors destroyed the battery. They also threw its six 24-pounders over the cliff. The militia guarding the battery had a brass 2-pounder gun but fled without putting up any resistance even though the landing party had to climb a steep, narrow path. Unfortunately, the premature explosion of the battery's magazine cost Centaur one man killed, and three officers and six men wounded, the only casualties from the operation. Then Centaur discovered another battery, this one armed with two 42-pounders and a 32-pounder, between the Grande and Petite Anse d'Arlette. The French here also abandoned the battery when a landing party approached. Once again, Centaur's men threw the guns over the cliff and destroyed a barracks and the ammunition stored there.
Centaur was anchored in Fort Royal Bay, Martinique, when on the morning of the1st of December she sighted a schooner towing a sloop. The pair were about six miles away, and Hood believed that they were on their way to St. Pierre. He therefore instructed Maxwell to take Centaur in pursuit. Their prey did not initially notice them, but when they did, the schooner let go her tow and the vessels separated. After a pursuit that extended over 24 leagues, Centaur captured the schooner. She turned out to be the privateer Ma Sophie, out of Guadeloupe. She had a crew of 46 men and had had eight guns that she had thrown overboard during the chase in an attempt to increase her speed. When Ma Sophie and the sloop separated, Centaur sent the Sarah, an advice boat, after the sloop, which she captured.
Hood decided to use Sophie as a tender to Centaur. Lieutenant William Donnett became her captain with the task of monitoring the channel between Martinique and Diamond Rock, a basalt island south of Fort-de-France, the main port of Martinique, for enemy vessels. Subsequently, Donnett and Sophie frequently visited the Rock to gather both the thick, broad-leaved grass that the crew could weave into sailors' hats, and a spinach-like plant called callaloo. Callaloo, when boiled and served daily, kept the crews of Centaur and Sophie from scurvy and was a nice addition to a menu too long dominated by salt beef.



HMS Centaur and HMS Diamond Rock, Martinique.

In late 1803 and early 1804, Centaur, under Captain Murray Maxwell, established several batteries on Diamond Rock. To ease its administration vis-à-vis the Admiralty, The British commissioned the rock as HMS Diamond Rock. Hood garrisoned it with two lieutenants and 120 men under the command of Lieutenant James Wilkes Maurice, his first lieutenant. Unfortunately, at some point during this period and for an unknown reason, Sophie blew up, killing all but one man of her crew. Diamond Rock fell to an overwhelming French attack on the 3rd of June, 1805.
On the 3rd of February, Centaur sent her boats to cut out the French 18-gun brig-corvette Curieux from the Carénage, under the guns of Fort Edward at Fort-Royal harbour, Martinique. In the fight, the French lost 40 men killed and wounded, and the British had nine men wounded, including all three officers leading the cutting out party. The British took Curieux into the navy as HMS Curieux. Her original commander was Lieutenant Robert Carthew Reynolds, who had led the cutting-out party, but he died of the wounds he had received in the attack. His replacement as her commander was Lieutenant George Bettesworth of Centaur, also a member of the cutting-out party.
On the 25th of April, 1804, Centaur arrived off the Surinam River after a three-week voyage from Barbados. Her flotilla consisted of Pandour, Serapis and Alligator, all three en flute, Hippomenes, Drake, the 10-gun schooner Unique, and transports carrying 2000 troops under Brigadier-General Sir Charles Green. The British proposed surrender terms that the Dutch governor rejected. As an initial step in the campaign, Centaur sent her boats to capture the battery of Friderici. The landing party captured the battery at the cost of four men killed and three wounded. The Dutch surrendered on 5 May and Hood made Captain Conway Shipley of Hippomenes post-captain and appointed him to Centaur. (One day earlier the Admiralty had promoted Shipley into the ex-French 28-gun frigate Sagesse; he later assumed command of her at Jamaica.) Hood next appointed Captain William Richardson of the 28-gun frigate Alligator to command Centaur and the Admiralty confirmed his appointment on 27 September. The British captured two Dutch men-of-war, the 32-gun frigate Proserpine, which they took into service as Amsterdam, and the 18-gun corvette Pylades, which they took into service as Surinam, The British also captured the George, a schooner of 10 guns, and three merchant vessels. On the 30th of July, 1804, Centaur sent her boats into Basseterre Roads, Guadeloupe, where they cut out a schooner of unknown name and of two guns, as well as the privateer Elizabeth, which was pierced for 12 guns but mounting six. She had a crew of 65, most of whom were either killed, drowned, or swam ashore. The boats achieved these captures despite a complete lack of wind and under heavy grape and small arms fire from the batteries and troops that lined the beach. The boats had one man killed and five wounded, and brought out two wounded prisoners. Shipley described Elizabeth as:- "the fastest sailing Privateer out of Guadaloupe, and has been uncommonly fortunate this War."

Centaur also recaptured another Elizabeth, this one of Liverpool, that Decidé (actually Grande Decidé) had captured while Elizabeth was sailing from the coast of Africa with a cargo of slaves. Centaur detained, on suspicion, the "Grecian" ship St. Nicholas, which was carrying produce from Guadeloupe. Centaur also recaptured the schooner Betsey, which had been sailing in ballast. Then in December of that year, Centaur recaptured the English ship Admiral Peckenham, which was carrying produce.
During the early part of 1805 Centaur came, under the command of Captain Charles Richardson and then temporarily that of Captain Henry Whitby. On the 29th of July,Centaur, under Captain Whitby, in company with a squadron under Captain De Courcy, was sailing from Jamaica to join Nelson, when the squadron encountered a hurricane. The storm threw Centaur's masts overboard, carried away her rudder and smashed and sent all her boats overboard. Leaks that had started when Centaur had run aground some weeks before worsened substantially. The crew, especially the marines, labored at her pumps. For sixteen hours they were barely able to offset the water coming in. On the second day of the storm, a huge wave almost brought the first-rate St George crashing into Centaur.



Centaur nearly collides with St. George

As the hurricane lessened and the seas became a little calmer, the crew was able to get a sail underneath Centaur, and use hawsers to lash it to her hull, much reducing the leaks and bracing her shattered frame. To help keep Centaur afloat, the crew also threw all but a dozen or so of the guns overboard. The 74-gun third rateHMS Eagle was then able to get a cable aboard and tow Centaur into HalifaxNova Scotia. At Halifax, Centaur was put on her side for repairs. At that time it was discovered that "14 feet of false keel had been torn off from the fore foot aft, which occasioned the leak."





Officers of HMS Centaur in 1805.

Captain John Talbot took command of Centaur on the 5th of December, 1805, and sailed her home for middling repairs at Plymouth, which were not completed until the June of 1806. Because of the damage she had suffered, Centaur therefore missed joining Nelson and fighting in the Battle of Trafalgar.

The Channel and Eastern Atlantic.

By 1806, Centaur was under the command of Captain W. H. Webley and also served as flagship for Captain Sir Samuel Hood, who was acting as Commodore of the squadron off Rochefort. On the16yh of July, boats from each of the squadron's line-of-battle ships and Indefatigable and Iris engaged in a cutting out expedition on two corvettes and a convoy in the Garonne. Lieutenant Edward Reynolds Sibley, Centaur's First Lieutenant, was badly wounded in the successful attack on the largest corvette, the Caesar which was armed with eighteen guns and had a complement of 86 men, under the command of Monsieur Louis Francois Hector Fourre, lieutenant de vaisseau. One man from Centaur was killed and seven, including Sibley, were wounded. The other French vessels escaped up the river and the British boats that followed them, unsuccessfully, suffered heavy casualties. In addition to the losses from Centaur, the British had five men killed, 29 wounded, and 21 missing, most of whom were apparently taken prisoner.

During the Action of 25 September 1806, Centaur captured Armide, and assisted in the capture of Infatigable, Gloire and Minerve. The British took all of them into the Royal Navy under their existing names. Centaur lost three men killed and three wounded. In addition, a musket ball shattered Hood's arm, which had to be amputated. The wound forced Hood to quit the deck and leave the ship in the charge of Lieutenant William Case.
Towards the end of 1806, Hood having recovered somewhat from his wound, received orders to join a secret expedition at the Cape Verde Islands. However, the expedition sailed before Centaur arrived. Hood then instead, took a squadron under his command to cruise between Madeira and the Canaries.

The Baltic.

In the summer of 1807, Hood had received a promotion to Rear-admiral of the red. On the 26th of July, Centaur, with Hood and Captain William Henry Webley, sailed as a part of a fleet of 38 vessels under Admiral James Gambier bound for Copenhagen. Between the 15th of August and the 20th of October, she took part in the Second Battle of Copenhagen where Gambier, together with General Lord William Cathcart, captured the Danish Navy piecemeal in a pre-emptive attack. Centaur deployed her boats to blockade the harbour in order to intercept any supplies arriving from the Baltic. At some point, her cutter attempted to take a Danish dispatch boat that was trying to sail from Copenhagen past the island of Moen to Bornholm. The Danish boat ran on shore just past a cliff where the Danes had stationed troops with two field pieces. The Danes on the cliff fired on the cutter, killing the lieutenant in charge and wounding a midshipman. Nevertheless, Midshipman Price, Master's Mate Walcott and the cutter's crew succeeded in taking their quarry and towing her off.

By the 24th of December, Centaur was again briefly in the Atlantic, this time participating in General William Beresford's (friendly) occupation of the island of Madeira.

Anglo-Russian War.

In early 1808 Russia initiated the Finnish War in response to Sweden's refusal to bow to Russian pressure to join the anti-British alliance. Russia captured Finland and made it a Grand Duchy under the Russian Empire. The British decided to take counter-measures and in May sent a fleet, including Centaur, under Vice-Admiral Sir James Saumarez to the Baltic.
On the 9th of July, the Russian fleet, under Admiral Peter Khanykov, came out from Kronstadt. The Swedes massed a fleet under Swedish Admiral Cederstrom, consisting of 11 line-of-battle ships and five frigates at Örö and Jungfrusund to oppose them. On the16th of August, Saumarez sent Centaur and Implacable, under Captain Thomas Byam Martin, also a 74-gun third rate, to join the Swedish fleet. They chased two Russian frigates on the 19th of July and joined the Swedes the following day.

On the 22nd of August, the Russian fleet, which consisted of nine ships of the line, five large frigates and six smaller ones, moved from Hanko and appeared off the Örö roads the next day. The Swedish ships from Jungfur Sound had joined Rear-Admiral Nauckhoff and by the evening of 24th of August the combined Anglo-Swedish force had made its preparations. Early the next day they sailed from Örö to meet the Russians.
The Anglo-Swedish force discovered the Russians off Hanko Peninsula; as the Russians retreated the Allied ships followed them. Centaur and Implacable exhibited superior sailing and slowly outdistanced their Swedish allies. At 5am on 26th of August Implacable caught up with a Russian straggler, the 74-gun Vsevolod (also Sewolod), under Captain Rudnew (or Roodneff).
Implacable and Vsevolod exchanged fire for about 20 minutes before Vsevolod ceased firing. Vsevolod hauled down her colours, but Hood recalled Implacable because the Russian fleet was approaching. During the fight Implacable lost six dead and 26 wounded; Vsevolod lost some 48 dead and 80 wounded.
The Russian frigate Poluks then towed Vsevolod towards Rager Vik (Ragerswik or Rogerswick), but when Centaur started to chase them the frigate dropped her tow. The Russians sent out boats to bring her in, in which endeavour they almost succeeded. They did succeed in putting 100 men aboard her as reinforcements and to replace her casualties.
However, just outside the port, Centaur was able to run aboard the Vsevolod. A party of seamen from Centaur then lashed her mizzen to the Russian bowsprit before Centaur opened fire. Vsevolod dropped her anchor and with both ships stuck in place, both sides attempted to board the other vessel. In the meantime, Implacable had come up and added her fire to the melee. After a battle of about half an hour, the Russian vessel struck again.



The Russian Ship Vsevolod burning, after the action with the Implacable and Centaur, August 26, 1808.

Implacable hauled Centaur off. The British removed their prisoners and then set fire to Vsevolod, which blew up some hours later. Centaur lost three killed and 27 wounded. Vsevolod lost another 124 men killed and wounded in the battle with Centaur; 56 Russians escaped by swimming ashore. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with the clasps "Implacable 26 Augt. 1808" and "Centaur 26 Augt. 1808" to all surviving claimants from the action.
Vice-Admiral Saumerez with his entire squadron joined the Anglo-Swedish squadron the next day. They then blockaded Khanykov's squadron for some months. After the British and the Swedes abandoned the blockade, the Russian fleet was able to return to Kronstadt.


Return to the Mediterranean.

Hood now moved to the Med, and on the 2nd of November, 1809 Captain John Chambers White brought Hibernia to Port Mahon to be Hood's flagship. White then took command of HMS Centaur.
Centaur participated in the defence of Tarragona when French forces under Marshal Suchet besieged the city from the May of 1811. Captains Codrington, White, and Adam spent most nights in their gigs carrying out operations under cover of darkness to evacuate women, children and wounded. On the 21st of June the French stormed the town. They then reportedly massacred several thousand men, women and children and took many prisoners before setting fire to the city. The boats of the squadron had only been able to rescue some five or six hundred of the inhabitants. On the 28th of June, Centaur's launch engaged the French on a beach at Tarragona, losing two men killed and three wounded. Centaur returned to Plymouth in the November of 1811 for repairs which were completed in the January of 1813.

Channel Fleet.

Centaur first sailed to Saint Helen's Island, Quebec, and the Western Isles (the Azores), but arrived off Cherbourg by November 1813. On the evening of the 6th ofd April 1814, Centaur arrived at the Gironde. Her objective was to support Egmont in her attack on the French ship of the line Regulus. Also near her were three brigs and some other vessels. All were under the protection of shore batteries there. The plan was that a landing party in boats, to which Centaur had contributed, would storm Fort Talmont while Egmont would take advantage of high tide to attack Regulus. At midnight, before the attack had even begun, it became clear that the French had set fire to their ships, which were totally destroyed by morning. Before dawn on the 9th of April, a landing party of seamen and marines from the 38-gun frigate Belle Poule, under Captain George Harris, successfully entered and destroyed the batteries of Pointe Coubre, Pointe Nègre, Royan, Soulac, and Mèche.

In the January of 1819, the London Gazette reported that Parliament had voted a grant to all those who had served under the command of Lord Viscount Keith, between 1812 and 1814, and in the Gironde. Centaur was listed among the vessels that had served under Keith in the Gironde.

Fate.

After the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Centaur made a few more cruises, including another to Quebec, in in the September of 1814. In the spring of 1815, under Capt. T. G. Caulfield, she sailed with HMS Chatham from Plymouth to the Western Islands again. On the 26th of August she left the Cape of Good Hope for England, arriving on the 13th of November. She was paid off in Plymouth three days later. She was broken up there in the November of 1819.

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HMS Ajax (1798)







Watercolour of HMS Ajax, in the collections of the National Maritime Museum.


HMS Ajax was designed as a revised Triumph. She was given the Classification of an Ajax class 74-gun third rate ship of the line. She was ordered on the 30th of April 1795 and built by John Randall & Co of Rotherhithe with an extra 11foot midsection giving her an extra two gunports per side on both decks. She was launched on the Thames on the 3rd of March, 1798.

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History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Ajax
Ordered:	30 April 1795
Builder:	Randall, Rotherhithe
Laid down:	September 1795
Launched:	3 March 1798
Commissioned:	June 1798
Honours and awards:	·Battle of Cape Finisterre ·Battle of Trafalgar ·Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Egypt"
Fate:	Accidentally burnt, 14 February 1807
General characteristics
Class and type:	Ajax-classship of the line
Tons burthen:	1953 ​46⁄94 (bm)
Length:	·182 ft 5 in (55.6 m) (gundeck) ·149 ft 10 5⁄8 in (45.7 m) (keel)
Beam:	49 ft 6 in (15.1 m)
Depth of hold:	21 ft 3 in (6.5 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns ·Upper gundeck: 30 × 24-pounder guns ·QD: 12 × 9-pounder guns ·Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

Service.

CaptainJames Whitshed had been in charge of the vessel during her later construction stages from the January of 1798, but she was eventually commissioned in the June of that year under Captain John Holloway, and on the following month command passed to Captain John Pakenham, for Channel service. After a brief spell under Captain John Osborn in April 1799, the Ajax was placed on the month following under the command of Captain Alexander Cochrane, who was to command her for two years. On the 9th of January,1800 she captured the French privateer Avantageux in the Channel.

In the January of 1801 Cochrane and Ajax sailed for the Med where they participated in the Egyptian operations. On the 31st of January Ajax anchored at Marmorice on the coast of Karamania, and on the 1st of March, some 70 warships, together with transports carrying 16,000 troops, anchored in Aboukir Bay near Alexandria. Bad weather delayed disembarkation by a week, but on the 8th, Cochrane directed a landing by 320 boats, in double line abreast, which brought the troops ashore. French shore batteries opposed the landing, but the British were able to drive them back and by the next day Sir Ralph Abercromby's whole force was ashore. Ajax had two of her seamen killed during the landings.

The naval vessels provided a force of 1,000 seamen to fight alongside the army, with Sir Sidney Smith of the 74-gun HMS Tigre in command. On the13th of March, Ajax lost one man killed and two wounded in an action on shore, whilst on the 21st of March she lost two more killed and a further two wounded.

After the Battle of Alexandria and the subsequent siege, Cochrane in Ajax, with the sixth rateHMS Bonne Citoyenne, sloopHMS Cynthia, the brig-sloops HMS Port Mahon and HMS Victorieuse, and three Turkish corvettes, were the first vessels to enter the harbour.
Because Ajax had served in the Egyptian campaign, 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.

Ajax, now commanded by Captain Bradby, returned to Plymouth from Egypt on the 8th of June,1802 for middling repairs following after the signing of the Treaty of Amiens. The repairs were completed in the August of 1804. She was then recommissioned under Captain the Viscount George Garlies

1805.

In April, AdmiralLord Gardner sent Ajax, now temporally under Captain Christopher Laroche, together with HMS Malta and HMS Terrible to reinforce Vice-AdmiralSir Robert Calder's squadron off Ferrol after a storm had reduced the squadron to only five ships of the line.
On the 31st of May, Captain William Brown took over command of Ajax. On the 22nd of July, Calder's fleet of 15 sail of the line, two frigates, a cutter and a lugger was off Cape Finisterre when it encountered Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve's combined Spanish-French fleet of 20 ships of the line, three large ships armed en flute, five frigates and two brigs.



Battle of Cape Finisterre, by William Anderson, c.1810


Calder sailed towards the French with his force. The battle lasted for more than four hours as the fleets became confused in the failing light and thick patchy fog, which prevented either side from gaining a decisive victory. Still, the British were able to capture two Spanish ships, the 80-gun San Rafael and the 74-gun Firme. The action cost Ajax two men killed and 16 wounded.

After undergoing repairs in Plymouth, on the18th of September, Ajax and Thunderer, the latter under Captain William Lechmere, joined with Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson in HMS Victory and sailed from Plymouth for Cadiz. Captains Brown and Lechmere were later called as witnesses at the court martial of Sir Robert Calder for his failure to resume the battle on the following day, during the action in July. As a result, First LieutenantJohn Pilfold commanded Ajax at the Battle of Trafalgar. Ajax was seventh in line in Nelson’s weather column and she fired on both the French 74-gun Bucentaure and the Spanish 136-gun Santissima Trinidad. During the battle Ajax assisted HMS Orion in forcing the surrender of the French 74-gun Intrépide. Ajax lost two men killed and nine wounded during the battle.

A storm followed the battle and Ajax rescued seamen from ships in danger of sinking. Lieutenant Pilfold received the Trafalgar medal and a direct promotion to Post-captain in December. Although he missed the battle, Brown was still the official captain and so too received the Trafalgar medal. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Trafalgar" to all surviving claimants from the battle.

After Trafalgar, Ajax took part in the blockade of Cadiz. On the 25th of November, Thunderer detained the Ragusan ship Nemesis, which was sailing from Isle de France to Leghorn, Italy, with a cargo of spice, indigo dye, and other goods. Ajax shared the prize money with ten other British warships.
From the January of 1806 Ajax, came under the command of Captain Henry Blackwood.


Fate.



Duckworth's squadron forcing the Dardanelles

On the 1st of February, 1807 Ajax, under Blackwood, joined Admiral Sir John Duckworth's squadron at Malta to participate in the Dardanelles Operation.

During the operation an accidental fire destroyed Ajax. The fire began on the evening of the14th of February while Ajax was anchored off Tenedos. The fire began in the bread-room where the purser and his assistant had negligently left a light burning. As the fire burned out of control, the officers and crew were forced to take to the water. Although 380 people were rescued, 250 lost their lives that night, including many of the crewmen who had been at Trafalgar. Ajax burned through the night and then drifted on to the island of Tenedos where she blew up the following morning. A court martial cleared Captain Blackwood of any culpability for her loss.

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HMS Kent (1798)



HMS Kent was an Ajax Class 74-gunthird-rateship of the line, also based on the Triumph Class with amendments. Ordered on the 30th of April 1795, she was built by John Perry and Co. at Blackwall Yard, and launched on the 17th of January, 1798.



'View of Mr Perry's Yard, Blackwall, commemorating the launch of HM ship Kent


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History
Great Britain
Name:	HMS Kent
Ordered:	30 April 1795
Builder:	John Perry and Company Blackwall Yard
Laid down:	October 1795
Launched:	17 January 1798
Commissioned:	3 April 1798 at Woolwich Dockyard
In service:	·1798–1804 ·1805–1809 ·1829–1842 ·1855–1881
Honours and awards:	Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Egypt"
Fate:	Broken up, 1881
General characteristics 1798–1817
Class and type:	Ajax-classship of the line
Tons burthen:	1963​73⁄94 (bm)
Length:	·182 ft 8 in (55.68 m) (gundeck) ·149 ft 11 in (45.69 m) (keel)
Beam:	49 ft 7.5 in (15.126 m)
Depth of hold:	21 ft 5 in (6.53 m)
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Complement:	690
Armament:	·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pdrs ·Upper deck: 28 × 24-pdrs ·QD: 14 × 9-pdrs ·Fc: 4 × 9-pdrs
General characteristics 1820–1881
Class and type:	Ajax-classship of the line
Tons burthen:	2009​62⁄94 (bm)
Length:	·184 ft 2.5 in (56.147 m) (gundeck) ·150 ft 10.5 in (45.987 m) (keel)
Beam:	50 ft 0 in (15.24 m)
Depth of hold:	21 ft 10 in (6.65 m)
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pdrs ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 24-pdrs ·QD: 4 × 9-pdrs & 8 x 32-pdr carronades ·Fc: 4 × 9-pdrs

Service.

HMS Kent was commissioned in the March of 1798 under Captain William Hope, as the Flagship of Admiral Duncan.
In the June of 1800 she sailed for the Med.
In 1801 she was involved in the Egyptian operations.
On 9 May of that year Kent, Hector and Cruelle unsuccessfully chased the French corvette Heliopolis, which eluded them and slipped into Alexandria, and in the August of that year she Joined Nelson’s Fleet.

Because Kent had served in the Navy's Egyptian campaign from the 8th of March to the 8th of September 1801, all her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal which was authorised by the Admiralty in 1850, to be issued to all surviving claimants.
From 1802 Kentcame under the command of Captain Edward O’Brien as Flagship to Rear Admiral Sir Richard Bickerton.In the August of 1803 she came under Captain John Stuart and was paid off in 1804. She underwent repairs and a refit at Chatham between the May and November of 1805, being recommissioned under Captain Henry Garrett as the Flagship of Vice Admiral Edward Thornbrough from that date.

On 13th of December, 1809 350 sailors and 250 marines from Kent,and two other 74-gun third rates, Cambrian and Ajax, attacked Palamós. (The sloops Sparrowhawk and Minstrel covered the landing.) The landing party destroyed six of eight merchant vessels with supplies for the French army at Barcelona, as well as their escorts, a national ketch of 14 guns and 60 men and two xebecs of three guns and thirty men each. The vessels were lying inside the mole under the protection of 250 French troops, a battery of two 24-pounders, and a 13" mortar in a battery on a commanding height. Although the attack was successful, the withdrawal was not. The British lost 33 men killed, 89 wounded, and 86 taken prisoner, plus one seaman who took the opportunity to desert.

Kent was laid off and placed into ordinary at Plymouth in the January of 1813. Following a large repair including the addition of a circular stern in a rebuild between the June of 1817 and the October of 1820 she was laid up once more. From 1826 to 1830 she acted as a Guard ship at Plymouth. She was re-rated as a 76 gun ship in 1829.




Model from the National Marritime Museum Greenwich.

Fate.



Following Admiralty Orders of the 27th of October 1854 she was fitted as a sheer hulk as a replacement for the Spartiate, from the December of 1855 to the January of 1857.
On the 12th of November 1880, by Admiralty Orders, she was ordered to be broken up, and this took place during 1881.

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HMS Superb (1798)



HMS Superb was a 74-gun third rateship of the line, derived from the French Le Pompee . she was the fourth vessel to bear that name, having been ordered on the 30th of April 1795 and built by Thomas Pitcher at Northfleet. She was launched on the19th of March 1798.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Superb
Ordered:	10 June 1795
Builder:	Pitcher, Northfleet
Laid down:	August 1795
Launched:	19 March 1798
Fate:	Broken up, 1826
Notes:	·Participated in: ·Battle of Algeciras ·Battle of San Domingo ·Bombardment of Algiers (1816)
General characteristics
Class and type:	Pompée-classship of the line
Tons burthen:	1,919 bm
Length:	182 ft 2 in (55.52 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	49 ft (15 m)
Depth of hold:	21 ft (6.4 m)
Sail plan:	Full-rigged ship
Armament:	·74 guns: ·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns ·Upper gundeck: 30 × 18-pounder guns ·QD: 12 × 9-pounder guns ·Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

Service.



HMS Superb was commissioned in the May of 1798 under Captain John Sutton and sailed for the Med in the July of 1799. Between 1801 and 1806 she was commanded by Captain Richard Goodwin Keats.


Battle of Algeciras Bay.



In the July of 1801 the Superb was stationed off Cadiz and took part in the second Battle of Algeciras Bay. During the French and Spanish retreat Admiral Sir James Saumarez hailed the Superb and ordered Keats to catch the allied fleet's rear and engage. The Superb was a relatively new ship and had not been long on blockade duty. As a consequence she was the fastest sailing ship-of-the-line in the fleet. As night fell on 12 July, Keats sailed the Superb alongside the 112-gun Real Carlos on her starboard side. Another Spanish ship, the 112-gun San Hermenegildo, was sailing abreast, on the port side, of the Real Carlos. Keats fired into the Real Carlos and some shot passed her and struck the San Hermenegildo. The Real Carlos caught fire and Keats disengaged her to continue up the line. In the darkness the two Spanish ships confused one another for British ships and began a furious duel. With the Real Carlos aflame the captain of the Hermenegildo determined to take advantage and crossed the Real Carlos’ stern in order to deal a fatal broadside that would run the length of the ship through the unprotected stern. A sudden gust of wind brought the two ships together and entangled their rigging. The Hermenegildo also caught fire and the two enormous three-deck ships exploded.







HMS Superb sails away from the Spanish fleet at Algeciras Bay, while the Hermenegildo and Real Carlos explode in the background after mistakenly firing on one other. Drawing by Antoine Léon Morel-Fatio.

The Superb continued on relatively unscathed and engaged the French 74-gun St. Antoine under Commodore Julien le Roy. The St. Antoine struck after a brief exchange of broadsides.

In the August of 1804 Superb joined theToulon Squadron as flagship of Vice Admiral John Thomas Duckworth which involved her in the chase to the West Indies in 1805.


Battle of San Domingo.


By 1806 she was still the flagship of Admiral Duckworth when the battle of San Domingo was fought on the 6th of February. During the action Superb suffered 6 killed and 56 wounded. Keats was appointed Commodore in the August of that year for the squadron off Rochfort.

In the October of 1807 Superb came under the command of Captain Donald M’Leod as Flagship to the now Rear Admiral Sir Richard Keats for the Copenhagen expedition.
In the February of 1808 she came under the temporary command of Lieutenant Thomas Alexander with Strachen’s Squadron to the Med. On the 26th of July, Superb, Mars, Monkey, and Baltic captured Falck and Kline Wilhelm.

Copenhagen and the Baltic.


Superb was commissioned in December 1809 under the command of Captain Samuel Jackson. She went out to the Baltic again as Keats's flagship, and was part of the squadron there under Admiral Sir James Saumarez. She returned to Portsmouth, and underwent middling repairs between the September of 1811 and the November of 1812, recommissioning in the September under Captain Charles Paget for Channel service.


War of 1812.


Paget had been appointed to command Superb as part of the Channel Fleet, and during a cruise in the Bay of Biscay he took several prizes. By the opening of 1813 he was on his way to in Bermuda continuing his depredations, and on the 13th of February, Star, which had been sailing from New York to Bordeaux, arrived at Bideford. She was a prize to Superb. Captain Paget described the prize as "the fine American brig Star, of three hundred and fifty tons, six guns, and thirty-five men." His next victim was the six gun privateer Viper, taken on the 15th of April, with the aid of Pyramus.
In 1814 Superb now under Captain Alexander Gordon was employed on the coast of North America as Flagship of Rear Admiral Henry Hotham.
In the April of 1815 Captain Humphrey Senhouse took command only to be superseded in the September of that year by Captain Charles Ekins.
Back in Plymouth by the July of 1816 she was fitted for foreign service and then dispatched to Algiers where she took part in the bombardment of that port, losing 8 killed and 84 wounded in the process.
Back in Plymouth by the May of 1818 she was fitted as a guardship, but recommissioned in the November of that year under Captain Thomas Hardy for the South American station. She was placed under captain Thomas White in the August of that year when Hardy was raised to the rank of Commodore. Her next Captain was Adam McKenzie from the June of 1821 until his death in 1823, when she reverted to the role of guardship at Plymouth.

Fate.

Her final years of service were spent under Captain Sir Thomas Staines, from the October of 1823, firstly on the Jamaica station, and then at Lisbon until she was paid off in the December of1825.
She was then broken up at Plymouth, which was completed by the 17th of April, 1826.

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HMS Achille (1798)



HMS Achille was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line. Ordered on the 30th of April, 1795 she was built by William Cleverley, in his private shipyard at Gravesend. Her design was based on the lines of the captured French ship Pompée. She was the fourth Royal Navy ship to be named after the Greek hero Achilles in the French style and was launched on the 16th of April, 1798.
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History.
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Achille
Ordered:	10 June 1795
Builder:	Cleverley, Gravesend
Laid down:	October 1795
Launched:	16 April 1798
Honours and awards:	Participated in: Battle of Trafalgar
Fate:	Sold, 1865
General characteristics
Class and type:	Pompée-classship of the line
Tons burthen:	1,981
Length:	182 ft 2 in (55.52 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	49 ft (15 m)
Depth of hold:	21 ft (6.4 m)
Sail plan:	Full-rigged ship
Armament:	74 guns: Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounders Upper gundeck: 30 × 18-pounders Quarterdeck: 12 × 9-pounders Forecastle: 4 × 9-pounders

Service.

HMS Achille was commissioned in the June of 1798, under Captain Henry Stanhope for Channel service. In the April of 1799 she came under the command of Captain George Murray until 1801 and took part in the blockade of Cadiz.
She was refitted in the February of 1800and from the May of 1801 came under Captain Edward Buller until the November of that year when she was temporally commanded by Captain James Wallis. In the May of 1802 her captain became John Hardy. Recommissioned in the May of 1805 under Captain Richard King until 1811 she sailed for the Channel.

Achille at Trafalgar.

On the 21st of October, 1805, under the command of Captain King, Achille was in Admiral Collingwood's Lee column at the Battle of Trafalgar, seventh in the line, between Colossus and Revenge. Achille opened fire on the rear of the French and Spanish fleet at 12.15, engaging the 74-gun Montanes, for fifteen minutes, before sailing on to meet Argonauta of 80 guns, which had already been battling with other British ships. After hours of fierce fighting, Argonauta fell silent and closed her gunports, but before Achille could accept her surrender, her French namesake Achille of 74 guns, moved in to engage the British ship. After exchanging broadsides, the French ship sailed on and was replaced on the starboard side by the 74-gun French ship Berwick, and for the next hour and a quarter she lay close alongside Achille, receiving a pounding that eventually forced Berwick to surrender with over 250 casualties – almost half her crew. Achille took possession, and transferred some of her crew back on board as prisoners. Achille suffered 13 killed and 59 wounded in the battle, in stark comparison to the heavy losses she inflicted on her French and Spanish adversaries.

In 1806, on the 24th and 25th of September Achille took part in Hood’s action off Rochefort, and was also at the blockade of Ferrol in 1807. She was at the Walcheren operation in 1809 and under the temporary command oF Captain John Hayes in the July of that year. On the 18th of February 1810 she sailed for the Med and took part in the siege of Cadiz.

In January of 1811 she came under the command of Captain Askew Hollis, from then until 1815, and sailed to the Adriatic. In the April of that year she came under the temporary command of George Dundas anr then reverted to Captain Hollis. On the 17th of July of that year, boats from Achille and Cerberus captured or destroyed 12 enemy trabaccolos off Venice.

She sailed to the East Indies in early 1814, and continued in active service until 1815, when she was paid off.

Fate.

decommissioned at Chatham,where she was rebuilt with a circular stern between 1817 and 1822 and then went into ordinary there.
Laid up at Sheerness from 1829 to 1847 she was then. She was rerated as a 76 gun ship in 1839 and survived in this state until 1865, when she was sold to Castle and Beech on the first of November for £3,600 to be broken up at Charlton.

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HMS Northumberland (1798)






HMS Northumberland was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line, the name ship of her class,ordered on the 10th of june 1795 and built at the yards of Mrs Frances Barnard, Deptford, and launched on the 2nd of February, 1798.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Northumberland
Ordered:	10 June 1795
Builder:	Barnard, Deptford
Laid down:	October 1795
Launched:	2 February 1798
Honours and awards:	·Participated in Battle of San Domingo ·Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Egypt"
Fate:	Broken up, 1850
Notes:	Hulked, February 1827
General characteristics
Class and type:	Northumberland classship of the line
Tons burthen:	1907 (bm)
Length:	182 ft (55 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	48 ft 7 1⁄2 in (14.821 m)
Depth of hold:	21 ft 7 in (6.58 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns ·Upper gundeck: 30 × 18-pounder guns ·QD: 12 × 9-pounder guns ·Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

Service.

HMS Northumberland was commissioned in the April of 1798 by Captain Edward Owen, and from the August of that year came under Captain George Martin as the Flagship of Vice Admiral Sir John Colpoys, and sailed to the Med in the October of that year. In the June of 1789 she was in Rear Admiral Sir John Duckworth’s squadron, and took part in the blockade of Malta in 1800. On the 18th of February of that year she took Le Genereux, Northumberland, Alexander, Penelope, Bonne Citoyenne, and the brigVincejo shared in the proceeds of the French polacca Vengeance, captured entering Valletta, Malta on the 6th of April 1800, and together with Genereux and Success, on the 24th of August the 42 gun La Diane off Malta.

Egypt Operation 1801.

On 8 January 1801 Penelope captured the French bombard St. Roche, which was carrying wine, liqueurs, ironware, Delfth cloth, and various other merchandise, from Marseilles to Alexandria. Swiftsure, Tigre, Minotaur, Northumberland, Florentina, and the schoonerMalta, were in sight and shared in the proceeds of the capture.

Because Northumberland served in the navy's Egyptian campaign (8 March to 8 September 1801), her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal that the Admiralty authorized in 1850 to all surviving claimants.

Northumberland was recommissioned in the June of 1803 under Captain Alexander Cochrane for Channel service.In the August of that year she detained and sent into Plymouth Comet, a vessel that the French had captured on the1st of July as she was sailing from England to Bengal under charter to the British East India Company. An American house with an office in London had purchased Comet at A Coruña as a prize and was sending her to London when Northumberland intercepted her.
In 1805 she was under Captain George Tobin as the Flagship to the now Rear Admiral Cochrane at the blockade of Ferrol, and then in pursuit of Missiessy’s squadron to the West Indies.

Northumberland participated in the Battle of San Domingo on the 6th of February,1806, under acting Captain John Morrison. She was damaged in the battle, and suffered 21 killed and 74 wounded, the highest casualty rate of any British ship taking part in the battle.

From the June of that year she had another temporary Captain in the person of Commander Joseph Spear, and later in the year Captain Nathaniel Cochrane, still as commander of Rear Admiral Cochrane’s flagship in the Leeward Islands. In 1807 Northumberland was part of a squadron, with Rear Admiral Cochran now sailing in HMS Belleisle. The squadron, which included Prince George, Canada, Ramillies and Cerberus, captured Telemaco, Carvalho and Master on the17th of April,1807.
Following the concern in Britain that neutral Denmark was entering an alliance with Napoleon, Northumberland participated in the expedition to occupy the Danish West Indies. The British captured St Thomas on 22 December and Santa Cruz on 25 December 1807. The Danes did not resist and the invasion was bloodless.

Her return to Portsmouth followed and in the February of 1808 she came under the captaincy of William Hargood and sailed for the Med via Cadiz on the 28th of the month.

In 1810 she came under Captain Henry Hotham and on the 23rd of November of that year, Northumberland, while in the company of HMS Armada, a 74-gun third rate, captured the 14-gun French privateer ketch La Glaneuse.

Her next significant action was on the 22nd of May, 1812 when the destruction of the 40 gun L’Ariane, and L’Andromache, plus the 16 gun Le Mamelouk took place near Le Graul rocks off Lorient.



Destruction of the French Frigates Arianne & Andromaque 22nd May 1812.
The image shows the last stages of the Action of 22 May 1812. From left to right: Mameluck, Ariane, Andromaque and Northumberland.

In1813 she went into ordinary at Chatham for a large repair which took from the September of that year until the April of 1815.

Now fitted as a Flagship, she was recommissioned under Captain Charles Ross for Rear Admiral Sir George Cockburn. She received a measure of fame when she transported Napoleon I into captivity on the Island of Saint Helena. Napoleon had surrendered to Captain Frederick Maitland of HMS Bellerophon, on the15th of July, 1815 and was then transported to Plymouth. Napoleon was transferred in Tor Bay, Devon from Bellerophon to Northumberland for his final voyage to St. Helena because concerns were expressed about the suitability of the ageing ship. HMS Northumberland was ,therefore, selected instead.





Napoléon on the ship to Saint Helena, by Denzil O. Ibbetson. Drawn aboard HMS Northumberland, 1815. Watercolour, ink and pencil.

In the August of 1816 Northumberland came under the command of Captain James Walker as Flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Charles Rowley at Sheerness. Northumberland shared with the tender Seagull in the proceeds of the seizure of some glass on Mary, of London, on 17 March 1817.

Under Captain Sir Michael Seymour she served as a guard ship in the Medway during 1818. Sher continued in this capacity under several commanders until fitted as a Lazarette in the September of 1826.

Fate.

Northumberland was converted to a hulk inthe February of 1827. She returned to Deptford to be broken up in the July of 1850.

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HMS Renown 1798.




HMS Renown was a 74-gun Northumberland Class third rate ship of the line, ordered on the 30th of April 1795. She was intended to have been named HMS Royal Oak, but the name was changed to Renown on the 15th of February,1796. Built by M/shipwright John Dudman at Deptford, she was launched there on the 2nd of May 1798.

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History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Renown
Ordered:	10 June 1795
Builder:	Dudman, Deptford Wharf
Laid down:	November 1796
Launched:	2 May 1798
Honours and awards:	Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Egypt"
Fate:	Broken up, May 1835
Notes:	Harbour service from 1814
General characteristics
Class and type:	Northumberland Class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1899 (bm)
Length:	182 ft (55 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	48 ft 7 1⁄2 in (14.8 m)
Depth of hold:	21 ft 7 in (6.58 m)
Sail plan:	Full-rigged ship
Armament:	·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns ·Upper gundeck: 30 × 18-pounder guns ·QD: 12 × 9-pounder guns ·Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

Service.

HMS Renown was commissioned in the August of 1798 under Captain Albamarle Bertie for the Channel.
On the 2nd of July 1799 she took part in the attack on the Spanish squadron at the Basque roads. She then came under the command of Captain Thomas Eyles in the November of that year as the Flagship of Rear Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren.

On the 11th of June the squadron’s boats took the 2 gun La Nochette and others near the Penmarcks
On the 2nd of July, Renown, Fisgard and Defence, with the hired armed cutterLord Nelson in company, were in Bourneuf Bay when they sent in their boats to attack a French convoy at Île de Noirmoutier. The British destroyed the French ship Therese (of 20 guns), a lugger (12 guns), two schooners (6 guns each) and a cutter (6 guns), of unknown names. The cutting out party also burned some 15 merchant vessels loaded with corn and supplies for the French fleet at Brest. However, in this enterprise, 92 officers and men out of the entire party of 192 men, fell prisoners to the French when their boats became stranded. Lord Nelson had contributed no men to the attacking force and so had no casualties.

Next, Renown participated in an abortive invasion of Ferrol. On the 26th of August, in Vigo Bay, Admiral Sir Samuel Hood assembled a cutting-out party from the vessels under his command consisting of two boats each from Amethyst, Stag, Amelia, Brilliant and Cynthia, four boats from Courageaux, as well as the boats from Renown, London and Impetueux. The party went in and after a 15-minute fight captured the French privateer Guêpe, of Bordeaux and towed her out. She was of 300 tons burthen and had a flush deck. Pierced for 20 guns, she carried eighteen 9-pounders, and she and her crew of 161 men were under the command of Citizen Dupan. In the attack she lost 25 men killed, including Dupan, and 40 wounded. British casualties amounted to four killed, 23 wounded and one missing. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "29 Aug. Boat Service 1800" to all surviving claimants from the action.

In the October of 1800 under Captain John Chambers White she sailed for the Med. In the February of 1801 she served at the abortive attack and blockade of Cadiz. Armed en flute, she transferred to the Mediterranean later in that year, still as Warren's flagship.. Because Renown served in the navy's Egyptian campaign (8 March to 2 September 1801), her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal that the Admiralty issued in 1847 to all surviving claimants. She took part in the blockade of Toulon in 1803, and also at Malta.

Late in 1804 command was transferred to Captain Pulteney Malcolm, and then to Sir Richard Strachan in the March of 1805. Later that year she was paid off at Plymouth, and was under repair until the December of that year when she recommissioned under Commander William Hellard in the March of 1806 for the Channel. Under Captain Philip Durham between this time and 1809, she sailed for the Med on the 30th of January,1808. At the Blockade of Toulon on the 4th of May 1809 she took the12 gun Le Champenoite.

In the October of that year she served in Martin’s squadron in the pursuit of Baudin’s convoy, and on the 26th they succeeded in destroying the 80 gun La Robuste, and Le Lion 74.
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Fate.

Renown was laid up at Plymouth in 1811, went into ordinary from 1812 to 1813 and a Hospital ship in 1814.

She was broken up at Deptford in the May of 1835.

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HMS Dragon (1798)



HMS Dragon by Antoine Roux


HMS Dragon was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line, the only one in her class being designed by Sir William Rule, ordered on the 30th of April and approved on the 10th of June 1795. She was built by John and William Wells and Co. at Deptford Dockyard and launched on the 2nd of April 1798.

History
Great Britain
Name:	HMS Dragon
Ordered:	30 April 1795
Builder:	Wells & Co, Deptford.
Laid down:	August 1795
Launched:	2 April 1798
Renamed:	HMS Fame in 1842
Honours and awards:	·Participated in: ·Battle of Cape Finisterre ·Battle of Hampden ·Battle of Fort Peter ·Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Egypt"
Fate:	Broken up, 1850
General characteristics
Class and type:	74-gun third rateship of the line
Tons burthen:	​1814 74⁄95 (bm)
Length:	178 ft (54.3 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	48 ft 3 in (14.7 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft 6 in (6.2 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Armament:	·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns ·QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns ·Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

Service.

HMS Dragon was commissioned in the June of 1798 under Captain George Campbell.

French Revolutionary Wars.

On the 1st of June, 1799, she sailed to the Mediterranean as part of a squadron under Sir Charles Cotton, ordered to reinforce Lord Bridports Fleet. By theFebruary of 1801 she was under Captain John Aylmer as one of the squadron under Sir John Warren off Cadiz.
Because Dragon served in the navy's Egyptian campaign between 8 March 1801 and 2 September, her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal that the Admiralty issued in 1847 to all surviving claimants.

Napoleonic Wars.

In April 1803, Dragon was sailing from Gibraltar to Britain in company with Alligator and the store ship Prevoyante when they sighted two French ships of the line off Cape St.Vincent. The French ships veered off rather than engage the British vessels.

On the18th of June,1803, Dragon and Endymion captured the French naval 12-gun brig Colombe. Colombe was copper-bottomed and pierced for 16 guns. She had a crew of 65 men under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau Caro. Colombe had been returning from Martinique and was bound for Brest when the British captured her off Ouessant. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Colombe. In the following month, under Captain Edward Griffiths she returned to Portsmouth for a refit which took from the August of 1804 until the November of that year.

In 1805, Dragon took part in Admiral Robert Calder's action at the Battle of Cape Finisterre on the 22nd of July. She escaped with light casualties, only four men being wounded.

From 1806 to 1808, Dragon she served in the Channel Squadron under Captain Matthew Scott. On the 17th of February,1806, she ran aground on the Île de Ré, Finistère, France.^] She was later refloated, repaired and returned to service. From the April of 1809 until the September of 1810 she was undergoing small to middling repairs at Plymouth. She was then recommissioned under Captain Forrest as the flagship of Sir Francis Laforey. On the 18th of October in that same year, Dragon was in the Hamoaze. There she ran into and dismasted the Brig Eliza Ann, which was in process of sailing from Neath to London
Following this incident Dragon sailed for the Leeward Islands on the 30th of October.

The War of 1812.

Dragon participated in the War of 1812, firstly under the command of Captain Francis Collier until October of 1812, and took part in a number of engagements. She also captured a number of vessels including the Anna Maria on the 12th of September of that year. In the October of the same year,the command of Dragon was taken over by Captain Robert Barrie and on the 20th of December, destroyed the American privateer Tartar, of ten guns and 47 men.

In the August of 1814, Dragon participated in an expedition with a flotilla of other ships penetrating into the State of Maine, along the Penobscot River. The ships involved were were Sylph, Dragon, Endymion, Bacchante, Peruvian, as well as some transports. Bulwark, Tenedos, Rifleman, and Pictou. On the evening of the 31st of the month, Sylph, Peruvian, and the transport Harmony, accompanied by a boat from Dragon, embarked marines, foot soldiers and a detachment of soldiers from the Royal Artillery, under the command of Captain Robert Barrie of Dragon. The objective was the American 26 gun frigate Adams, which had taken refuge 27 miles upstream at Hampden. Adams’s crew had disembarked her guns and fortified a position along the bank, housing fifteen 18-pounders covering the river approaches. Travelling up river took two days, but eventually, after the Battle of Hampden, in which the British only suffered 2 killed, 8 wounded,and 1 missing. This enabled the British to capture the American defenders at Bangor, although not until after the Americans had succeeded in burning the Adams. The British also captured 11 other ships in the raid and destroyed a further six. Dragon lost only one man killed during the entire operation.

In the January of 1815, Dragon became the flagship for Admiral Sir George Cockburn at the Battle of Fort Peter and the capture of St. Marys, Georgia. Following this exploit the ship returned to England and was laid up at Plymouth in the August of that year. She was moved to Portsmouth in 1817 but later returned to Plymouth.

Fate.

Between the August and September of 1824 Dragon was fitted as a lazerette, still at Plymouth, becoming a Marinebarracks ship at Milford between1829 and 1842. She was then hauled ashore at Pembroke again fitted as a Marine barracks, then hulked and renamed HMS Fame on the 15th of July in that year. She was eventually broken up at Pembroke, this being completed on the 23rd of August,1850.

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HMS Spencer (1800)


Spencer



HMS Spencer was a 74-gun third rateship of the line, the only one of her class, having been designed by the French émigré shipwright Jean-Louis Barrallier.

She was ordered on the 19th of September1795 and built by Balthazar and Edward Adams at Bucklers. Hard. She was launched on the 10th of May,1800.

History
Great Britain
Name:	HMS Spencer
Ordered:	19 September 1795
Builder:	Adams, Bucklers Hard
Laid down:	September 1795
Launched:	10 May 1800
Honours and awards:	·Naval General Service Medal with clasps: ·"Gut of Gibraltar 12 July 1801" ·"St. Domingo"
Fate:	Broken up, 1822
General characteristics
Class and type:	Spencer Class 74 gun third rateship of the line
Tons burthen:	1917 (bm)
Length:	180 ft 10 in (55.12 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	49 ft 3 in (15.01 m)
Depth of hold:	21 ft 10 in (6.65 m)
Sail plan:	Full-rigged ship
Armament:	·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns ·Upper gundeck: 30 × 18-pounder guns ·QD: 12 × 9-pounder guns ·Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

Service.



Spencer was commissioned in the June of 1800 by Captain Henry D'Esterre Darby. Who commanded her until 1802. In the following month Spencer was at the Rock of Gibraltar as part of the squadron under the command of Rear Admiral James Saumarez in HMS Caeser. On the 6th of that month Saumarez sailed from Gibraltar with Caesar, Pompee, Spencer, Venerable, Hannibal and Audacious with the intention of attacking a squadron of three French line-of-battle ships and a frigate, which were lying a considerable distance from the batteries at Algeciras, under the command of Admiral Linois . As Venerable, leading the attack, approached the French, the wind dropped and she was forced to anchor. Pompee managed to get into action but Hannibal grounded and had to strike her colours. During the battle the British drove two of the French ships ashore and badly damaged the rest. The total loss in the British squadron was 121 killed, 240 wounded, and 14 missing. The Franco-Spanish force lost 317 men killed and some 3-500 wounded.
On the 8th of July, a squadron of five Spanish ships-of-the-line, a French 74, three frigates and a large number of gunboats reinforced the French ships. Hard work repaired all the British ships at Gibraltar, (excepting the Pompee) in time for them to follow the Franco-Spanish fleet when it sailed on the 12th. In the subsequent phase of the Battle of Algeciras , two first rate Spanish ships, the Real Carlos and the Hermenegildo fired upon each other during the night, caught fire and exploded, with tremendous loss of life. The British captured the third rateSt Antoine. In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the issue of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Gut of Gibraltar 12 July 1801" to surviving claimants from the battle; 192 medals were issued in all.


Naval combat between the French ship Formidable commanded by Captain Troude, and three British naval ships, Caesar, Spencer, Venerable and the frigate Thames in sight of Cadiz, 13 July 1801.


Spencer joined Admiral Robert Calder's squadron in the October of 1801 and In December she sailed in chase to the West Indies.
In the May of 1803 Spencer was recommissioned under Captain Robert Stopford for service in the Channel, and he remained in command until 1807. Whilst under him, on the 28th of the month she recaptured Castle Douglas, and the following month, on the 10th of June, Lord North. To top this on the 28th of August she also recaptured the East Indiaman Lord Nelson, and on the 20th of November she captured Virgin del Brien Consiglio, followed nine days later by the Nostra Senora del Carmen.
In the August of 1804 Spencer joined Admiral Nelson off Toulon and was involved in the chase to the West Indies in 1805.
Later that year she was part of a squadron off Cadiz under Vice Admiral John Duckworth. When news reached Duckworth that two French squadrons had sailed from Brest in the December of that year, Duckworth took his squadron to Barbados to search for them, eventually sighting Leissègues' squadron off San Domingo on the 6th of February,1806. Duckworth organised his ships into two lines, the weather line consisting of Superb, Northumberland and Spencer, while the lee line consisted of Agamemnon, Canopus, Donegal and Atlas. And then sailed to attack the French ships. During the battle, HMS Superb badly damaged the French 74-gun Indivisible, leaving her adrift, her rigging shot off and her rudder destroyed. Spencer then followed up and took her. The battle was a resounding victory for the Royal Navy, and Stopford and the other captains received a Naval Gold Medal for their actions. In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the issue of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "St. Domingo" to all surviving claimants from the battle; 396 medals were issued.


Next, Stopford and Spencer participated in the British invasions of the Río de la PlataThe invasions occurred in two phases. A detachment from the British army occupied Buenos Aires for 46 days in 1806 before being expelled. In 1807, a second force stormed and occupied Montevideo, remaining for several months, and a third force made a second attempt to take Buenos Aires. After several days of street fighting against the local militia and Spanish colonial army, in which half of the British forces were killed or wounded, the British were forced to withdraw.


Operations in the Baltic.


Spencer sailed with Gambier,s Fleet from England on the 26th of July 1807 for the Second Battle of Copenhagen, where she took part in the bombardment which along with the actions of the Army resulted in the surrender of the entire Danish Fleet.


Spencer arrived off Kristiansand, Norway on the 18th of September of that same year accompanied by two other ships. The ships withdrew after they were fired on by Christiansholm Fortress. The ship's commander decided to occupy the abandoned Fredriksholm Fortress in the Kristiansand fjord, and demolish it. Charges were laid but after waiting some time for the explosion, men were sent back to check if the fuses had gone out. They had not, and four of the men were killed in the resulting explosion.
In the April of 1808 Spencer came under the command of Captain John Quilliam for service in the as the flagship of the now Rear Admiral Stopford.


Following this she underwent a large repair at Plymouth from the October of 1811 until the March of 1814.


The War of 1812.


Spencer was recommissioned under Captain Richard Raggett, and during the War of 1812 he sailed her to North America escorting a convoy to Canada. Later in that year he patrolled in the Gulf of Maine. After a failed and embarrassing September attempt to gain ransom from a little coaster out of Boston, Raggett turned his wrath on lightly defended Cape Cod towns. Eastham coughed up over $1,200 and Brewster paid $4,000 to avoid bombardment. Bolder people resided in Barnstable and Orleans. The two towns rejected Raggett's demands and prepared to resist. Raggett decided to move on, but locals tagged his ship with the nickname "Terror of the Bay". Earlier, Spencer had shared in the capture of the American brigantine Superb.


After a successful cruise in the summer of 1814 during which she captured the Royal Navy schooner Landrail, the American privateer Syren returned to the United States but as she approached the Delaware River the British blockading ships gave chase. To escape the boats of Spencer and Telegraph, on the 16th of November Syren ran ashore under Cape May. Her crew then set her on fire before making good their escape.

From the August of 1815, Spencer served as a guardship in Plymouth under the command of Captain William Robert Broughton. On the 16th of March 1817, Wolf, a tender to Spencer, captured two smuggling boats, Albeona and Two Brothers, and their cargo. Wolf was in company with the revenue cruiser Vigilant. In 1818 Captain Sir Thomas Hardy replaced Broughton. Captain Samuel Rowley replaced Hardy in the September of that year. Spencer then served as the flagship for Rear Admiral Sir Josias Rowley at Cork. Sir Thomas Lavie replaced Rowley in turn in December 1821.


Fate.


Spencer was broken up at Plymouth in the April of 1822.

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HMS Courageux (1800)




Plan of HMS Courageux by John Henslow in 1797

HMS Courageux was a 74-gun third rateship of the line, ordered on the 6th of November,1794, she was designed by Sir John Henslow as one of the large 74-gun ships, and was the only ship built of her Class. She was laid down at Deptford Dockyard in the October of 1797, M/Shipwright Thomas Pollard to late 1779 and completed by Edward Tippett Unlike the middling and common class 74-gun ships, which carried 18-pounder long guns, as a large 74-gun ship, Courageux carried 24-pounders on her upper gun deck.
She was launched on the 26th of March, 1800.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Courageux
Ordered:	6 November 1794
Builder:	Deptford Dockyard
Laid down:	October 1797
Launched:	26 March 1800
Fate:	Broken up, 1832
General characteristics
Class and type:	Courageux Class 74 gun third rateship of the line
Tons burthen:	1780 (bm)
Length:	181 ft (55.2 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 1.5 in (14.4 m)
Depth of hold:	19 ft 10 in (6.0 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns ·Upper gundeck: 30 × 24-pounder guns ·QD: 12 × 9-pounder guns ·Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

Service.

HMS Courageux was commissioned in the Apriul of 1800 unde Captain Samuel Hood.

Her first notable action took place in the attack on Ferrol on the 26th of August 1800.
In 1801 she came under the captaincy of George Duff in Rear Admiral Sir Robert Calder’s squadron.At the end of January, a French squadron under Admiral Honoré Ganteaume comprising seven ships-of-the-line and two frigates, and carrying 5,000 troops, escaped from the port of Brest. It was spotted on 27 January by a British frigate which conveyed the news to Plymouth on the 3rd of February. Believing its destination to be the West Indies, a similar sized force, comprising Sir Robert Calder’s squadron was sent in pursuit. As one of the fastest two-deckers available at the time, Courageux was selected to take part in this unnecessary expedition.

On her return from the West Indies she came under the command of Captain Thomas Sotheby for service in the Channel. In the April of 1802 she was recommissioned under Captain Robert Pamplin, and then again under Captain John or James Hardy in the April of 1803.
In the November of that year she came under the Captaincy of Thomas Bertie, as the Flagship of Rear Admiral James Dacres.

On the 1st of January,1804, she sailed with a convoy from Portsmouth for the West Indies. However, on the 1st of February 43 vessels were forced to put in to Plymouth, together with their escort, Courageux. having been driven back by the severe weather. Defects were made good at Plymouth between the February and April of 1804 and she now came under Captain Charles Boyles.In mid-1804, Courageaux escorted a convoy slightly more successfully from St Helena back to Britain. The convoy consisted of the East Indiamen City of London, Ceylon, Calcutta, and Wyndham, two vessels from the South Seas, Lively and Vulture, and the ship Rolla, which had transported convicts to New South Wales. On the way this convoy also ran into severe weather with the result that Prince of Wales, which had also left St Helena with the rest, foundered with the loss of all on board; this had been her maiden voyage. All the other ships made a successful landfall.

In 1805 Captain Richard Lee took over command of Courageaux in the Channel, but by 1806 and into 1807 Courageux is known to have been under the command of Captain James Bissett at the Blockade of Cadiz.


Water pail from Courageux.

She then went into Chatham for a small repair between the March and July of 1809, and was then recommissioned under Captain Robert Pamplin for a second time, before taking part in the Scheldt operations. In 1810 she was under the command of Captain Adam Drummond for a short time, and then from the August of that year acting Captain William Butterfield, until Captain Philip Wilkinson took command in the November of that same year.

She was unlucky to have grounded twice in the following period of her service. Firstly on the Skerries rocks on the 21st of January,1811 and then on the Anholt reef on the 13th of November,1812. Prior to this second grounding and shortly after the outbreak of the War of 1812, on the 12th of August, Courageaux shared in the seizure of several American vessels: Cuba, Caliban, Edward, Galen, Halcyon, and Cygnet.

Fate.

The year after her second grounding, in the December of 1813, Courageux was taken out of service and fitted as a Lazarette at Chatham.
Courageux was placed on harbour service in the February of 1814, and was broken up at Chatham in the October of 1832.

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HMS Conqueror (1801)




Conqueror

HMS Conqueror was a 74 gun third rate ship of the line. She was ordered on the 30th of April, 1795 to the design by Sir John Henslow as part of the middling class of 74s, and was the only ship built of her Class. Whereas the common class carried 28 18-pounder guns on their upper gun decks, the middling class carried 30, and only ten 9-pounder guns on their quarterdecks instead of the 12 of the common class. She was laid down in the October of 1795 and built by Joseph Graham at Harwich, being launched on the 23rd of November,1801.

History
Great Britain
Name:	HMS Conqueror
Ordered:	30 April 1795
Builder:	Graham, Harwich
Laid down:	October 1795
Launched:	23 November 1801
Fate:	Broken up 1822
Notes:	·Participated in: ·Battle of Trafalgar
General characteristics
Class and type:	ConquerorClass 74-gun third rateship of the line
Tons burthen:	1853 (bm)
Length:	176 ft (54 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	49 ft (15 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft 9 in (6.32 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	·GD: 28 × 32-pounder guns ·Upper GD: 30 × 18-pounder guns ·QD: 12 × 9-pounder guns ·Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

Service.

HMS Conqueror was commissioned in the March of 1803 under Captain Sir Thomas Louis.
In the May of 1804 she came under the command of Captain Israel Pellew until 1807, and sailed for the Channel Fleet.
By 1805 she was in the Med, and then in Nelson's chase to the West Indies and back.

She fought at Trafalgar on the 21st of October in the Weather column, and Pellew's captain of marines was responsible for accepting the surrender of Admiral Villeneuve, the commander of the Franco-Spanish fleet, aboard the 80 gun French ship Bucentaure.. However, he was not able to deliver Villeneuve's sword to Captain Pellew aboard the Conqueror as she had passed on to engage the Santisima Trinidad and it was received by the acting captain of HMS Mars, her commander George Duff having been killed earlier in the battle. Despite being in the thick of the action for most of the battle and against superior opposition Conqueror suffered only three killed and 9 wounded.

Villeneuve, who spoke English, is alleged to have asked to whom he was surrendering. On being told it was Captain Pellew of the Conqueror, he replied "I am glad to have struck to the fortunate Sir Edward Pellew." When he was informed that the Conqueror's captain was Sir Edward's brother, he said, "His brother? What, are there two of them? Hėlas!"




Sketch showing Conqueror at the Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805

After a refit following the battle Conqueror was assigned to Sir Samuel Hood’s squadron off Rochefort in 1806. On the 15th of July in that year her ship’s boats accompanied by others from the squadron cut out the 16 gun Le Cesar off the Gironde.

After strenuous service she returned to Plymouth for defects to be made good between the April and June of 1807. She then joined Rear Admiral Sir Sidney Smith’s squadron sailing for the Tagus. Toward the end of that year her new commander was Captain Edward Fellows through until 1811. He took her to the Med in 1809 and in 1810 she joined Sir Charles Cottons’ squadron off Toulon.

On the 19th of July, 1811 Conqueror was in action off Cape Sicie against the French 40 gun Frigates L,Amelie and L’Adrienne.

On the 2nd of February, 1812, Conqueror was driven ashore on the coast of England between Sheerness and Chatham, Kent, during a storm.
She returned to Chatham For middling repairs, which were undertaken between the October of that year and the February of 1814. She was under Captain Richard Raggett until the end of 1815 in ordinary still at Chatham. Then in 1816 she became the flagship of Rear Admiral Robert Plampin at St. Helena, under Captain Robert Fowler during 1816 and then John Davie from 1816 until 1818.

Fate.

On her return to England she was fitted for sea at Sheerness and came firstly under Captain James Wallis, and then Captain Francis Stanfell from later in 1818 until 1820 when she was paid off at Chatham in the October of that year.

Conqueror was broken up there between the July and the August of 1822.

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HMS Plantagenet (1801)





Plantagenet



HMS Plantagenet was a 74 gun third rate ship of the line, ordered on the 6th of November 1794. She was designed by Sir William Rule as one of the 'large class' 74s, and was the only ship built in her class. As a large 74, she carried 24-pounder guns on her upper gun deck instead of the 18-pounder guns found on the middling and common class 74s. Laid down in the November of 1798 she was built at Woolwich Dockyard by M/Shipwright John Tovery until the July of 1801, and then completed by Edward Sison

She was launched on the 22nd of October,of that year.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Plantagenet
Ordered:	6 November 1794
Builder:	Woolwich Dockyard
Laid down:	November 1798
Launched:	22 October 1801
Fate:	Broken up, 1817
General characteristics
Class and type:	Plantagenet Class 74 gun third rate ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1777 (bm)
Length:	181 ft (55 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft (14 m)
Depth of hold:	19 ft 9 in (6.02 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns ·Upper gundeck: 30 × 24-pounder guns ·QD: 12 × 9-pounder guns ·Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

Service.


HMS Plantagenet was commissioned in the March of 1803 under Captain George Hammond for Channel service.

Later on In 1803, on the 24th of July she took the 4 gun Privateer Le Coureur de Terre Neuve and then on the 27th of that month accompanied by Rosario, she captured the French privateer sloop Atalante, of 22 guns, after a chase of nine hours. The Royal Navy took Atalante into service as HMS Hawke.

After this she proceeded to the Bay of Biscay now under the command of Captain Michael De Courcy.

She then returned to Plymouth and was fitted for Foreign service during the January and February of 1804


In June 1804 Plantagenet, under De Courcy, escorted the China Fleet of the British East India Company from Saint Helena back to England. This was the fleet that had scared off a French squadron of warships in the Battle of Pulo Aura.




The fleet of the East India Company homeward bound from China engaging and repulsing a French squadron near the Straits of Malacca, on 15 February 1804.


In the October of that year had received a new commander in the person of Captain Francis Pender and was back out in the Channel . During 1805 she had another change of Captain. The new commander was Captain William Bradley who continued in this role until 1809. On the 29th of August, 1807 she took the 2 gun Privateer L’Incomparable, and following this she sailed for Portugal on the 15th of November. She was with Sydney Smith’s squadron at both Lisbon and in the Tagus and finally at Courruna in the January of 1809.


She then sailed for the Baltic, and was under Captain Thomas Eyles from 1810 until 1812. On the 27th of September in that year Plantagenet and Daphne shared in the capture of the Danish schooner Toujours Fidele.
In the February of 1812, now under Captain Robert Lloyd she was preparing to sail for North America which she did on the 10th of March 1813 to take part in the war against the USA. As the ship was moored near Norfolk, Virginia, attempts were made to destroy her with the inventor Robert Fulton’s torpedoes, but this attempt failed.


On 16 December 1813, Planagenet's boats captured the American letter of marque schooner Rapid, off Havana. Rapid, Captain James Frazier, had been launched at Talbot County, Maryland in 1813. She was of 115 tons (bm), had a crew of 20, and was armed with one nine-pounder gun.
On the 26th of September 1814 her boats along with those of others made an unsuccessful attack on the US Privateer General Armstrong at Fayal. Shortly after this with the conclusion of hostilities she returned home and went into ordinary.



USS President and HMS Plantagenet February 1814

British ships Plantagenet, Rota and Carnation attack the American privateer General Armstrong on 26 October 1814 at Fayol (the Azores)


Fate.


Plantagenet was broken up at Portsmouth in the May of 1817.

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HMS Albion (1802)




HMS Albion was a Fame Class 74 gun third rate ship of the line ordered on the 4th of February, 1800. Designed by Sir John Henslow, and built by Perry, Wells and Green at Blackwall Docks. She was launched at Perry's Blackwall Yard on the Thames on the 17th of June, 1802.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Albion
Ordered:	24 June 1800
Builder:	Perry, Wells & Green, Blackwall Yard
Laid down:	June 1800
Launched:	17 June 1802
Honours and awards:	·Naval General Service Medal (NGSM) with clasps ·"Algiers" ·"Navarino"
Fate:	Broken up, 1836
General characteristics
Class and type:	Fame Classship of the line
Tons burthen:	​1740 32⁄94 bm
Length:	175 ft (53 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 8 in (14.49 m)
Depth of hold:	18ft 5 in (6.25 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
.Armament:	·Lower deck: 28 × 32-pounder guns ·Upper deck: 28 × 18-pounder guns ·QD: 2 × 18-pounder guns + 12 × 32-pounder carronades ·Fc: 2 × 18-pounder guns + 2 × 32-pounder carronades ·Roundhouse: 6 × 18-pounder carronades

Service.

HMS Albion was commissioned in the February of 1802 under Captain John Ferrier, who continued in command until 1808. She started her service in the Channel fleet as Flagship to Saumarez. Whilst on station, with the aid of HMS Minatour and Thunderer, she took the French 40 gun La Franchise.

In the May of 1803 under Ferrier she joined Admiral Cornwallis' fleet, which was blockading the vital French naval port of Brest. Albion was among the vessels of the squadron that shared in the proceeds of the capture of:
Juffrow Bregtie Kaas (30 May 1803);
Eendraght (31 May);
Morgen Stern (1 June);
Goede ferwachting (4 June);
De Vriede (5 June).

Albion was soon detached from the fleet to deploy to the Indian Ocean where she was to remain for several years.

Albion and Sceptre left Rio de Janeiro on the13th of October of that same year, escorting Lord Melville, Earl Spencer, Princess Mary, Northampton, Anna, Ann, Glory, and Essex. They were in company with the 74-gunthird rateship of the lineHMS Russell, and the fourth rateHMS Grampus. Three days later Albion and Scepter separated from the rest of the ships.

On the 21st of December, Albion and Sceptre captured the French privateer Clarisse at 1°18′S 95°20′E in the eastern Indian Ocean. Clarisse was armed with 12 guns and had a crew of 157 men. She had sailed from Isle de France (Mauritius) on the 24th of November of that year with provisions for a six-month cruise to the Bay of Bengal. At the time of her capture she had not captured anything. Albion, Sceptre, and Clarisse arrived at Madras on the 8th of January,1804.

On the 28th of February, Albion and Sceptre met up in the straits of Malacca with the fleet of Indiamen that had just emerged from the Battle of Pulo Aura and conducted them safely to Saint Helena. From there HMS Plantagenet escorted the convoy to England.

On the 28th of August,1808, Albion recaptured Swallow, which was carrying among other things, a quantity of gold dust.
Next, Albion escorted a fleet of nine East Indiamen returning to Britain. They left Madras on the 25th of October, but a gale that commenced around the 20th of November at 10°S 90°E by the 22nd of November had dispersed the fleet. By the 21st of February three of the Indiamen —Lord Nelson, Glory, and Experiment— had not arrived at Cape Town. Apparently all three had foundered without a trace.

Caroline, of Riga, arrived at Yarmouth on the 17th of August 1810 having been detained by Albion. She then went into Chatham Dockyard for a major repair which took place between the December of 1810 and the June of 1813.

She was recommissioned under Captain John Ferris Devonshire for the North American and West Indies station.

War of 1812.

In the March of 1814 under Captain Charles Ross, the same year that Napoleon was toppled for the first time, and after the long period of extensive repair, she became flagship of Rear Admiral George Cockburn, taking part in a war (War of 1812) against the United States. In the summer of 1814, she was involved in the force that harried the coastline of Chesapeake Bay, where she operated all the way up to the Potomac and Patuxent Rivers, destroying large amounts of American shipping, as well as US government property. In the May of that year che came under the command of Captain Phillip Somerville, and later Captain James Walker. The operations ended once peace was declared in 1815, and from the 31st of December her Captain changed yet again to John Goode who had command until 1819 in the Med.

Post-war.

In 1816, Albion was part of a combined British-Dutch fleet taking part in the bombardment of Algiers on the 27th of August, which was intended to force the Dey of Algiers to free Christian slaves. She fired 4,110 shots at the city, and suffered 3 killed and 15 wounded by return fire.
In 1817 she became the Flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Charles Penrose, and was fitted as a guardship at Sheerness.


From the May of 1819 she came under Captain Richard Raggett, and from the June of1822 under Captain Sir William Hoste until 1824, when she was refitted for sea service at Portsmouth. Recommissioned in the June of 1825,under Captain Ommaney until 1828, in 1827, she was part of a combined British-French-Russian fleet under the command of Admiral Codrington at the Battle of Navarino, where a Turkish-Egyptian fleet was obliterated, securing Greek independence. Albion suffered 10 killed and 50 wounded, including her second-in-command, Commander John Norman Campbell. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with the clasps "Algiers", and "Navarino" to all surviving claimants from the battles.


Albion at the Battle of Navarino.




The Return of the Asia and Albion to Spithead after the Battle of Navarino, 31 January 1828


In 1829, she went into ordinary at Portsmouth, and by mid 1830 she was being used as a receiving ship. Although fitting out had begun she was completed as a lazzarette between the March and July of 1831.

Fate.

Albion was used as a quarantine ship at Leith from1832 to 1835, and was finally broken up at Deptford in the June of 1836.

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HMS Sceptre (1802)





Sceptre.


HMS Sceptre was a Repulse Class 74 gun third rate ship of the line, ordered on the 4th of February 1800, designed by Sir William Rule, laid down in the December of that year, and built by John Dudman at Deptford, She was launched on the 11th of December,1802.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Sceptre
Ordered:	4 February 1800
Builder:	Dudman, Deptford
Laid down:	December 1800
Launched:	11 December 1802
Fate:	Broken up, 1821
General characteristics
Class and type:	Repulse classship of the line
Tons burthen:	1727 (bm)
Length:	174 ft (53 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 4 in (14.43 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft (6.1 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	·GD: 28 × 32-pounder guns ·Upper GD: 28 × 18-pounder guns ·QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns ·Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

Service.

HMS Sceptre was commissioned in the February of 1803 under Captain Archibald Collingwood Dickson On the 20th of June, after a shakedown period, she came into Plymouth for a refit. She then sailed again on the 28th of that month under the command of Captain Dickson to join the Channel fleet.

The East Indies.

In the July of that same year, she sailed for the East Indies station. She would serve for five years in the East Indies before being transfered to the Caribbean.
Scepter and Albion left Rio de Janeiro on the13th of October, escorting Lord Melville, Earl Spencer, Princess Mary, Northampton, Anna, Ann, Glory, and Essex. They were in company with the 74-gunthird-rateships of the lineHMS Russell, and the fourth-rateHMS Grampus. Three days later Albion and Scepter separated from the rest of the ships.

On the 21st of December, Sceptern and Albion captured the French privateer Clarisse in the eastern Indian Ocean. Clarisse was armed with 12 guns and had a crew of 157 men. She had sailed from Isle de France on the 24th of November with provisions for a six-month cruise to the Bay of Bengal. At the time of her capture she had not captured anything. Albion, Sceptre, and Clarisse arrived at Madras on the 8th of January, 1804.

On 28 February 1804, Albion and Sceptre met up in the straits of Malacca with the fleet of Indiamen that had just emerged from the Battle of Pulo Aura and conducted them safely to Saint Helena. From there HMS Plantagenet escorted the convoy to England.

Later inthe year,Captain Joseph Bingham, formerly of St Fiorenzo, took command of Sceptre. He was to remain her captain until 1809. On the11th of November, 1806, Sceptre and Cornwallis, under Captain Johnston made a dash into St. Paul's Bay, Isle de Bourbon, and attacked the shipping there, which consisted of the frigate Sémillante, three armed ships and twelve captured British ships. (The eight ships that had been earlier taken by Sémillante were valued at one and a half million pounds.) However, what little breeze there was soon failed, and the two ships found it difficult to manoeuvre and were unable to recapture any of the prizes.

In 1808, Sceptre, in company with Cornwallis, engaged and damaged Sémillante, together with the shore batteries that she sought to protect. Sceptre and Cornwallis, much affected by scurvy, then retired to Madagascar for their crews to recuperate.

Sceptre then returned home, accompanied by two homeward-bound Danish East Indiamen that Captain Bingham had captured off the Cape of Good Hope. On her return to Britain, she was paid off.
Between the August of 1808 and the June of 1809 Sceptre underwent a small repair at Chatham. In March Bingham recommissioned her and joined Sir Richard Strachan in the expedition to the Scheldt.

The West Indies station.

Sceptre sailed for the Leeward Islands on the 8th of November of that year During the passage from England Captain Samuel James Ballard trained his crew in the use of the broadsword. This later proved of value when they were used ashore.

Ballard and Sceptre arrived off Martinique with Alfred and Freya (or Freya) under his orders, to find that about 150 miles to the windward of Guadaloupe four French frigates had captured and burnt Junon, belonging to the Halifax squadron.

On 18 December, Sceptre, Blonde, Thetis, Freya, Castor, Cygnet, Hazard, Ringdove, and Elizabeth proceeded to attack two French flûtes, Loire and Seine anchored in Anse à la Barque ("Barque Cove"), about nine miles (14 km) to the northwest of the town of Basse-Terre. Blonde, Thetis and the three sloops bore the brunt of the attack but forced the French to abandon their ships and set fire to them. Captain Cameron, who was killed in the attempt, landed with the boats of Hazard and destroyed the shore batteries. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Anse la Barque 18 Decr. 1809", to all surviving claimants from the action.

Towards the end of January 1810, under the temporary command of Captain Edward Dix during the January and February of that year, Sceptre escorted a division of the troops destined for the attack on Guadaloupe from St. Lucia to the Saintes. While other troops were landed on the island the ship created a diversion off Trois-Rivières before landing her troops and marines between Anse à la Barque and Basse-Terre. Until the surrender of the island, Captain Ballard commanded the detachment of seamen and marines attached to the army. Sceptre visited most of the West Indian islands before sailing from St. Thomas in August with the homebound trade.

In the Channel.

She arrived at Spithead on the 25th of September, 1810 and was docked and refitted. Sceptre was employed in the Channel watching the enemy in Brest and the Basque Roads .after the September of 1811 she was commanded by Captain Sir Edward Berry. In 1812 she came under Captain Thomas Harvey, until the January of 1813 when Captain Robert Honeymantook command and sailed for North America.

The War of 1812.

Later in the year, Captain Charles Ross, took command of Sceptre as the flagship of Rear Admiral Sir George Cockburn for operations against the United States. On the 11th of July, Sceptre, with Romulus, Fox, Nemesis, and Conflict and the tenders Highflyer and Cockchafer, anchored off the Ocracoke bar, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. They had on board troops under the orders of Lieutenant Colonel Napier. An advanced division of the best pulling boats commanded by Lieutenant Westphall and carrying armed seamen and marines from Sceptre attacked the enemy's shipping. They were supported by Captain Ross with the rocket-boats. The flat and heavier boats followed with the bulk of the 102nd Regiment and the artillery.

The only opposition came from a brig, Anaconda, of 18 guns, and a privateerschooner, Atlas of 10 guns, which were the only armed vessels in the anchorage. When Lieutenant Westphall attacked, supported by rockets, the Americans abandoned Anaconda and Atlas struck. The troops took possession of Portsmouth Island and Ocracoke Island without opposition. The British took the two prizes into service as Anaconda and St Lawrence.

On the 12th of May in that year, Sceptre recaptured the letter of marqueFanny. The capture and recapture of Fanny, together with Sceptre's claim for salvage, gave rise to several important legal cases.

In 1814 she came under the command of several captains. Firstly, John Devonshire, followed by Alexander Skene, and lastly William Waller. On her return home in the August of that year she was laid up at Chatham.

Fate.

On recommissioning, Sceptre spent her final year in the Channel on the blockade of the French fleet.
Sceptre was then decommissioned at Chatham. And went into ordinary. She was finally broken up there in the February of 1821.

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HMS Colossus (1803)


Hull plan for Colossus and Warspite


HMS Colossus was the name ship of her class, the other being Warspite .. She was a 74 gun third rate ship of the line, ordered on the 23rd of November 1797, designed by Sir John Henslow as one of the large class 74s. She was built by M/shipwright Edward Tippett until the March of 1803 and completed by Henry Peake at Deptford Dockyard. Colossus was launched on the 23rd of April, 1803. As a large 74, she carried 24 pdrs on her upper gun deck, as opposed to the 18 pdrs found on the middling and common class 74s.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Colossus
Ordered:	13 January 1798
Builder:	Deptford Dockyard
Laid down:	May 1799
Launched:	23 April 1803
Honours and awards:	·Took part in: ·Battle of Trafalgar
Fate:	Broken up, 1826
General characteristics
Class and type:	Colossus Class 74-gun third rate ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1888​47⁄94 (bm)
Length:	180 ft (55 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	48 ft 10 in (14.88 m)
Depth of hold:	21 ft (6.4 m)
Sail plan:	Full-rigged ship
Armament:	·74 guns: ·Gundeck: 28 × 32 pdrs ·Upper gundeck: 30 × 24 pdrs ·Quarterdeck: 12 × 9 pdrs ·Forecastle: 4 × 9 pdrs

Service.


Was commissioned in the March of 1803 under Captain George Martin, and then Captain S. Seymour until the March of 1804.


Napoleonic Wars.


On the 27th of August,1803 Colossus recaptured the East IndiamanLord Nelson, which the French privateer Belone had taken two weeks earlier and which Seagull had fought to the point of surrender.
In March 1804 the command was assumed by Captain James Nicoll Morris until 1808, firstly as the Flagship of Sir Thomas graves in the Channel Fleet. and in 1805 with Collingwood’s squadron off Cadiz.


Trafalgar.


Colossus fought at Trafalgar on the 21st of October under Morris, in Collingwood's lee column. After sustaining fire from the enemy fleet, she eventually ran by the French Swiftsure, 74, and became entangled with Argonaute, 74. Towards the end of the exchange of fire between the two ships, Captain Morris was hit by a shot from one of Argonaute's guns, just above the knee. Argonaute broke free from Colossus after this, whilst the British ship was engaging both Swiftsure and the Spanish Bahama, 74, on her other side. Bahama surrendered when Colossus brought down her main mast, and Swiftsure did likewise after combined fire from Colossus and Orion brought down her main and mizzen masts.In the battle she suffered 40 dead, and a further 160 wounded including Morris. This was the highest attrition in the British Fleet.

Swiftsure then returned to England for a small repair at Portsmouth from the April to the June of 1806.
She recommissioned in the July of that year, and was sent to reinforce Rear Admiral Sir Richard Strachan’s squadron off Rochefort in 1808.

Sailed for the Med on the 30th of July, before being recommissioned in the October of that year under Captain Thomas Alexander.
On her return to Chatham several defects were attended to between the February and April of 1811.

The War of 1812.

Swiftsure started the war of 1812 in Captain Sir John Gore’s squadron off Lorient. On the 5th of January she captured the US 12 gun Privateer Dolphin. Then on the 24th of March, in company with Tonnant, Hogue, Poictiers and Bulwark captured the Emilie.
In 1813 she was in the Nort sea where on 11th of February, Rhin and Colossus captured the American ship Print.

Fate.

In the May of 1814 she was laid up at Chatham for rearming with 18pdr guns on her upper deck.
In 1815 Colossus was placed in ordinary at Chatham. She was eventually broken up there on the 8th

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HMS Hero (1803)



HMS Hero was a modified Fame Class 74-gun third rate ship of the line,ordered on the 4th of February 1800 to the Henslow design. She was laid down in the February of 1801 at Blackwall Yard and built by Perry, Wells and Green. She was launched on the 18th of August, 1803.

History
Great Britain
Name:	HMS Hero
Ordered:	24 June 1800
Builder:	Perry, Blackwall Yard
Laid down:	August 1800
Launched:	18 August 1803
Honours and awards:	·Participated in: ·Battle of Cape Finisterre
Fate:	Wrecked, 1811
General characteristics
Class and type:	Modified Fame class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1743 (bm)
Length:	175 ft (53 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 6 in (14.48 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft 6 in (6.25 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Complement:	530
Armament:	·74 guns: ·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns ·QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns ·Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

Service.

HMS Hero was commissioned in the October of 1803 for Channel service under Captain Alan Gardiner, who commanded her until 1807.



A letter written in 1804 by crewman John Parr from Hero.

In 1805, under Gardner, on the 22nd of August she took part in Admiral Robert Calder's action at the Battle of Cape Finisterre, emerging wit severe damage to her superstructure and masts but remarkably only 1 dead and 4 wounded. On the 2nd of November in that same year, she was also involved in Strachan’s action with Dumanoir. off Cape Ortegal, in north-west Spain in which Sir Richard Strachan defeated and captured a French squadron under the command of Rear-Admiral Pierre Dumanoir le Pelley. Not quite so lucky on this occasion, Hero sustained 10 killed and 51 wounded.
From the July of 1807 Hero came under the command of Captain J Beresford during her refit between that time and her recommissioning by Captain James Newman in the April of 1808.The work was completed in the June of that year and Newman continued to serve as her Captain until 1811.
He commanded her in both the Basque Roads operation in the April of 1809 and also in the Scheldt operations in Gambier’s main Fleet which did not take part in the main action.

Fate.
During 1811 Hero was assigned to the Baltic for most of the year, but on her return to the North sea, on the 25 December, still under Captain Newman she was wrecked on the Haak Sands at the mouth of the Texel during a gale, with the loss of 500 of her crew including Newman, with only 12 of her crew surviving the catastrophe.



The wreck of HMS Hero in the Texel, 25 December 1811

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HMS Illustrious (1803)





HMS Illustrious,was a modified Fame Class 74 gun third rate ship of the line designed by Henslow,ordered on the 4th of February, 1800 and built by John Randall and John Brent at Rotherhithe where her keel was laid in February 1801. She was launched on the 3rd of September,1803, and she was then completed at Woolwich.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Illustrious
Ordered:	4 February 1800
Builder:	Randall, Rotherhithe
Launched:	3 September 1803
Fate:	Broken up, 1868
General characteristics
Class and type:	Modified Fame class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1746 (bm)
Length:	175 ft (53 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 6 in (14.48 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft 6 in (6.25 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns ·QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns ·Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

Service.

She was commissioned in the November of 1803 under Captain Sir Charles Hamilton for the Channel Fleet,. In 1805 under acting Captain Michael Seymour with the aid of HMS Ramillies, she took the 2 gun privateer La Josephine on the 7th of July.

Then under Captain William Shield who commanded her from the end of that month until 1807, she eventually sailed for the Med on the 1st of January 1807, and then came under the command of Captain William Broughton. He would retain command until 1811. Under him she was involved in the Battle of the Basque Roads in 1809, in which she won a battle honour, and in the expeditions against the docks at Antwerp and render the Schelde unnavigable to French ships.

On the 22nd of November, 1810, Illustrious was amongst the fleet that captured Île de France on 3 December. She then took part in the Invasion of Java (1811) in Indonesia.





HMS Illustrious heading out of Table Bay (Thomas Whitcombe, cira 1811)


Fate.

She returned to Portsmouth for major repairs and a complete refit between the December of 1813 and the April of 1817 and was then laid up in reserve until recommissioned in 1832.



Excellent and Illustrious by Henry J Morgan.


Commissioned as a Flagship for Portsmouth in 1841,she was laid up again in 1845, and later used as a guard ship, a hospital ship and, lastly, in 1854 she became a gunnery training ship and continued as one until she was broken up in 1868 in Portsmouth. This was completed on the 4th of December in that year.

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HMS Repulse (1803)



Repulse


HMS Repulse was the name ship of her class which were 74-gun third rate ships of the line designed by Sir William Rule. She was ordered on the 4th of February 1800, and laid down in the September of that year. She was built by Mrs Francis Barnard and Co. at Deptford Green, and launched on the 22nd of July,1803.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Repulse
Ordered:	4 February 1800
Builder:	Barnard, Deptford
Laid down:	September 1800
Launched:	22 July 1803
Fate:	Broken up, 1820
Notes:	·Participated in: ·Battle of Cape Finisterre
General characteristics
Class and type:	Repulse class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1727 ​23⁄94 (bm)
Length:	174 ft (53 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 4 in (14.43 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft (6.1 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	·74 guns: ·Gundeck: 28 × 32 pdrs ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18 pdrs ·Quarterdeck: 14 × 9 pdrs ·Forecastle: 4 × 9 pdrs

Service.

HMS Repulse was commissioned in the July of 1803 under Captain Arthur Legge who commanded her until 1807, from the November of that year as the Flagship of Rear Admiral Thomas Russell at Yarmouth.

She served at the blockade of Ferrol in 1805, and was at the action resulting in the Battle of Cape Finisterre on the 22nd of August of that year. Despite having her Bowsprit shot away, her casualty list was light, amounting to just four wounded.

During 1806 Repulse was employed in going in search of Leissegues and Willaumez.

In 1807 the ship served in the Mediterranean squadron under Vice-Admiral John Thomas Duckworth and Vice-Admiral Harry Riddick during both the Dardanelles Operation, and in the Alexandria expedition.

In 1809 she experienced her first chang of captain, when John Halliday took over from Legge for the Walcheren operations, and then sailed for the Med under his command, and subsequently took part in the blockade of Toulon, and on the 31st of August in that year, the rescue of Philomel.

In 1811 Repulse had her third commander in the form of Captain Richard Hussey Moubray. Still in the Med she was involved in the boat attack on Morgion on the 2nd of May, 1813.

Fate.

Repulse was paid off in the June of 1814, fitted for ordinary at Plymouth in the following month and finally broken up there in the September of 1820.

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HMS Eagle (1804)




Eagle.


HMS Eagle was a Repulse Class 74-gun third rateship of the line,designed by Sir William Rule and ordered on the 4th of February 1800. She was laid down in the August of that year, and built by Thomas Pitcher at Northfleet. She was launched on the 27th of February, 1804.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Eagle
Ordered:	4 February 1800
Builder:	Pitcher, Northfleet
Laid down:	August 1800
Launched:	27 February 1804
Fate:	Burnt, 1926
General characteristics
Class and type:	Repulse class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1923 (bm)
Length:	174 ft (53 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 4 in (14.43 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft (6.1 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns ·QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns ·Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

Service.


HMS Eagle was commissioned in the February of 1804 under Captain David Colby for the Leeward Islands.
On 11 November 1804, Glatton, together with Eagle, Majestic, Princess of Orange, Raisonable, Africiane, Inspector, Beaver, and the hired armed vesselsSwift and Agnes, shared in the capture of the Upstalsboom, H.L. De Haase, Master.
On the 2nd of April,1805 she took the 14 gun privateer L’Empereur.

Recommissioned in the November of that year under Captain Charles Cowley, who was destined to command her until 1813,she joined Sir Wm Sidney Smith’s squadron off Naples and Capri in the May of 1806.

Between the February and April of 1806 she returned to Portsmouth for a refit, and in the February of 1810 she returned to the Med.
On the 27th of November, 1811 she captured the 40 gun La Coreyre, armed en flute, in the Adriatic sea.

During 1812/ 13 period Eagle was involved in two boat attacks on Goro. The first took place on the 17th of September when two gunboats were taken and several others burnt. The second attack in the 29th of April in 1813 saw five vessels captured and one other burnt. Following this escapade a landing party from the ship destroyed a battery at Farasina on the 11th of June in that year. By the 3rd of July she had joined Freemantles squadron at Fiume, and accompanied by the Fifth Rate HMS Bacchante a convoy was captured at Rovingo on the second of August. From the 5th to the 29th of October she was involved in operations at Triest. Following this she returned to Chatham for a large repair between the June of 1814 and the September of 1816, after which she went into ordinary there.

A small repair followed between the October and December of 1823, and the a complete revamp and cut down into a Fourth Rate 50 gun Frigate between the February of 1830 and the March of 1831.

She was finally recommissioned for sea in the November of 1844 under Captain George Martin for service in North America and the West Indies until 1847. On her return to England she was fitted at Plymouth for Coastguard service from the October of 1856 until February 1857, and then departed for Falmouth, and then Milford in the February of 1858.

Between the June and the September of 1860 she was fitted as a training drill ship at Portsmouth for use in Southampton Water.
She was paid off on the 30th of June 1862,at Liverpool and then becoming an RNR Drill ship.

She was lent to the Mersey Division of the RNR in 1912.

Fate.

HMS Eagle was renamed HMS Eaglet in 1918, when she became the Royal Naval Reserve training centre for North West England. In 1926 a fire destroyed the ship, and the wreck was sold to J Hornby for breaking up on the 4th of January 1927.

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HMS Swiftsure (1804)

HMS Swiftsure was a 74-gun third-rateship of the line, designed by Sir John Henslow, ordered on the16th of August,1800 and built by Balthazar and Edward Adams at Bucklers Hard. Her Keel was laid in the August of 1802 and she was launched on the 23rd of July,1804.




Swiftsure

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Swiftsure
Ordered:	1800
Builder:	Henry Adams, Bucklers Hard
Laid down:	February 1802
Launched:	23 July 1804
Honours and awards:	Participated in: Battle of Trafalgar
Fate:	Sold out of the service, 1845
Notes:	Receiving ship from 1819
General characteristics
Class and type:	Swiftsure classship of the line
Tons burthen:	1724 (bm)
Length:	173 ft (53 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 6 in (14.48 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft 9 in (6.32 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

Service.



HMS Swiftsure was commissioned in the August of 1805 by Captain Mark Robinson for the Channel, and found herself off Cadiz where she took part in the chase to the West Indies under Captain William Gordon Rutherford. On her return she fought at Trafalgar in the lee column. During the battle she and Polyphemus gave succour to the Belleisle which had been grievously mauled during the first four hours of the battle. By mid afternoon when the Redoutable finally surrendered it was the Swiftsure who took her in tow. By noon on the 22nd it was clear that the French ship was foundering and 119 of her crew were taken off and saved. During the entire battle Swiftsure suffered only eight killed and nine wounded.

She was paid off in 1807 and then recommission- ed in that same year under Captain John Conn as the Flagship of Vice Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren and sailed for North America on the 8th of December in that year. Conn was unfortunately drowned in the May of 1810 and she was taken over by Captain Charles Austin for the remainder of her commission.

Swiftsure underwent a repair on her return to England in 1811. The work at Chatham taking from the March until September of that year, She was recommissioned under Captain Robert Lloyd, as the Flagship of Vice Admiral Herbert Sawyer on the North American station. She came under the captaincy of Lord John Colvill in the August of that year, and then sailed for the Med in the November.
By 1812 she was under Captain Temple Hardy and in the August of that year Captain Edward Dickson until 1814 when she became the Flagship of Vice Admiral John Laugharne once more in the Med. By the September of that year she was back in the West Indies under Captain William Webley.

Fate.
Back at Portsmouth by the August of 1815 she was paid off, and went into ordinary. From 1819 until 1845, she remained at Portsmouth having been fitted as a receiving ship, but In the September of 1844, having been moved she heeled over and sank at Portchester. In the November of that year, she commenced use as a target ship by HMS Excellent. She was sold out of the service and broken up by Barnard on the 18th of October, 1845.







Barker family memorial in St Peter's Church, Edensor with reference to HMS Swiftsure and Trafalgar

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HMS FAME (1805)



Fame



HMS Fame was a 74-gun third rateship of the line, the name ship of her class, designed by Sir John Henslow, ordered on the 15th of October 1799, and built at Deptford Dockyard by M/shipwright Edward Tippett until the March of 1803 and then completed by Henry Peake . She was constructed on the same building slip as was HMS Courageux, her keel having been ordered to be laid down on it immediately after the other ship's launch on the 26th of March,1800. The first elements of her keel were not finally laid down until the 22nd of January 1802, and Fame was launched on the 8th of October, 1805.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Fame
Ordered:	15 October 1799
Builder:	Deptford Dockyard
Laid down:	22 January 1802
Launched:	8 October 1805
Fate:	Broken up, 1817
General characteristics
Class and type:	Fame Class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1745 (bm)
Length:	175 ft (53 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 8 in (14.53 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft 6 in (6.25 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	·74 guns: ·Gundeck: 28 × 32 pdrs ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18 pdrs ·Quarterdeck: 14 × 9 pdrs ·Forecastle: 4 × 9 pdrs

Service.

HMS Fame was commissioned inthe October of 1805 by Captain Graham Moore.
In the May of 1806 she was placed under the command of Captain Richard Bennett from then until 1809. By the Autumn of 1806 she was in the squadron of Sir John Borlase Warren in the pursuit of Willaumez, and then sailed for the Med on the 28th of June 1807, and then back to the Channel later in that year.

In the November of 1808, whilst still under the command of Captain Bennet, Fame joined a squadron lying off Rosas, where Captain Lord Cochrane was assisting the Spanish in the defence of Castell de la Trinitat against the invading French army. Boats from Fame helped evacuate Cochrane's garrison forces after the fort's surrender on the 5th of December.

During 1810 Fame came under the command of two new Captains. First it was Captain Philip Hornby, and then by the November of that year Captain Walter Bathurst until 1814.She sailed to the Med in 1811 and just for for a month from October to November came under acting Captain Abel Ferris before reverting to Bathurst again.

Fate.

Fame was laid up in ordinary at Chatham in1815, where she was broken up in the September of 1817.

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HMS Revenge (1805)





HMS Revenge at Gosport


HMS Revenge was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line, designed by Sir John Henslow as one of the large class 74s; she was the only ship built to her draught. As a large 74, she carried 24-pounder guns on her upper gun deck, rather than the 18-pounder guns found on the middling and common class 74s. Ordered on the 26th of October 1796, her keel was laid in the August of 1800, at Chatham Dockyard and built by M/Shipwright Edward Sison until the July of 1801, then David Polhill until the March of 1803 and finally completed by Robert Seppings. Revenge was launched on the 13th of April, 1805.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Revenge
Ordered:	29 September 1796
Builder:	Chatham Dockyard
Laid down:	August 1800
Launched:	13 April 1805
Honours and awards:	Participated in: Battle of Trafalgar
Fate:	Broken up, 1849
General characteristics
Class and type:	74-gun third rate ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1954 (bm)
Length:	181 ft 11 in (55.4 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	49 ft 2 in (15.0 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft 9 in (6.3 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns ·Upper gundeck: 30 × 24-pounder guns ·QD: 12 × 9-pounder guns ·Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

Service.


HMS Revenge was commissioned in the April of 1805 by Captain Robert Moorsom,for the Channel Fleet.


On the 21st of October, she fought at the Battle of Trafalgar, where she sailed in the lee coloumn under Comodore Collingwood. During the battle she lost 28 dead and 51 wounded.


She was refitted at Portsmouth between the December of 1805 and February of 1806 and recommissioned under Captain Charles Flemming, On completion of the refit she came under the command of Captain Sir John Gore, who commanded her until 1807.


She was involved in a boat attack on shipping in the Gironde on the 16th of July, 1806, and then in Sir Samuel Hood’s action off Rochefort on the 25th of September in that same year.


On the 26th of February,1807 Revenge sailed for the Med for the blockade of Cadiz.


From the August of 1808 she came under the captaincy of Charles Paget until 1810. Revenge was engaged at the Battle of Basque Roads in April 1809 where she suffered 5 killed and 13 wounded temporally under Captain Alexander Robert Kerr.


Then she was returned to England, now temporally under Captain John Bligh, and then was involved in the Walcheran expedition.


On the 10th of June, 1810 Revenge sailed with an East Indies convoy. And in the October of that year, now under Captain Sir John Gore she captured the French privateer cutter Vauteur off Cherbourg after a five-hour chase. Vauteur had been armed with 16 guns, but she threw 14 of them overboard in an attempt to outrun her pursuer. She had been out of Dieppe for 45 hours but had as yet made no captures. She was the former British cutter John Bull, of Plymouth, and was restored to Plymouth on the 19th of October. The report in Lloyd's List announcing this news appears to have confused names. Vauteur appears to have been Vengeur. There is no account of Revenge capturing a Vauteur, but on the 17th of October, Revenge captured the French privateer lugger Vengeur, off Cherbourg. The lugger crossed to windward of Revenge before daylight, and Revenge gave chase, finally capturing her quarry after three hours. Vengeur was armed with 16 guns and had a crew of 78 men. She was one day out of Dieppe and had not taken any prizes.


On the 6th of November, Donegal captured the privateer Surcouf. Revenge, Donegal, and the hired armed lugger Sandwich would share in the prize money for Vengeur and Surcouf.


On the 13th of Novemberof that same year, the frigates Diana and Niobe attacked two French frigates (Elisa and Amazone), which sought protection under the shore batteries near Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue. Revenge and Donegal arrived two days later and together the four ships fired upon the French for as long as the tide would allow. The operation cost Donegal three men wounded. Élisa was driven ashore and ultimately destroyed as a result of this action; Amazone escaped safely into Le Havre.


In 1811 came temporally under a Captain Nash, before having a refit at Portsmouth from the April to the june of that year.Then under Captain Charles Bateman she became the Flagship of Rear Admiral Arthur Legge and returned to the Med.


Fate.


In the August of1814 she was paid off into ordinary at Chatham, and underwent a large repair, having a circular stern fittedfor a Flag officer on foreign service.


In the May of 1827 she became a guardshipat Portsmouth, and then as one at Plymouth from 1830 to 1831. Returning to Portsmouth in 1838 she became a demonstration ship. Re rated as a 76 in 1839, she was recommissioned in 1840 under Captain William Waldegrave for the bombardment of Acre on the 3rd of November 1840.


Paid off in 1842 at sheerness she was surveyed there in the April of that year and broken up in the October of that year.

[Bligh]

HMS Magnificent (1806)






HMS Magnificent was a Revived Repulse Class 74-gun third rate ship of the line designed by Sir William Rule and ordered on the 24th of January 1805. The keel was laid down in the April of that year and she was built by Perry, Wells and Green at Blackwall Yard. She was launched on the 30th of August, 1806.

History
GREAT BRITAIN.
Name:		HMS Magnificent
Ordered:		31 January 1805
Builder:		Perry, Wells & Green, Blackwall
Laid down:		April 1805
Launched:		30 August 1806
Fate:		Sold, 1843
General characteristics
Class and type:	Revived Repulse Class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1732 ​3⁄94 (bm))
Length:	174 ft (53 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 4 in (14.43 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft (6.1 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	·74 guns: ·Gundeck: 28 × 32 pdrs ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18 pdrs ·Quarterdeck: 4 × 12 pdrs, 10 × 32 pdr carronades ·Forecastle: 4 × 12 pdrs, 2 × 32 pdr carronades ·Poop deck: 6 × 18 pdr carronades

Service.

HMS Magnificent was commissioned in the September of 1806 under Captain George Eyre who commanded her until 1811.
She sailed to the Med via Cadiz on the 3rd of June in that year.
Between 1809 and 1810 she was in the Adriatic, and in the April of 1810 took part in the capture of Santa Maura.

She was bask in England by the Autumn of 1811, and underwent repairs at Plymouth between the February and May of 1812. She was recomissioned under Captain Willoughby Lake for operations on the coast of Spain under temporary Captain John Hayes. She then took part in the attack on Santander in the August of that year.




This representation of His Majesty's Ship Magnificent, 74 Guns. Showing (after cutting the Cables in a S.W. Gale) making sail , 17th Dec 1812 . dedicated to John Hayes, Capt.

She then returned to the channel, and was paid off in 1814.

Magnificent was fitted as a hospital ship at Portsmouth between the August and December of 1825 for service in Jamacia.

Fate.

In the May of 1828 she was commissioned as a receiving ship at Rio which service she carried out until 1842.
She was then hulked, and eventually sold out of the service in Jamaica, being broken up there on the 10th of January,1843.

[Bligh]

HMS Valiant (1807)




HMS Valiant was another revived Repulse Class 74 gun third rate ship of the line ordered onthe 24th of January 1805 and built by Perry,Wells and Green at Blackwal yardl. Laid down in the April of that year, she was launched on the 24th of January 1807.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Valiant
Builder:	Perry, Green & Wells, Blackwall
Laid down:	April 1805
Launched:	24 January 1807
Fate:	Broken up, 1823
General characteristics
Class and type:	Revised Repulse class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1718 (bm)
Length:	174 ft (53 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 4 in (14.43 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft (6.1 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns ·QD: 4 × 12-pounder guns + 10 × 32-pounder carronades ·Fc: 4 × 12-pounder guns + 2 × 32-pounder carronades ·Poop deck: 6 × 18-pounder carronades

Service.

HMS Valiant was commissioned in the March of 1807 under Captain Kenneth McKenzie, and in the following month, came under Captain James Young for the Copenhagen expedition in the August of that year. She took part in the attack on Copenhagen, when the British fleet under Admiral Gambier bombarded the city between the 2nd and 5th of September. On the 5th of September, the Danes sued for peace, and the capitulation was signed on the 7th. Denmark agreed to surrender its navy and its naval stores. In return, the British undertook to leave Copenhagen within six weeks.

In the January of 1808 Valiant came under the command of Captain George Reynolds, followed shortly by Captain John Poo Beresford, and in the June of that year Captain Thomas Briggs.He was followed by Captain John Hayes in the December of that year. In the February of 1809 she came under Captain Alexander Kerr off Lorient and a month later Captain John Bligh,who took her into action against French warships in the Basque Roads (Battle of Aix Roads) under Lord Gambier and Lord Cochrane which took place between the 11th and the 25th of April 1809. Valiant entered the anchorage on the 12th, was heavily engaged during the day, and withdrew on the morning of the 13th without sustaining any casualties.



Glory and Valiant probably at some time during 1808

In 1810, now under the command of Captain Thomas Shortland, Valiant took the 14 gun La Confiance off Belleisle on the third of February. Later in the year, now under Captain Robert Dudley Oliver, who commanded her until 1814, her boats together with those of Neale’s squadron took two Brigs and destroyed another in the Basque Roads on the 28th of September in that same year.

On the 14th of January,1813 Valiant sailed for North America. On the 17th of June she was in company with Acasta when they came upon HMS Wasp in pursuit of an American brig off Cape Sable. The three British ships continued the chase for another 100 miles (160 km) before they finally were able to capture the brig. She was the letter of marque Porcupine, of more than 300 tons, and was carrying a valuable cargo of brandy, wine, silks, dry goods and other merchandise from Bayonne to Boston. Captain Oliver described Porcupine as being only eight months old and an uncommonly fast sailer. After the capture, Wasp, which had recaptured a prize that the privateerYoung Teazer had taken, sailed in search of the privateer.

Valiant returned home in 1814 and in the july of that year Captain Zachary Mudge took over command. On the 8th of September,1815 the ship was paid off at Portsmouth.

Fate.

She was broken up there in 1823. The work being completed on the 28th of November in that year.

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HMS Elizabeth (1807)




Elizabeth



HMS Elizabeth was another of the revised Repulse Class 74 gun third rate ships of the line ordered on the 21st of January,1805. She was laid down in the August of that year, and built by Perry, Wells and Green at Blackwall. She was launched on the 23rd of May,1807.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Elizabeth
Builder:	Wells, Blackwall
Laid down:	August 1805
Launched:	23 May 1807
Fate:	Broken up, 1820
General characteristics
Class and type:	Revised Repulse Class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1724 (bm)
Length:	174 ft (53 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 4 in (14.43 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft (6.1 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns ·QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns ·Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

Service.

HMS Elizabeth was commissioned in the June of 1807 under Captain Henry Curzon who commanded her until 1810.

In the November of 1807 she sailed for Portugal, and then joined Sydney Smith’s squadron in the Med.

In the January of 1809 she was at Corunna, and then proceeded to Brazil.

In 1810 she came under the command of Captain Thomas Capel, but in the August of that year changed commanders temporally to Captain Thomas Searle, and then later in the year, to Captain Lord William Stuart. In the January of 1811 she came under Captain Edward Leveson Gower until 1813.and sailed for Portugal on the 26th of March of 1811. In 1812 she was in the Med again from the August of that year.

Her next Captain was Gardiner Guion and whilst under his command Elizabeth captured the French 6 gun naval xebec L’Aigle and her prize, the Glorioso off Corfu on the 25th of May,1814.and the Chic on the 27th of that month. Weazel shared in the prize money though it was the boats of Elizabeth that performed the actual capture. It was an action that in 1847 earned for their crews the Naval General Service Medal with clasp, "24 May Boat Service 1814". Aigle was armed not only with her six guns,but also a howitzer, and three swivels She had a crew of 40 men. The captures of the Aigle and Chicrepresented the last naval surrender under the French Tricolour in the Napoleonic Wars.

Fate.

Elizabeth was paid off in the June of 1814 at Woolwich, but not broken up until the August of 1820.

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HMS Cumberland (1807)





Cumberland


HMS Cumberland was a revised Repulse Class 74 gun third rate ship of the line, ordered on the 24th of January,1805. Laid down in the August of that year, she was built at Northfleet by Thomas Pitcher and launched on the 19th of August,1807.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Cumberland
Ordered:	24 January 1805
Builder:	Pitcher, Northfleet
Laid down:	August 1805
Launched:	19 August 1807
Renamed:	1833
Name:	HMS Fortitude
Fate:	Sold, 1870
General characteristics
Class and type:	Revised Repulse third class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1718 ​16⁄94 (bm)
Length:	174 ft (53 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 4 in (14.43 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft (6.1 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	·74 guns: ·Gundeck: 28 × 32 pdrs ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18 pdrs ·Quarterdeck: 4 × 12 pdrs, 10 × 32 pdr carronades ·Forecastle: 4 × 12 pdrs, 2 × 32 pdr carronades ·Poop deck: 6 × 18 pdr carronades

Service.



HMS Cumberland was commissioned in the August of 1807 under Captain Philip Woodhouse who held the command until 1811. She sailed for the Med on the 30th of January, 1808 and was with Strachan’s squadron in the February of 1809. On the 25th of October in that year with Martin’s squadron, she took part in the Battle of Maguelone. which was a minor naval action occurring, during the Peninsular War. The action was between Baudin’s escort of a French convoy, composed of three ships of the line, the 80 gun La Robuste, and two 74s Le Lion and Boree, with the two 40 gun frigates, Calypso and Amelie, pitted against a 6-ship strong squadron of the Royal Navy which comprised HMS Canopus 80, and the 74’s Renown, Tigre, Sultan, Leviathan and Cumberland, herself. In a running battle, the French covered the retreat of the convoy and attempted to escape by sailing in shallow waters close to the shore of Maguelone. After two of the ships of the line ran aground, their crew evacuated them and scuttled them by fire after removing valuable equipment, including the artillery. The remaining ship and frigates made good their escape to Toulon. A British cutting-out party attacked the convoy in Rosas bay on the 31st of October, destroying most of it and capturing three ships.

In the August of 1811 Cumberland was placed under the command of Captain Otway. Defects were made good at Woolwich between the October and December of 1811 when she came under Captain Thomas Baker until 1815. During this period she served first in the North sea, and then removed to North America in the November of 1812.
On her return to Chatham further repairs were carried out from the February to the April of 1814. She the left for the East Indies and remained there until 1815.

On her return she was laid up at Chatham and then fitted as a convict ship between the October of 1829 and the March of 1830.

Fate.

Renamed Fortitude on the 15th of November1833, she was fitted as a coal depot at Chatham, which duty she carried out between the September of 1845 and the August of 1848.
She was eventually sold out of the service to H Castle and Son for £2,020, to be broken up at Charlton in the February of 1870.

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HMS Warspite (1807)


Warspite (1807)

HMS Warspite was a Colossus Class, 74-gun third rate ship of the line, ordered on the 23rd of November 1797. She was designed by Sir John Henslow as one of the large class 74s, and was the second, and last, ship of a class of two, the other being Colossus as the named ship of the class. As a large '74', she carried 24-pdrs on her upper gun deck instead of the 18-pdrs found on the middling and common class 74s. Laid down on the 3rd of December, 1805, she was built by Robert Steppings at Chatham Dockyard. After a long delay due to the shortage of timber, Warspite was eventually launched on the 16th of November, 1807.




The Warspite returning to Spithead from her voyage round the World, 28 July 1827

HISTORY
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Warspite
Ordered:	13 January 1798
Builder:	Chatham Dockyard
Laid down:	3 December 1805
Launched:	16 November 1807
Decommissioned:	1815
Notes:	original construction cost £59,725
Recommissioned:	As a 76-gun ship, 1817
Recommissioned:	As a 50-gun frigate, 1840
Decommissioned:	1846
Reclassified:	Boys' training ship, 1862
Fate:	Burnt, 3 January 1876
General characteristics As built
Class and type:	74-gun third-rate ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1890 bm
Length:	179 ft 10 in (54.8 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	49 ft (14.9 m)
Draught:	Underside of keel to uppermost point of taffrail 16.5m
Depth of hold:	21 ft (6.4 m)
Sail plan:	Full-rigged ship
Complement:	600
Armament:	74 guns: Gundeck: 28 × 32-pdr guns Upper gundeck: 30 × 24-pdr guns Quarterdeck: 12 × 9-pdr guns Forecastle: 4 × 9-pdr guns
Notes:	One of the earliest to be refitted with diagonal framing trusses
General characteristics 1840 razee
Class and type:	50-gun frigate
Length:	179 ft 10 in (54.8 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	49 ft (14.9 m)
Depth of hold:	13 ft 10 in (4.2 m)
Sail plan:	Full-rigged ship
Complement:	475
Armament:	50 guns: Upperdeck: 28 × 32-pdr guns Quarterdeck: 16 × 32-pdr guns Forecastle: 6 × 32-pdr guns

Service.

Napoleonic Wars.

HMS Warspite was commissioned in the March of 1808 under Captain Henry Blackwood who held the post until 1813, Warspite spent the three years between 1807 and 1810 playing a supporting role in the Peninsular War, although she temporarily came under the captaincy of William Bowles in the Spring of 1809 off Cherbourg. On the 2nd of November of that same year she was also temporally under Captain Henry E R Baker whilst in the Med from 1810 to 1812 where she took part in the long blockade of Toulon in 1810 until she returned to Chatham to make repairs from the June until the August of that year. In 1813 she was serving in the Channel Fleet protecting British trade while intercepting French and American ships. During early 1813 Warspite took a couple of lucrative ‘prizes’ including a US schooner bound for Philadelphia ‘with brandy, wine, silks, etc.,’ from France. This took place on the 12th of March, the vessels in question being 4 gun US privateer William Bayard, and on the 14th the 8 gun Cannonier. On the 29th of May she also successfully intercepted the Flash.
In the November of that same year, now under Captain Lord James O’Bryen she headed for North America carrying troops for Quebec and being the first 74-gun ship to go so far up the Saint Lawrence River,. On return to Portsmouth she was decommissioned in 1815. Warspite underwent a large repair between the January of 1816 and the May of 1818 during which process she was converted to a 76-gun ship in 1817. At the same time her stern was altered and she was given diagonal bracing on the framing introduced by Sir Robert Seppings.
In 1825 she sailed from Portsmouth with Rear Admiral Philip Woodehouse as the new commanding officer of the West Indies station.

During 1826-27 she circumnavigated the World under Captain William Parker, but bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Gage, departing from Spithead for India. At Trincomalee Rear-Admiral Gage was replaced by Commodore Sir James Brisbane as the new South Atlantic (Rio de Janeiro) Station commander-in-chief. However, following Commodore Brisbane's death from a contracted tropical disease, Captain Richard Saunders Dundas of the accompanying 6th rate Survey ship HMS Volage took command for the rest of the voyage which saw Warspite as the first ship of the line to visit Port Jackson in the colony of New South Wales in Australia.



The Lord High Admiral returning from his inspection of the Warspite on 31 July 1827 by Henry Moses

Returning to the station with the Malta squadron late in 1828 she was detached to transport Count Capo d'Istria, President of the Greek republic, to various locations around the Eastern Mediterranean while blockading Navarino, Modon and Coron in coordination with the French and Russian allied squadrons. In this capacity it helped to interdict two Egyptian corvettes at Navarino, one suffering substantial damage when it ignored warning shots and was engaged with the main battery. Captain Parker then participated in several conferences with Ibrahim Pasha to negotiate the withdrawal of Egyptian troops from Greece.

Repairs were carried out at Plymouth between the November of 1828 and the April of 1829.
In 1831 she was at the South American (Rio de Janeiro) station as the flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Thomas Baker, Captain Charles Talbot, at one time contribution towards salvage of HMS Thetis (1817) cargo off Cape Frio in 1830.

50-gun frigate (1840–46)

By AO issued on the 19th of June 1837, Warspite was cut down to a fourth rate 50-gun frigate in 1840, for service on the Home station, and for demonstrations at Portsmouth, under Lord John Hay, and is recorded to have visited the United States in 1842, exchanging salutes with USS North Carolina and the frigate Columbia in the New York harbour. She was then used for anti-piracy patrols in the Mediterranean, including the blockade of the mouth of the river Xanthus in 1844. Her last senior officer was Captain Wallis, serving at the Gibraltar station before she was paid off in 1846.

Training ship (1862–79)

In 1862 she was loaned to The Marine Society as a boys' training ship, for which she was permanently moored on the Thames between Woolwich and Charlton. Training for about 150 boys at a time was conducted over about 10 months to provide basic seaman knowledge, including of ship lore, rigging and discipline, sufficient to be employed as Boy Seaman in either the Royal Navy or the merchant marine. On 6 August 1863 she was struck by the Russian ironclad Pervenets while the latter was undergoing sea trials.

Fate.

She was destroyed by fire (arson was suspected but never proven) on the 3rd of January, 1876, whilst still on loan. The wreck was sold to McArthur and Co for £2,610 on 2nd of February, 1876 to be broken up.

[Bligh]

HMS Bulwark (1807)

HMS Bulwark was the only ship of her Class. She was a 74 gun, third rate ship of the line, ordered on the 6th of November 1784. She was designed by Sir William Rule as one of the large class 74s, and was the only ship built to her specifications. As a large 74, she carried 24-pounder guns on her upper gun deck instead of the 18 pounders found on the middling and common class 74s. Laid down in the April of 1804 and built at Portsmouth Dockyard by M/shipwright Nicholas Diddams, she was launched on the 23rd of April, 1807.

History
Great Britain
Name:	HMS Bulwark
Ordered:	6 November 1794
Builder:	Portsmouth Dockyard
Laid down:	April 1804
Launched:	23 April 1807
Fate:	Broken up, 1825
General characteristics
Class and type:	Bulwark Class 74-gun third rate ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1,939​80⁄94 (bm)
Length:	·181 ft 10 in (55.4 m) (gundeck); ·150 ft 4 1⁄4 in (45.8 m) (keel)
Beam:	49 ft 3 in (15.0 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft 7 in (6.3 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns ·Upper gundeck: 30 × 24-pounder guns ·QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns. Later 4x 12- pounders + 10 32- pounder Carronades ·Fc: 2× 9-pounder guns. Later 2x 12- pounders and 2x32-pounder Carronades ·Rh: 6x18-pounder Carronades.

Service.

HMS Bulwark was commissioned in the March of 1807 by Captain Charles Fleming, and sailed for the Med on the 12th of October in that year. From 1807 to 1809 she served at the blockade of Cadiz, and returned to Plymouth for middling and large repairs between the May of 1811 and the January of 1812, during which time she was under first Captain Joshua Horton and from the December of 1811 Captain James Worth. On the 24th of March 1812, Bulwark was in company with Tonnant, Hogue, Colossus and Poictiers when they captured Emilie.

From the May of 1812 and throughout 1813 Bulwark served as the Flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Philip Durham in the Channel.

From the December of 1813 she came under Captain David Milne, and sailed for North America early in 1814.On the 22nd of May, Bulwark recaptured Tiger, Cowan, master. The American privateer Yankee had captured Tiger as Tiger was sailing from Malaga to London. Tiger arrived at Halifax on the 28th of July. The records of the Vice admiralty court at Halifax show that Tyger, Henry Davidson, master, had been sailing from Malaga to Stettin, and that Bulwark had recaptured her on the 24th of July.

On the 3rd of September, she took a hand in the destruction of the US Corvette Adams in the Penobscott river, and on the 23rd of October Bulwark captured the American 10 gun privateer schooner Harlequin, which had been out port for only four days when she was captured.

In the December of 1814 she was given a new captain. He was Farmery Epworth and lost no time in taking over the mantle of command by capturing the American privateer schooner Tomahawk, of Baltimore on the 22nd of January,1815. She was of 210 tons (bm), had a crew of 84 men under the command of Philip Besson, and was armed with eight 9-pounder carronades and a 24-pounder on a pivot carriage. She had been commissioned on the 11th of January and was two days out of Boston, having not been given the opportunity to capture anything.
In the June of 1815 Bulwark returned home to England and was paid off. She was fitted as a guard ship and served in this capacity at Sheerness from the December of 1815 until the July of 1816. After a small repair she continued in the role of a guardship this time at Chatham, between the February of 1819 and the March of 1822.



HMS Bulwark (centre left) as a hulk in Portsmouth in 1826


Fate.

Bulwark was broken up at Portsmouth, which operation was completed on the 26th of September,1826.

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HMS Aboukir (1807)





A drawing of HMS Aboukir



HMS Aboukir was a Carnatic Class 74-gun third rate ship of the line based on the French ship Courageux. She was ordered on the 16th of August,1800, or on the 24th of November,1802. Laid down in the June of 1804, and built by Josiah and Thomas Brindley at Frindsbury, She was launched on the 18th of November.1807, and fitted out in 1808 at Chatham.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:		HMS Aboukir
Ordered:		24 November 1802?
Builder:		Brindley, Frindsbury
Laid down:		June 1804
Launched:		18 November 1807
Fate:		Sold, 1838
General characteristics
Class and type:	Lengthened Courageux-classship of the line
Tons burthen:	1703 bm
Length:	172 ft 3.5 in (52.515 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 9 in (14.55 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft 9 in (6.32 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	·74 guns: o Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounders o Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounders o Quarterdeck: §2 × 9-pounders §12 × 32-pounder carronades o Forecastle: §2 × 9-pounders §2 × 32-pounder carronades o Poop deck: 6 × 18-pounder carronades

Service.



HMS Aboukir was commissioned in the May of 1808 by Captain George Parker for Channel service. Initially she came under Captain Charles Cockburn but then Captain Percy Fraser.
In 1810 she took part in the Scheldt operations, and then and throughout 1811 served off the Texel.

In the summer of 1812 she came under the command of Captain Thomas Browne, as Flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Thomas Byam Martin in the Baltic
In 1813, under Parker again, she sailed for the Med on the 19th of June. In September she came under the command of Captain Norbert Thompson and in 1814 she was at Genoa.
Between 1817 and 1838 she was in ordinary at Chatham, and then was finally fitted as a receiving ship between the July of 1823 and the June of 1824.


Fate.


She was placed on harbour service late in 1824, and in 1831 was fitted as a hospital ship in the June of that year.
In 1838 Aboukir was sold to J. Lachlan for £4250 to be broken up on the 16th of August of that year .

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HMS Marlborough (1807)





HMS 'Marlborough' and 'Minotaur' by William Adolphus Knell (1802–1875)


HMS Marlborough was a revived Hero class 74-gun third rate ship of the line, ordered on the 21st of January 1805, and built by Mrs Francis Barnard at Deptford. She was laid down in the August of 1805 and launched on the 22nd of June, 1807.





Marlborough

History
Great Britain
Name:	HMS Marlborough
Ordered:	21 January 1805
Builder:	Barnard, Deptford
Laid down:	August 1805
Launched:	22 June 1807
Fate:	Broken up, 1835
General characteristics
Class and type:	Revised Hero Class ship of the line.
Tons burthen:	1754 bm
Length:	175 ft (53 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 6 in (14.48 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft 6 in (6.25 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	·74 guns: ·Gundeck: 28 × 32 pdrs ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18 pdrs ·Quarterdeck: 4 × 12 pdrs, 10 × 32 pdr carronades ·Forecastle: 4 × 12 pdrs, 2 × 32 pdr carronades ·Poop deck: 6 × 18 pdr carronades

Service.


HMS Marlborough was commissioned by Captain Graham Moore in the July of 1807 and he commanded her until 1809.
He served with Sydney Smith’s in Lisbon in the November of 1807 and in 1808, he aided in escorting the Portuguese Royal Family during its flight from Portugal to Brazil.


Between the June and October of 1809 Marlborough was captained by John Phillimore for the Walcheran operations and then later in the North Sea. In the November of 1810 year Captain George Scott took over command firstly in the Channel and then back in the North Sea. She later came under the temporary command of Captain Francis Beaumont, but in 1812 she became the Flagship to Sir George Cockburn under Captain Robert Honeyman, and sailed to North America on the 23rd of September in that year.


From 1813 she was under Captain Charles Ross and still serving as Cockburn’s flagship, she took part in the capture of Washington between the 24th and 25th of August of that same year.


Between the February of 1814 and the February of 1816, she underwent a large repair at Portsmouth. She then went into ordinary.


Marlborough was broken up in Portsmouth in the July of 1835.

[Bligh]

HMS YORK (1807)



HMS York was a Revived Hero class 74-gun third-rate ship of the line, ordered 0n the 24th of January 1805, and built by Samuel & Daniel Brent,at Rotherhithe. Laid down in the August of that year, she was launched on the 7th of July,1807.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS York
Ordered:	31 January 1805
Builder:	Brent, Rotherhithe
Laid down:	August 1805
Launched:	7 July 1807
Fate:	Broken up, 1854
Notes:	Prison ship from 1819
General characteristics
Class and type:	Revived Hero Class ship of the line.
Tons burthen:	1743 (bm)
Length:	175 ft (53 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 8.5 in (14.48 m)
Depth of hold:	13 ft 6 in (6.25 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns ·QD: 4 × 12-pounder guns + 10 × 32-pounder carronades ·Fc: 2 × 12-pounder guns + 2 × 32-pounder carronades ·Poop deck: 6 × 18-pounder carronades

Service.

HMS York was commissioned in the August of 1807 under Captain Robert Barton who commanded her until 1812.
One of the many British warships ordered after they were most needed. Although the major naval battles of the Napoleonic Wars had already occurred by the time of her launching, York was employed on some notable campaigns.


After her launch, York, under the command of Barton, sailed for the Leeward Islands on the 30th of November,1807, as part of Sir Samuel Hood's squadron on the 26th of December in that year she participated in the occupation of Madeira.


In 1809, York was on the West India Station, and was involved in the capture of Martinique in the February of that year. In April a strong French squadron arrived at the Îles des Saintes, south of Guadeloupe. There they were blockaded until the 14th of April, when a British force under Major-General Frederick Maitland and Captain Philip Beaver in Acasta, invaded and captured the islands.York was among the naval vessels that shared in the proceeds of the capture of the islands.


In July and August of that same year, back in home waters, York was involved in the disastrous landings at Walcheren. On the 14th of November York sailed for the Med, and combined with the Mediterranean Squadron off Toulon.



In the August of 1812, now under Captain Alexander Schomberg, she was back in the North sea and then the Channel.

On the 17th of December, 1813 York captured the French ship Marie Antoinette.

In 1814 York sailed to Nort America conveying troops.

On her return in the August of1815 she was paid off at Plymouth and went into ordinary.


Fate.


In the November of 1819, York entered Portsmouth harbour, where she was stripped of her masts and guns, and converted into a convict ship, serving in this role from 1824 to 1850. HMS York is best remembered in this state, thanks to a contemporary drawing by Edward William Cooke, which shows her fully converted, and with laundry above her decks where sails once would have been. She would have typically contained approximately 500 convicts.




HMS York in Prison-ship in Portsmouth Harbour with the convicts going on board, by Edward William Cooke


After many years at this harbour service, she was finally broken there up in the March of 1854.

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HMS Sultan (1807)



Sultan.



HMS Sultan was a Hero Class 74-gun third rateship of the line,ordered on the 24th of January 1805, and built by John Dudman and Co at Deptford Warf. Laid down in the December of that year, she was launched on the 19th of September.1807, and fitted at Woolwich.

History
Great Britain
Name:		HMS Sultan
Ordered:		24th January 1805
Builder:		Dudman, Deptford Wharf
Laid down:		December 1805
Launched:		19 September 1807
Fate:		Broken up, 1864
General characteristics [1]
Class and type:	Hero class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1751 (bm)
Length:	175 ft (53.3 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 10 in (14.5 m)
Depth of hold:	18 ft 6 in (6.2 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns ·QD: 4 × 12-pounder guns + 10 × 32-pounder carronades ·Fc: 4 × 12-pounder guns + 2 × 32-pounder carronades ·Poop deck: 6 × 18-pounder carronades

Service.


HMS Sultan was commissioned in the October of 1807 under Captain Edward Griffith Colpoys and sailed for the Med on the 18th of February 1808. Whilst there she served off Cadiz.

In the late October of 1809, still under Captain Colpoys in Collingwood’s squadron, she took part in the Battle of Maguelone which wasa minor naval action that took place during the Peninsular War, between the escort of a French convoy, comprising three ships of the line and two frigates, and a 6-ship strong squadron of the Royal Navy. In a running battle, the French covered the retreat of the convoy and attempted to escape by sailing in shallow waters close to the shore of Maguelone. After two of the ships of the line ran aground, their crew evacuated them and scuttled them by fire after removing valuable equipment, including the artillery. The remaining ship and frigates made good their escape to Toulon. A British cutting-out party attacked the convoy in Baie des Roses on the 1st of November, destroying most of it and capturing three ships.


In the April of 1810 she came under the command of Captain John West until 1814. On the 19th of July 1811 she had a brush with the Toulon ships, and on the 4th of December in that year her boats were in an operation at Bastia.


During 1813 her duties were confined to the Channel.

In 1814 Sultan took part in the Bordeaux, operations and then, on the 10th of October, whilst she was escorting several transports vessels when the Baring was wrecked at Beerhaven. Sultan's boats, and those of Shamrock, were able to rescue the crew and all the troops, save for five men. The troops consisted of 200 men from the 40th Regiment of Foot.


Between the March of 1816 and the September of 1818 she went under a massive series of repairs at Portsmouth, and then in the Novemberr of 1829 a further very small repair. She then went into ordinary from that date until the November of 1833.


Fate.


She was next fitted as a receiving ship at Portsmouth between the May and December of 1861, then as a target ship in 1862 between the February and May of that year. In August she was designated to take part in the trials for armour plate. Unsurprisingly, following this, Sultan was broken up in 1864. The demolition being completed by the 28th of January.

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HMS Bombay (1808)



HMS Bombay was another modified Carnatic Class, 74 gun third rate ship of the line, ordered on the 9th of July 1801, and reaffirmed on the 23rd of July,1805, she was built by M/ shipwright Henry Peake at Deptford Dockyard. She was laid down in the October of 1805, and launched on the 28th of March,1808. She completed fitting out at Woolwich on the 11th of June in that same year.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Bombay
Ordered:	9 July 1801,Confirmed 23 July 1805.
Builder:	Deptford Dockyard
Laid down:	October 1805
Launched:	28 March 1808
Renamed:	HMS Blake, 1819
Fate:	Broken up, 1855
General characteristics
Class and type:	Modified Carnatic class third rate ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1701 (bm)
Length:	172 ft 3 1⁄2 in (52.515 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 9.5 in (14.55 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft 9 in (6.32 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounders ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounders ·QD: 2 × 9-pounders, 12 × 32-pounder carronades ·Fc: 2 × 9-pounders, 2 × 32-pounder carronades ·Poop deck: 6 × 18-pounder carronades

Service.

HMS Bombay was commissioned in the June of 1808 under Captain William Cumming, who continued in command until 1811. She sailed for the Med on the 7th of February 1809.

In 1812 still in the Med she came under Captain Norburn Thompson, and on the 24th of January 1813 Bombay detained the Dumpteur des Ondts.
Subsequently under Captain George Parker, she returned to Portsmouth for defects to be made good between the March and July of 1814.During this period, she exchanged captains. Her new commander from the May of that year was Captain Henry Bazely, and under him, Bombay was created the Flagship of Rear Admiral Sir John Beresford in the July of 1814, and then Rear Admiral Sir Charles Penrose in 1816. She was paid off in the July of that year.

Fate.

Bombay was renamed HMS Blake by Admiralty Orders on the 28th of April,1819 in honour of Admiral Robert Blake, and was fitted as a receiving ship at Portsmouth in the December of 1823.Converted for harbour service in 1828. She was broken up on the 22nd of December 1855.

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HMS Victorious (1808)





HMS Victorious.



HMS Victorious was a Swiftsure Class 74-gun third rate ship of the line, designed by Sir John Henslow, and ordered on the 7th of November,1802.She was built by Balthazar and Edward Adams at Buckler’s hard.Her keel was laidin the February of 1805, and she was launched on the 20th of October,1808, just five years after the previous HMS Victorious had been broken up. She was completed and fitted out at Portsmouth between the november of 1808 and the March of 1809.

History
Name:	HMS Victorious
Ordered:	21 December 1803
Builder:	Adams, Bucklers Hard
Laid down:	February 1805
Launched:	20 October 1808
Fate:	Sold, 1862
General characteristics
Class and type:	Swiftsure class 3rd rate ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1724​6⁄94 (bm)
Length:	173 ft (53 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 6 in (14.48 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft 9 in (6.32 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	·74 guns: ·Gundeck: 28 × 32 pdrs ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18 pdrs ·Quarterdeck: 4 × 12 pdrs, 10 × 32 pdr carronades ·Forecastle: 2 × 12 pdrs, 2 × 32 pdr carronades ·Poop deck: 6 × 18 pdr carronades

Service.


HMS Victorious was commissioned under Captain George Hammond in the December of 1808.


Her first action came the year after her launch, as part of the Baltic Squadron, in which she assisted in the bombardment of the port of Flushing (Vlissingen) in what is now the Netherlands. The naval bombardment was just a part of a much larger operation; the land force consisted of some 30,000 men, and the objectives were simply to assist the Austrians by invading the Low Countries and to destroy the French Fleet at their believed location of Flushing.


The town of Flushing was actually seized, but the whole invasion soon became irrelevant and pointless, for the French Fleet had actually escaped to the port of Antwerp, and the Austrians had been defeated and were negotiating peace with the French. Over 4,000 British soldiers were killed during the expedition, 106 due to combat, the rest because of an illness known as Walcheren Fever.


From the October of 1809 until 1814 she came under the command of Captain John Talbot and she sailed for the Med on the 20th of November in that year.


Her deployment to the Mediterranean saw Victorious engage in her first skirmish against a French warship. On the 22nd of February,1812, she was in in the northern Adriatic Sea during Battle of Pirano, and came up against the French 74 gun ship Rivoli, which was eventually defeated by her with the aid of Weazel, with many of Rivoli’s crew being killed and wounded. Rivoli was captured once the skirmish came to an end and she later served in action as a Royal Navy warship against her old masters, the French. In the fight Victorious won her first battle honour.





Th e capture of Rivoli, 22 February 1812


Following this battle, in late summer, Victorious sailed for North America and by the 12th of October she was at 44°33′N 12°10′W. escorting a 30-vessel West Indies-bound convoy.
Victorious then served as part of Rear Admiral Sir George Cockburn's fleet in Chesapeake Bay during the War of 1812. She participated in the blockade of the Elizabeth River, keeping USS Constellation at her berth in Norfolk, Virginia during the conflict.


Fate.

On her return to England Victorious was decommissioned and placed in ordinary at Portsmouth Dockyard on the 3rd of April, 1815. She was returned to service as a receiving ship between the April and May of 1826, and broken up at Portsmouth with its completion being on the 21st of December,1861.

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HMS Invincible (1808)


HMS Invincible was a Late Ganges Class 74-gun third rate ship of the line, ordered on the 25th of June, 1801 initially to a Hunt design, she was built by M/shipwright Edward Sison at Woolwich Dockyard. She was laid down in the first of January,1806 and launched on the 15th of March 1808.
.

History
Great Britain
Name:	HMS Invincible
Ordered:	25 June 1801
Builder:	Woolwich Dockyard
Laid down:	1 January 1806
Launched:	15 March 1808
Fate:	Broken up, 1861
General characteristics
Class and type:	Late Ganges Class third rate ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1673 ​62⁄94 (bm)
Length:	169 ft 9in (51.67 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 7in (14.52 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft 3 in (6.17 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	·74 guns: ·Gundeck: 28 × 32 pdrs ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18 pdrs ·Quarterdeck: 14 × 9 pdrs ·Forecastle: 4 × 9 pdrs

Service.


HMS Invincible was commissioned in the March of 1808 under Captain Ross Donnelly for service in the North Sea.
Then on the 7th of February 1809 she sailed for the Med. In 1810 she was still in the Med now under Captain Charles Adam, who remained in command until 1813.

Fate.

From 1814 to 1815 she was placed in ordinary at Plymouth. From the June of 1814 to the Januray of 1815 she underwent firstly a Middling repair, and then was housed over from her main mast forrard. The next mention we have is of a small repair taking place also at Plymouth between the July of 1824 and the March of 1825. In 1855 she became a receiving ship and coal depot from 1857 still berthed at Plymouth.

HMS Invincible was broken up in 1861, the work being finished off on the 28th of January.

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HMS Venerable (1808)


HMS Venerable fighting the French frigate Alcmène on 16 January 1814


HMS Venerable was a Revived Repulse Class 74-gun third rate ship of the line,ordered on the 21st of January 1805. She was laid down in the December of that year and built by Thomas Pitcher at Northfleet. The ship was launched on the 12th of April, 1808 and completed at the builders own yard.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Venerable
Ordered:	31 January 1805
Builder:	Pitcher, Northfleet
Laid down:	December 1805
Launched:	12 April 1808
Honours and awards:	·Naval General Service Medal with clasp o "Venerable 16 Jany. 1814"
Fate:	Broken up, 1838
General characteristics
Class and type:	Revived Repulse Class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1716 (bm)
Length:	174 ft (53 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 4 in (14.43 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft (6.1 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	·74 guns: ·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns ·QD: 8 × 9-pounder guns, 6 × 18-pounder carronades ·Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

Service.


HMS Venerable was commissioned in the May of 1808 by Captain Sir Home Popham, who commanded her until 1812, as the Flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Richard Strachan. In the June of that year she was temporarily placed under Captain Andrew King.


In 1809 she took part in the Walcheren operations, and then in 1810 became Flagship to Rear Admiral Sir Thomas Williams in the North Sea, followed by operations on the North coast of Spain, and was at Lequeito on the 20th of June in that year.
On the 13th of December, Venerable was in company with the armed cutter Nimrod and several other vessels when they captured the Goede Trouw.


In the February of 1812 Venerable was put under the command of Captain James Dundas until the September of that year when Captain David Milne took over from Dundas.


Between the June and July of 1813 she was at Portsmouth having defects made good and on completion of the work came under the command of Captain James A Worth as Flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Philip Durham, bound for the Leeward Islands. On the 31st of December in that year, she captured the French privateer brig Jason which became HMS Jason. Jason, of 264 tons (bm), was pierced for 22 guns but carried 14, 12 of which she had thrown overboard when Venerable chased her. She had left Bordeaux five days earlier and was sailing for New York with a cargo of silks, wines, and other articles of merchandise. There were 64 people on board, ten of whom were passengers. She was on her maiden voyage, copper bottomed, and sailed so well, Captain Worth took her under protection, intending to go to Barbados.


Venerable was still Admiral Durham’s Flagship when on the 16th of January 1814, she and her prize Jason, were in company with Cyane. Cyane spotted two 40 gun French frigates, Alcmène and Iphigénie and signalled to Venerable. Venerable joined her, and after a chase that left Cyane in her wake, Venerable succeeded in capturing Alcmène, though not without a fight. Venerable lost 2 men dead and 4 wounded, while the French lost 32 dead and 50 wounded. Alcmène carried a complement of 319 men under the command of a Captain Ducrest de Villeneuve, who was wounded when he brought her alongside Venerable when he attempted to board her.


Jason and Cyane tracked Iphigénie and initially fired on her but broke off the engagement because they were outgunned. Cyane continued the chase for over three days until Venerable was able to rejoin the fight after having sailed 153 miles in the direction she believed that Iphigénie had taken. On 20 January 1814, after a 19-hour chase, or what amounted in all to a four-day chase Iphigénie, Venerable captured the quarry, having again left Cyane behind. In the chase, Iphigénie cast off her anchors and threw her boats overboard in order to try to gain speed. She had a complement of 325 men, under the command of Captain Émeric. She apparently made no resistance after Venerable came up with her. Before meeting up with the British ships, the two French vessels had taken some eight prizes. Venerable was able to locate Iphigénie because Commander Ducrest de Villeneuve of Alcmène was so angry at Captain Émeric, who was the senior French commander, for not having come alongside Venerable on the other side also to board, that he essentially revealed the rendezvous instructions to Durham. When some prisoners from Iphigénie's crew were brought on Venerable, crew from Alcmène too were enraged. Durham had to station Royal Marines between them, with fixed bayonets, to prevent fighting from breaking out.


The action resulted in 1847, in the award of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Venerable 16 Jany.1814", to any of the surviving participants in the action.


In the July of 1814, Venerable came under the command of Captain William M’Culloch, and then a series of other captains. Starting with George Pringle, next came Lieutenant Robert Wemyss (acting), and finally Captain George Thompson, again acting, until she was paid off at Plymouth in 1815.

Fate.


Venerable was placed on harbour service and fitted as a church ship at Portsmouth betweenthe May and October of 1825, and was broken up there in the October of 1838.

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HMS Blake (1808)



H.M.S. Blake, 74-guns, leaving Port Royal, Jamaica



HMS Blake was a 74 gun third rate ship of the line, developed from the French Courageux but lengthened by 7 foot 9 inches on the gundeck. She was ordered on the 23rd of July,1805, and the keel was laid in the May of 1806. And built at Deptford by Henry Peake until the June of 1806 only. Thereafter, by Robert Nelson, and launched on 23rd of August,1808, and named in honour of Admiral Robert Blake. The first ship in the Royal Navy to be named in honour of the famous Cromwellian 'General-at-Sea' Robert Blake (1599-1657) was also the name ship of two 'Blake' class '74s' Timber from Holstein was used to construct both ships.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:		HMS Blake
Ordered:		23 July1805
Builder:		Deptford Dockyard
Laid down:		May 1806
Launched:		23 August 1808
Fate:		Sold, 1816
General characteristics
Class and type:	Blake Class, Modified from Courageux Classship of the line
Tons burthen:	1822 (bm)
Length:	180 ft 1.5 in (54.9 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	48 ft 2 in (14.6 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft 10 in (6.4 m)
Sail plan:	Full-rigged ship
Armament:	·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns ·QD: 4 × 12-pounder guns, 10 × 32-pounder carronades ·Fc: 2 × 12-pounder guns, 2 × 32-pounder carronades ·Poop deck: 6 × 18-pounder carronades

Service.


HMS Blake was commissioned in the September of 1808 by Captain Edward Codrington, who commanded her until 1812.
She served in the Walcheren operations during 1809 as the Flagship of Rear Admiral Alan Hyde, Lord Gardiner.

On the 27th of May, 1810 she sailed for the Med.

On the 26th of September, 1812, Blake and Franchise provided naval support to a land attack, at night, on Tarragona, by troops under the command of General Joaquín Ibáñez Cuevas, Baron d'Eroles. The attack was successful, and resulted, inter alia, in the capture of several small vessels. The Spanish troops suffered three men killed and eight wounded; the British had no casualties whatsoever. Captain Edward Codrington, of Blake, wrote to Baron d'Eroles and to Admiral Sir Edward Pellew, Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean, that the officers and crew declined any prize money from the action, in favour of the Spanish troops, "in admiration of the valour and the discipline which they showed upon the occasion."

Fate.

Between the April and May of 1813 Blake was fitted for ordinary at Portsmouth. From the December of that year she served temporarily as a prison ship until the January of 1814, when she was recommissioned under Lieutenant George Forbes. On the 17th of October,1816 she was sold out of the navy for £3,500 to be broken up.

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HMS Saint Domingo (1809)


Sir Richard Strachan on HMS Saint Domingo, conducting the bombardment of Flushing during the Walcheren Campaign of 1809.

HMS Saint Domingo was a Blake Class 74 gunthird rateship of the line, as a sister ship to Blake. She was ordered on the 23rd of July 1785 and laid down in the June of 1806.Built by M/shipwright Edward Sison at Woolwich Dockyard; she was launched on the 3rd of March, 1809.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Saint Domingo
Ordered:	23rd July 1805
Builder:	Woolwich Dockyard
Laid down:	June 1806
Launched:	3 March 1809
Fate:	Sold, 1816
General characteristics
Class and type:	Modified Courageux-classship of the line
Tons burthen:	1820 (bm)
Length:	180 ft (55 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	48 ft 1.5 in (14.649 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft 10.5 in (6.35 m)
Sail plan:	Full-rigged ship
Armament:	Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns QD: 4 × 12-pounder guns + 10 × 32-pounder carronades Fc: 4 × 12-pounder guns + 2 × 32-pounder carronades Poop deck: 6 × 18-pounder carronades

Service.

HMS Saint Domingo was commissioned in the March of 1809 under Captain Charles Gill who commanded her until 1812. She was destined to start her service as the Flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Richard Strachan. She took part in the Scheldt operations between the 28th of July and the 4th of September in that year, and then later off the Texel.

From 1812 she was under the command of Captain John Thompson as the Flagship to Sir John Borlase Warren, and sailed for America on the 14th of August in that year. During Admiral Warren’s voyage to Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Saint Domingo together with Poictiers, Sophie, Magnet, and Mackerel, Magnet disappeared and was presumed lost with all hands.

In 1813 Saint Domingo came under the captaincy of Samuel Petchell until the following year.
On the 17th of January she captured the American privateer schooner Teazer.
On 13 April 1813, Sir John Borlase Warren's squadron, consisting of his flagship, Saint Domingo, along with Marlborough, Maidstone, Statira, Fantome, Mohawk, and Highflyer pursued four schooners into the Rappahannock. The British sent boats 15 miles upriver before finally capturing their prey.

The Arab, of seven guns and 45 men, was run aground and boarded by two boats from Marlborough. Lynx, of six guns and 40 men, hauled down her colours when Borlase went alongside her in Saint Domingo's pinnace. Racer, of six guns and 38 men, was boarded and carried, after a sharp, resistance, by the Saint Domingo's pinnace. Dolphin, of 12 guns and 98 men surrendered after Racer's guns were turned on her. Finally the Dolphin resisted for two hours, but was then boarded by men from Statira's large cutter and Maidstone's launch. In the entire action the British lost two men killed and 11 wounded, whilst the Americans lost six killed and 10 wounded.
The British took three of the schooners into service. The Chesapeake schooner Lynx became Mosquidobit. Of the three Baltimore schooners, the Racer became Shelburne; Dolphin retained her name; lastly, it is not clear what became of Arab.

On the 22nd of June in that same year there was another boat attack on Norfolk Virginia.
Saint Domingo was driven ashore at Halifax, Nova Scotia, British North America, during a gale on 12 November 1813. She was rapidly refloated, repaired, and returned to service.
In 1814 she saw further service as the Flagship of Rear Admiral Edward Foote, and on the 1st of March took the 13 gun American Privateer Argus.
In 1815 on her return to England she went into ordinary at Sheerness.

Fate.

Saint Domingo was sold out of the Navy for £4,800 on the 18th of May,1816 to be broken up.

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HMS Milford (1809)


Milford



HMS Milford was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line, ordered on the 16th of December 1796 and built to a Jean-Louis Barralier design, adapted from his lines for the Spencer in 1795. Laid down in the June of 1798, it was built by Jacobs of Milford Haven. He went bankrupt during the construction and the project had to be completed by the Government. This was to become the beginnings of the embryonic establishment of Milford Haven Dockyard. Milford was finally launched on the1st of April, 1809. As a large class 74, she was the only ship built to her draught. This also enabled her to carry 24 pdrs on her upper gun deck, instead of the usual 18 pdrs found on the middling and common class 74s.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Milford
Ordered:	16 December 1796
Builder:	Jacobs, Milford Haven
Laid down:	June 1798
Launched:	1 April 1809
Fate:	Broken up, 1846
General characteristics
Class and type:		74-gun Milford Class third rate ship of the line
Tons burthen:		1918 (bm)
Length:		181 ft,1 in (55 m) (gundeck)
Beam:		49 ft,1.5 in (15 m)
Depth of hold:		21 ft (6.4 m)
Propulsion:		Sails
Sail plan:		Full rigged ship
Armament:		·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns ·Upper gundeck: 30 × 24-pounder guns ·QD: 12 × 9-pounder guns ·Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns · ·*All 9-pounders later replaced by 32 pdr Carronades.

Service.


HMS Milford was commissioned under Captain Henry Bayntun for Channel service in 1810 as the flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Philip Durham bound for the Baltic. Later in that year she came under the command of Captain Edward Kittoe as the Flagship of Vice Admiral Sir Richard Keats, and sailed for the Med on the18th of August.


In 1812 she was placed under the command of Captain John Duff Markland as Flagship of Rear Admiral Thomas Freemantle in the Med.On the 3rd of July 1813 Milford was involved in the attack on Fiume. Her boats, along with those from Weasel, were used at Rogozinica on the 4th of August, and between the 5th and the 29th of October, Milford was involved in the capture of Trieste.

Fate.


Milford was paid off in 1814 and went into ordinary. Between the May and June of 1825 she was fitted as a lazarette at Plymouth, and was then transported to Milford. From the July of that year until 1842 she served there in that capacity. Finally removed to Pembroke she was broken up there in 1846.

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HMS Royal Oak (1809)



HMS Royal Oak was a Revived Hero class, 74 gun third rate ship of the line, ordered on the 24th of January 1805, laid down in the April of 1805, and built by John Dudman and Co at Deptford Dockyard. She was launched on the 4th of March 1809, and completed at Woolwich between the 16th of March and the 3rd of May.

History
Great Britain
Name:	HMS Royal Oak
Builder:	Dudman, Deptford Wharf
Laid down:	April1805
Launched:	4 March 1809
Fate:	Broken up, 1850
General characteristics
Class and type:	Revived Hero Class ship of the line.
Tons burthen:	1759 (bm)
Length:	175 ft 2in (53 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 11 in (14.48 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft 6 in (6.25 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Complement:	650 officers and men (inc. 60-80 marines)
Armament:	·74 guns: ·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns ·Quarterdeck: 4 × 12-pounder guns, 10 × 32-pounder carronades ·Forecastle: 4 × 12-pounder guns, 2 × 32-pounder carronades ·Poop deck: 6 × 18-pounder carronades

Service.


HMS Royal Oak was commissioned in the April of 1809 under Captain Lord Amelius Beauclerk for the Walcheren operations.
In the August of 1811 she came under the command of Captain Pulteney Malcolm.


War of 1812.


In the January of 1812 Royal Oak was placed under the command of Captain Thomas George Shortland as the Flagship of the newly appointed Rear Admiral Beauclerk of the Texel, on the North American station. Shortland was superseded by Captain Edward Dix in 1813. Royal Oak continuing on as the Flagship of Beauclerk. On the17th of December,1813 She shared with other vessels in the proceeds of the capture of the American vessel Maria Antoinette.


On the 1st of June, 1814, the now Rear-Admiral Pulteney Malcolm , who had hoisted his flag aboard Royal Oak, proceeded with troops under Brigadier-General Robert Ross, accompanied Sir Alexander Cochrane on an expedition up the Chesapeake, and handled both the dis-embarkation and re-embarkation of the troops employed against Washington and Baltimore.

Ross was killed on the12th of September, 1814 in Baltimore, Maryland. The Royal Oak carrying his body to Halifax, Nova Scotia, for interment on the 29th of September. 1814.


In the October of 1814 Royal Oak came under the command of Captain Joseph Pearce, who in December was with the fleet under Cochrane preparing for the investment of New Orleans. Before the attack commenced, her ship’s boats also participated in the Battle of Lake Borgne.
On the 8th of December, two US gunboats fired on the Sophie, Armide and the sixth-rate frigate Seahorse whilst they were passing the chain of small islands which run parallel to the shore between Mobile and Lake Borgne.
Between the 12th and and 15th of December, Captain Lockyer of Sophie led a flotilla of some 50 boats, barges, gigs and launches to attack the US gunboats. Lockyer drew his flotilla from the fleet that was massing against New Orleans, including the 74-gun Third Rates Royal Oak and Tonnant, and a number of other vessels including Armide, Seahorse, Manly and Meteor. Lockyer deployed the boats in three divisions, of which he led one. Captain Montresor of the gun-brig Manly commanded the second, and Captain Roberts of Meteor commanded the third. After rowing for 36 hours, the British met the Americans at St. Joseph's Island. On the 13th of December, the British attacked the one-gun schooner USS Sea Horse. On the morning of the 14th, the British engaged the Americans in a short, violent battle. The British captured or destroyed almost the entire American force, including the tender, USS Alligator, and five gunboats. The British lost 17 men killed and 77 wounded; Royal Oak had only one man wounded. Anaconda then evacuated the wounded. In 1821 the survivors of the flotilla shared in the distribution of head-money arising from the capture of the American gun-boats and sundry bales of cotton. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "14 Dec Boat Service 1814" to 205 survivors (from all the participating boats).

In support of the attack on New Orleans, sixty Royal Marines from Royal Oak were disembarked. One of these men was killed in action on the 8th of January 1815, as a force of marines, sailors, and soldiers of the 85th Regiment of Foot commanded by Colonel William Thornton successfully assaulted American positions on the west bank of the Mississippi. The naval contingent was under the command of Commander Rowland Money, of Trave, who was severely wounded in the attack.

Fate.

Command of Royal Oak now passed to Captain Clotworthy Upton, and under his command she returned to England in the winter of 1815, where she went into ordinary at Portsmouth. She was then fitted as a receiving ship at Portsmouth between the September and December of 1825 to house convicts at Bermuda. She was hulked in 1834, and finally broken up there by Admiralty Orders on the 17th of October,1850.

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HMS Ajax (1809)




HMS Ajax was a 74-gun, Armada Class, third rate ship of the line, built at the Admiralty’s instigation as a joint venture by the two ship designers Peake and Rule to incorporate the best features taken from both men’s designs. Ordered on the 1st of July, 1807 the ship was laid down in the following month, the shipbuilders being Perry, Wells, and Green of Blackwall Yard. She was launched there on the 2nd of May, 1809, and her fitting out was completed at Woolwich on the 15th of June.

History
Great Britain
Name:	HMS Ajax
Ordered:	1 July 1807
Builder:	Perry, Blackwall Yard
Laid down:	August 1807
Launched:	2 May 1809
Fate:	Broken up, 1864
General characteristics
Class and type:	Armada Class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1761 bm
Length:	176 ft (54 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 9.5 in (14.48 m)
Depth of hold:	21 ft (6.4 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns ·QD: 4 × 12-pounder guns, 10 × 32-pounder carronades ·Fc: 2 × 12-pounder guns + 2 × 32-pounder carronades ·PD: 6 × 18-pounder carronades

Service.

HMS Ajax was commissioned in the June of 1809 under Captain Robert Otway, who commanded her until 1811. On the 4th of October,1809 she sailed for the Med, and by the 20th of July, 1810 had become a member of Blackwood’s squadron operating off Toulon. On the 11th of September in that year, Ajax took part in a ship action off Elba, in which action Charles Benyon aged 22, a Lieutenant on the ship, was killed attempting to board a French vessel. He was the third son of Richard Benyon of Englefield House, Berks, where the Benyon family still live.

On the 13th of December, 350 sailors and 250 marines from Ajax, and two other third rates, the Cambrian and Kent attacked Palamós whilst the sloops Sparrowhawk and Minstrel covered the landings. The landing party succeeded in destroying six of eight merchant vessels conveying supplies intended for the French army at Barcelona, as well as the ships escorting them. These comprised a national ketch of 14 guns and 60 men and two xebecs of three guns and thirty men each. The vessels were lying inside the mole under the protection of 250 French troops, a battery of two 24-pounders, and a 13" mortar in a battery on a commanding height. Although the attack was successful, the withdrawal was not. The British lost 33 men killed, 89 wounded, and 86 taken prisoner, plus one seaman who took the opportunity to desert.

On the 31st of March, 1811, Ajax and HMS Unite encountered a French squadron comprising the frigates Adrienne and Amélie, and the armed transport French corvette, Dromadaire.which was armed en flute, Ajax captured Dromadaire, while the frigates managed to escape to Portoferraio. Captain Otway reported that Dromadaire was frigate-built and sailed remarkably well. Her cargo consisted of 15,000 shot and shells of various sizes and 90 tons of gunpowder. Apparently Napoleon Bonaparte intended them as a present for Hammuda ibn Ali, the Bey of Tunis. Admiral Sir Charles Cotton, commander in chief of the British Mediterranean Fleet, decided to buy her and her stores for the Royal Navy.
The following month command passed to Captain James Brisbane, and then in the October of that year to Captain Sir Robert Lawrie, who commanded her in the Med until 1812.
Ajax then returned to Plymouth for defects to be repaired between the April and July of 1813. During this period of inactivity Captain Otway was reinstated as her Captain in the May of that year. By the 8th of September she was at San Sebastian, and on the 17th of March 1814, Ajax captured the French 16-gun brig L’Alcyon near the Lizard. The Frenchman was armed with sixteen 24-pounder Carronades, and was crewed by 120 men. She was provisioned for a four-month cruise, but was only 24 hours out from Saint-Malo when Ajax took her. Ajax then proceeded to North America transporting troops, but had returned to the Med, now under Captain George Mundy by the October of that year.

Post-war.

She returned to Portsmouth and was paid off in the July of 1816. She went in for a major which cost £67.758 and then between the October of 1820 and the June of 1829 Ajax was converted to a blockship with screw propulsion under Admiralty Orders. The rebuild was carried out by White’s of Cowes between the November of 1845 and the September of 1846. £15.908 being paid to White for the work to convert her for coastal defence (also called 'steam-guard-ships'. The conversion process had involved removing her copper, ballast and some of the bulkheads, and cutting her down in the shape of a blockship.

From 1846 until 1853 she was stationed as a guardship in Queenstown, now Cobh. She took part in the Crimean War 1853-1856. In 1854 she was involved in the Bombardment of Bomarsund, Finland. In 1858 she resumed guardship duties, this time in Kingstown, now Dún Laoghaire.



Ajax as guardship at Kingstown

Captain John McNeil Boyd R.N. was master of the Ajax while she was in Dún Laoghaire. On the 8th of February,1861 there occurred the worst storm in living memory. 29 ships were lost between Wicklow Head and Howth Head, all close to Dún Laoghaire. Boyd organised rescues, but he and five of his crew were lost in the attempt. Fifteen surviving members of the Ajax crew were decorated for bravery and most were promoted.

Fate.

On the 3rd of December,1863, Ajax was driven ashore at Kingstown. Although she was successfully refloated, It was announced in the February of 1864 that the Royal George would replace her as the Coast-guard ship at Devonport.
She was broken up in 1864.

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HMS Berwick (1809)





Berwick



HMS Berwick was an Armada Class, 74 gun third rate ship of the line, ordered on the 1st of July 1807, and built to the design of Peake and Rule by Perry, Wells and Green at Blackwall She was laid down in the October of that same year, and launched on the 11th of September,1809. She was fitted for ordinary at Woolwich, and completed on the 14th of July 1810.
.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Berwick
Ordered:	1 July 1807
Builder:	Perry, Blackwall
Laid down:	October 1807
Launched:	11 September 1809
Fate:	Broken up, 1821
General characteristics
Class and type:	Armada Class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1761 (bm)
Length:	176 ft (54 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 9.5 in (14.49 m)
Depth of hold:	21 ft (6.4 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns ·QD: 4 × 12-pounder guns + 10 × 32-pounder carronades ·Fc: 2 × 12-pounder guns + 2 × 32-pounder carronades ·Poop deck: 6 × 18-pounder guns carronades

Service.


HMS Berwick was commissioned under Captain James Macnamara in the March of 1810.
In an action on the 24th of March 1811, Berwick under Captain Macnamara ran down the 40 gun French frigate L‘Amazone off Barfleur Normandy close to the Phare de Gatteville lighthouse. To avoid being captured the French ship was burnt to the waterline, with only one sailor being killed during the engagement.


In the October of that year now under Captain Edward Brace, who was to command her until 1815, Berwick sailed for the Med. On the 16th of May, 1813, her ships boats accompanied with those from HMS Euryalus took the 10 gun xebec La Fortune.
Before the fall of Genoa in April 1814, the boats of Berwick and Rainbow, together with two Sicilian gunboats, attacked French posts near the pass of Rona on 8 and 10 April to assist the British army in its advance. The British drove off the French defenders, who left behind two 24-pounder guns and two mortars. The British lost two men killed and five wounded.


In the period from 1815 to 1816 Berwick was placed under the command of Captain J. Nash, and under him was laid up at Plymouth in the July of 1816.


Fate.


Because it was discovered that Berwick was in need of Major repairs, it was decided that she be broken up in the March of 1821.

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HMS Rodney (1809)



HMS Rodney



HMS Rodney was a 74-gun third rate Armada Class ship of the line, ordered on the 13th of July 1807, and built at Deptford by Mrs. Francis Barnard, to the specifications laid down by Peake and Rule. She was laid down in the March of 1808 and launched on the 8th of December, 1809. She was fitted out at Deptford and completed at on the Woolwich on the10th of April, 1810.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Rodney
Ordered:	13 July 1807
Builder:	Barnard, Deptford
Laid down:	March 1808
Launched:	8 December 1809
Fate:	Sold, 1836
General characteristics
Class and type:	Armada class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1754 (bm)
Length:	176 ft 5 in (54.1 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 7.5 in (14.48 m)
Depth of hold:	21 ft .75 in (6.4 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	·74 guns: ·Gundeck: 28 × 32 pdrs ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18 pdrs ·Quarterdeck: 4 × 12 pdrs, 10 × 32 pdr carronades ·Forecastle: 2 × 12 pdrs, 2 × 32 pdr carronades ·Poop deck: 6 × 18 pdr carronades

Service.


HMS Rodney was commissioned under Captain George Burlton in the February of 1810, and sailed for the Med on the 2nd of June of that year.In the September of 1811 she came under the command of Captain Edward Durnford King and then in 1812 Captain John Duff Markland still in the Med. In 1813, on her return to England, she went into ordinary at Portsmouth where a small repair was carried out between the May of that year and the January of 1814. Recommissioning having commenced in the December of 1813 under Captain Charles Inglis, she then became the Flagship of Vice Admiral Sir George Martin.

She was paid off in the August of that year as her condition was becoming concerning. At the time that Rodney was under construction the Dockyard had been suffering from a shortage of seasoned timber. As a consequence of this, the hull was built from unseasoned material which quickly shrank as it dried out, thus opening up the caulking and allowing seepage and ingress of seawater. This in turn caused the timbers to rot. Due to this, after only just over three years at sea all the hull fastenings had also corroded or become loose and unsafe, consequently Rodney had to be returned to Deptford for decommissioning.


Fate.


In 1827 Renamed Greenwich, by Admiralty Orders she was cut down to a fourth rate Frigate of 50-guns.
However, the conversion was never completed, and at Portsmouth in the September of 1836 she was sold out of the Navy for £5,310.


In commercial service, on the 11th of October 1846 Greenwich was in collision with the British Paddle Steamer the Thames at Havana in Cuba, destroying her Pinnace, and was then driven ashore.

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HMS Poictiers (1809)




Poictiers

HMS Poictiers was yet another Peake and Rule Armada Class 74 gun ship of the line, ordered on the 1st of October,1806. Built by John King at Upnor, she was laid down in the August of 1807, and was launched on the 9th of December,1809. Fitting out at Chatham was completed on the 4th of May,1810.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Poictiers
Ordered:	1 October 1806
Builder:	King, Upnor
Laid down:	August 1807
Launched:	9 December 1809
Fate:	Broken up, 1857
General characteristics
Class and type:	Armada class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1764​3⁄94 (bm)
Length:	·Overall:176 ft 3 in (53.7 m) ·Keel:145 ft 2 3⁄8 in (44.3 m)
Beam:	47 ft 9 1⁄2 in (14.6 m)
Depth of hold:	21 ft 1 in (6.4 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Complement:	590
Armament:	·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns ·QD: 4 × 12-pounder guns + 10 × 32-pounder carronades ·Fc: 2 × 12-pounder guns + 2 × 32-pounder carronades ·Poop deck: 6 × 18-pounder carronades

Service.


HMS Poictiers was commissioned by Captain John Poo Beresford for service in the Channel in the January of 1810 whilst she was fitting out at Chatham.On the 28th of July, Poictiers together with Seine and Shannon participated in the recapture of the Starling. Then on the 22nd of October in that same year she sailed for Portugal.


On the 10th of January,1811, she was involved in the pursuit of Allemande’s squadron off Ushant. In March she came under the command of Captain Richard Jones in an acting capacity. Whilst under his command, on the 22nd of April, Poictiers, Caledonia and the hired armedcutterNimrod captured the French vessel Auguste. They first removed her cargo of casks of wine, and then destroyed the ship.


Command of Poictiers changed again to another acting captain in 1812. This time it was to be Captain Samuel Jackson who had the ship from the January until the July of that year off the Texel. On the 24th of March, Poictiers was in company with Tonnant, Hogue, Colossus and Bulwark when they captured Emilie.


After Jackson left the ship in July, the ship was ordered to sail for America. Consequently, on the 14th of August, Poictiers now back under the command of Captain Beresford, accompanied Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren, who was sailing to Halifax, Nova Scotia, on San Domingo, together with Sophie, Magnet, and Mackerel. Unfortunately Magnet was lost during the voyage, and it was presumed that she had foundered with all hands.


On the 18th of October, Poictiers participated in an action where she rescued Frolic by capturing USS Wasp, commanded by Jacob Jones. Four hours after Wasp had captured Frolic, Captain Beresford hove in sight capturing Wasp and recapturing the Frolic. He then accompanied both ships to Bermuda. Frolic returned to duty and Wasp became HMS Loup Cervier. In November 1818 the proceeds of the sales of ordnance stores and head-money for the men captured on board the Wasp, also for ordnance stores recaptured on board Frolic was paid.

Thereafter, Poictiers captured a number of merchant vessels, alone or with other ships.

On the 29th of October: the brig Little William, of the Isle of Mayo and sailing to Philadelphia; 3rd of November: the brig Logan, from Boston, sailing to Baltimore., 25th of November: the ship Rebecca, from Philadelphia sailing for Madeira;11th of December: schooner Betsy, from Providence (Rhode Island), sailing to Norfolk.In December, the ship Pekin, from Boston sailing to Alexandria (Poictiers was at this time in company with Acasta).

One of these may or may not have been a ship from Brazil carrying a cargo of hides and tallow that USS Argus had captured. Poictiers recaptured the ship off the Virginia Capes in mid-December and sent her into Bermuda.


On the 28th of December Poictiers and Acasta captured the American privateer Herald, of 18 guns (10 mounted), and 50 men, as Herald was sailing from Bordeaux to Baltimore. More captures followed.


In early January 1813, the warships of the squadron blockading New York, of which Poictiers was one, captured a number of vessels. These comprised, the Schooners Syren and Tropic, sailing from New York to Charleston. the Sloop Almira, from New York to Fredericksburg. Thee Brig Industry, voyaging from Rhode Island to Virginia, and the Brig Caroline,on her way from Charleston to New York.



The British armed the Syren with a single gun and a crew of 40 men. She then captured the American Eagle, Herlitz, master, which had been sailing from Cadiz to New York. The next captures were on the 17th of January 1813 of the ship Lydia, from Rhode Islands sailing to Norfolk (Poictiers in company with Acasta and Maidstone); and also in January the schooner Rhoda (Poictiers and Acasta).
On the 24th of February, American brigs Gustavus and Staunch and the American brig Hannah, which Poictiers shared with six other British ships. on the 13th of March 1813 a Swedish brig, from Martinique. On the 29th of March, the American ship Montesquieu (Poictiers in company with Belvidera and the actual captor, the schooner Paz).On the 17th of April a Portuguese schooner, Alliance, sailing from Philadelphia to Jamaica with a cargo of flour, and sent in to Bermuda.Then on the 8th of April, English schooner Bermuda recaptured while sailing from Bermuda to Philadelphia, and used as a tender to Poictiers. The 1st of May saw the capture of American sloop Providence, sailing from Philadelphia to Boston with a cargo of flour and corn, and also dispatched to Bermuda.On the10th of May came the American sloop, Factor, sailing from Philadelphia to Boston with a cargo of cotton, cargo, which having been removed, the vessel was set adrift. On the 13th and 14th of March Poictiers was part of a squadron of 12 ships that shared in the capture of the Christina and Massatoit.




Poictiers fired a few ineffectual shots.
The position of the channel made it necessary for Yankee to pass close to Poictiers

On the 4th or or 5th of July, 1813, the American smack Yankee captured the brig Eagle, which was serving as a tender to Poictiers. The Americans put 40 militiamen on board Yankee and sailed her where Eagle was known to be patrolling. The militiamen concealed themselves while on Yankee's deck there were three men dressed as fishermen, and a calf, a goose, and a sheep were tethered. When Yankee encountered Eagle, Eagle fell for the bait of fresh meat and came alongside. The Americans, under Sailing-Master Percival, came out of hiding and fired their small arms. Although Eagle carried a brass 32-pounder howitzer loaded with canister, she was unable to get off a shot. The Americans then took Eagle into New York. Eagle had two men killed, including her commander Master's Mate H. Morris, and Midshipman W. Price mortally wounded. The remaining eight seamen were taken prisoner.

Poictiers in company with Maidstone and Nimrod captured several vessels. On the13th of August, 1813, brig Anna, of 125 tons, Diego Martinez, master, sailing from Newhaven to Laguira. on the18th of August the ship Manchester. which Poictiers captured alone. On the 29th of August, the brig Mariner; and then on the 3rd of September, the brig Watson.

In addition to these commercial prizes, Poictiers took three American armed vessels. The first, on the 25th of December, was the brig Herald, a 10-gun Privateer pierced for 16 guns and with a crew of 50 men. She had been sailing from Bordeaux to Baltimore. Poictiers was again in company with Acasta and Maidstone. Herald, prior to herself being captured, had taken a ship, a brig, and a schooner. The cargo of the ship Friendship alone had an estimated value of US$400,000.

Next, Poictiers took the American schooner Highflyer, of five guns and 72 men, on the 9th of January,1813. She was on her return from the West Indies, where she had made several captures. Under the command of Captain Jeremiah Grant, Highflyer, of Baltimore, had captured two ships, four brigs, one schooner and one sloop; three of these vessels had been armed. The Royal Navy took Highflyer into service under her existing name.

The third privateer was Yorktown, of 20 guns and 140 men. The actual captor of York Town was Maidstone, with Poictiers and Nimrod in company. Yorktown, under Captain T. W. Story, had taken 11 prizes, including Manchester before Maidstone captured her on the17th of July,1813, after a four-hour chase. The British sent Yorktown and her crew into Halifax. These incidents aside, Poictiers had an uneventful war, though there is a record of one humorous incident. The exhibit center of the town of Lewes, Delaware, has a framed copy of a handwritten letter from Captain Beresford to the town's chief magistrate. Dated the 16th of March, 1813, the letter says:

Sir,
As soon as you receive this, I request you will send 20 live bullocks with a proportionate quantity of vegetables and hay to the Poictiers for the use of Britannic Majesty's squadron now at this anchorage, which will be immediately paid for at the Philadelphia prices. If you refuse to comply with this request I shall be under necessity of destroying your town. I have the honor to be, sir, your very obedient servant,
J. P. Beresford.



Commodore and commander of the British Squadron in the Mouth of the Delaware.



Col. Samuel Boyer Davis, commander of American troops in Lewes, refused the demand, so on the 6th and 7th of April Beresford shelled the town, killing a chicken and wounding a pig. There is a cannonball from Poictiers lodged in the stone foundation of Lewes's Marine Museum.

In the November of 1813, Poictiers was at Halifax, Nova Scotia preparing to escort a convoy of merchant vessels to England when a gale hit the city. It destroyed or damaged many vessels, though Poictiers was able to ride out the gale.

Poictiers returned to Chatham in 1814 for a large repair which took place between the April of1815 and the September of 1817 at a cost of £51,601.

Fate.


She was fitted at Sheerness as a guard ship between the March of 1836 and the September of 1837. She remained in that role at Chatham until March 1848 when she became a depot ship until 1850. In 1857 she was sold out of service and broken up, the breaking up being completed on the 23rd of March, 1857.

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HMS Minden (1810)


HMS Minden was a 74-gun Later Ganges Class third rate ship of the line, ordered in 1801. Investigation on the feasibility of having her built at Bombay was not confirmed until the 5th of June, 1803. She was then built by the East India Company, and bore the name of the German town of Minden and the battle which took place there in 1759. Built of Teak by Jamsetjee Bomanjee Wadia of the Wadia Group at the Duncan Docks, she was not laid down until 1807, and launched on the 19th of June, 1810.






Jamsetjee Bomanjee Wadia, the master shipbuilder. The Minden is shown under construction beyond the window.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Minden
Ordered:	5th June 1803
Builder:	Bombay Dockyard, India
Launched:	19 June 1810
Honours and awards:	·Naval General Service Medal (1847) ·"30 July Boat Service 1811" ·"Algiers"
Fate:	Hulked, 1842 Sold for breaking up, 1861
General characteristics
Class and type:	Later Ganges Class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1721 (bm)
Length:	171ft 4.5 in (51.67 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 11in (14.6 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft 3 in (6.17 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	·74 guns ·Gundeck: 28 × 32 pdrs ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18 pdrs ·Quarterdeck: 14 × 9 pdrs ·Forecastle: 4 × 9 pdrs

Service.


Minden sailed from Bombay on 8 February 1811 on her first cruise, under the command of Edward Wallis Hoare, and manned by the crew of the Russell. In March she sailed from Madras to take part in the invasion of Java. On 29 July two of her boats, under the command of Lieutenant Edmund Lyons, with only 35 officers and men aboard, attacked and captured the fort covering the harbour of Marrack, to the westward of Batavia. The Naval General Service Medal with the clasp "30 July Boat Service 1811" was issued to survivors of this action in 1848. The Dutch and French forces in Java surrendered in September. Minden then sailed for the UK and escorted convoys to the East Indies, the Cape of Good Hope, South America, and the coast of Africa.


In 1812 she came under the command of Captain Alexander Skene, who sailed her back to India to join the fleet of. Rear Admiral Sir Samuel Hood, the cousin of Viscount Bridport, Hood himself, along with his Captain of the Fleet William Webley, did not set out from Portsmouth until the end of September aboard the 36 gun Owen Glendower. The voyage out to the East Indies was such a difficult one that concerns were expressed for the Owen Glendower’s survival, yet she eventually arrived at Madras, where Hood took the Illustrious 74 from Commodore William Broughton as his flagship, much to the annoyance of that officer. He moved with Captain Webley to the Minden once she was brought out from Portsmouth by Captain Alexander Skene in the summer of 1813. After Webley returned home she was later commanded by Captains Joseph Prior in 1813, and thereafter Captain George Henderson, still with Hood.


Minden next saw service during the War of 1812 in the Chesapeake Bay. Some accounts state that Francis Scott Key was aboard Minden when he wrote the poem "Defense of Fort M'Henry", which became the lyrics for "The Star-Spangled Banner".
Francis Scott Key was an American lawyer, author, and amateur poet from Georgetown. During the War of 1812, Key, accompanied the British Prisoner Exchange Agent Colonel John Stuart Skinner on board the HMS Minden. Skinner and Key were there to negotiate the release of prisoners. They were, however, not allowed to return to their own sloop because they now knew about the British intent to attack Baltimore. Key was unable to do anything but watch the bombarding of the American forces at Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore on the night between the 13th and 14th of September, 1814.


In the January of 1815 she came under the command of Captain Donald Mackay and on her return to England in 1816 she was paid off at Portsmouth where defects were made good..
In the late July of 1816, under Captain William Patterson who was to command her until 1820, Minden sailed from Plymouth Sound, as part of an Anglo-Dutch fleet that made an attack on Algiers on the 27th of August. In which action she lost 7 killed and 27 wounded. The Naval General Service Medal with the clasp "Algiers" was issued to survivors of this battle in 1848.




The Bombardment of Algiers, 27 August 1816, by George Chambers (1836), portrays the HMS Minden

Minden served as the Flagship of Sir Richard King from 1817, and sailed for the East Indies, being reported as being at Trincomalee in 1819.
Returning to England in the October of 1820 she was paid off and went into ordinary. Between the April of 1821 and the August of 1823 she underwent repairs at Plymouth and was housed over from her main mast forrard.

In July 1830 Minden was still at Plymouth and she was re-commissioned there on the 19th of March, 1836 for Particular service, and sailed for the Tagus joining the British squadron at Lisbon until 1838. She then sailed into the Med. In 1839 she was at Malta, returning to Plymouth in early 1840.


She was back at Devonport dockyard when it suffered severe damage in a large scale fire on the 25th of September,1840 It had started in the North Dock on HMS Talavera, which was completely gutted, spread to the Minden, whose fire was successfully put out, and then spread to nearby buildings and equipment.





Fate.


A typhoon destroyed the shore-based Royal Naval Hospital at Hong Kong on the 22nd of July, 1841, and Minden was commissioned at Plymouth in the December of that year to serve as a hospital ship there. She was stationed at Hong Kong as a hospital ship from 1842 until she was replaced by HMS Alligator in 1846. Minden then served there as stores ship until sold for scrapping on the 4th of July 1861.

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HMS Hannibal (1810)



Hannibal


HMS Hannibal was a Revived Hero Class 74-gun third rate ship of the line, ordered on the 24th of January 1805 and built by Henry Adams at Bucklers Hard. She was laid down in the December of that year and not finally launched until the May of 1810. She was completed at Portsmouth on the 7th of September of that year.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Hannibal
Ordered:	24 January 1805
Builder:	Adams, Bucklers Hard
Launched:	May 1810
Fate:	Broken up, December 1833 to Jan 1834.
General characteristics
Class and type:		Revived Hero Class ship of the line
Tons burthen:		1748 (bm)
Length:		176 ft (53.3 m) (gundeck)
Beam:		47 ft 7 in (14.49 m)
Depth of hold:		20 ft 6 in (6.25 m)
Propulsion:		Sails
Sail plan:		Full rigged ship
Armament:		·74 guns: ·Gundeck: 28 × 32 pdrs ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18 pdrs ·Quarterdeck: 4 × 12 pdrs, 10 × 32 pdr carronades ·Forecastle: 4 × 12 pdrs, 2 × 32 pdr carronades ·Poop deck: 6 × 18 pdr carronades

Service.


HMS Hannibal was commissioned under Captain Thomas Searle in the July of 1810 as the Flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Thomas Williams for service at the Scheldt. She then sailed for Portugal on the 6th of October in that same year.


In 1811 under Captain Andrew King she served as Flagship to Rear Admiral Philip Durham in the Baltic. By the December of that year she had changed captains to Captain Thomas Brown. During 1812, now serving in the Channel she came under Captain Michael Seymour who remained in command until 1814. On the 26th of March, Hannibal, Hebrus, and Sparrow encountered the French 40 gun frigates Sultane and Etoile, off Cherbourg whilst they were returning from the Cape Verde Islands and a cruise of commerce raiding. Hannibal set off after Sultane and sent Hebrus and Sparrow after Etoile. Both French vessels were captured the next day. Hannibal captured Sultane without a fight. Hebrus captured Étoile, but only after severe fighting at the ensuing Battle of Jobourg.


Later in the year she sailed with a convoy to the West Indies, and on her return in the August of that year went into ordinary at Plymouth.


Fate.


She was fitted as a lazarette between the July and August of 1825 and was used for harbour service from that date until 1826, when she was moved to Pembroke. Hannibal was broken up there between the December of 1833 and the January of 1834.

[Bligh]

HMS Vigo (1810)



HMS Vigo was another Peake and Rule designed Armada Class, 74-gun third rate ship of the line ordered on the 20th of October 1806, and built by Charles Ross at Rochester. She was laid down in the April of 1807, and launched on the 21st of February, 1810. She was completed for ordinary on the 20th of April, 1810, and for sea duty at Chatham by the 18th of March, 1811.



Vigo

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Vigo
Ordered:	20 October 1806
Builder:	Ross, Rochester
Laid down:	April 1807
Launched:	21 February 1810
Fate:	Broken up, 1865
General characteristics
Class and type:	Armada Class third rate ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1786 (bm)
Length:	176 ft 9 in (54.25 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	48 ft 6 in (15.2 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft 11.5 in (6.4 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
	·74 guns: ·Gundeck: 28 × 32 pdrs ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18 pdrs ·Quarterdeck: 4 × 12 pdrs, 10 × 32 pdr carronades ·Forecastle: 2 × 12 pdrs, 2 × 32 pdr carronades ·Poop deck: 6 × 18 pdr carronades

Service.


HMS Vigo was commissioned under Captain Richard Jones in the January of 1811, and in the June of that year came under the command of Captain Manley Hall Dixon as the Flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Manley Hall Dixon in the Baltic.


In 1812 Captain Henry Ommanney took command of Vigo when she became the Flagship of Rear Admiral James Nicoll Morris, and then in 1813 under Captain Thomas White as Flagship to Rear Admiral Graham Moore. During this period nothing eventful took place, and she was paid off in the December of that year at Portsmouth. After a small repair between the March and September of 1815 she was laid up.


In the November of 1819, whilst still residing at Portsmouth, she was recommissioned and fitted for sea once again. This time her Captain was Thomas Browne, and she sailed for the Cape of Good Hope as the Flagship of Rear Admiral Robert Lambert, and was at St. Helena from 1820 to 1821. She then returned to Portsmouth to become the flagship of Admiral Sir James Whitshed from 1822 to 1823.


Fate.


She was fitted as a receiving ship at Plymouth between the December of 1826 and the July of 1827, and was broken up by Marshall of Plymouth between the May and August of 1865.

[Bligh]

HMS Cressy (1810)



HMS Cressy was yet another Armada Class out of the Peake and Rule design book. She was also a 74 gun, third rate ship of the line, ordered on the 1st of October, 1806, and built by Josiah and Thomas Brindley at Frindsbury. Laid down in the March of 1807, she was launched on the 7th of March,1810 and completed for ordinary on the 9th of May at Chatham.



Cressy

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Cressy
Ordered:	1 October 1806
Builder:	Brindley, Frindsbury
Launched:	7 March 1810
Fate:	Broken up 1832
General characteristics
Class and type:	Armada Class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1763 (bm)
Length:	176 ft 1 in (54 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 9.75 in (14.49 m)
Depth of hold:	21 ft 1 in (6.4 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns ·QD: 4 × 12-pounder guns + 10 × 32-pounder carronades ·Fc: 2 × 12-pounder guns + 2 × 32-pounder carronades ·Poop deck: 6 × 18-pounder carronades

Service.


HMS Cressy was commissioned by Captain Charles Pater in the January of 1811 and prepared for sea at Sheerness for Baltic service.


On the 5th of July she captured a Danish gunboat, however,on the 24th of December Cressy was off the west coast of Jutland, in company with HMS St. George, under Rear-admiral Robert Carthew Reynolds, and also the HMS Defence, when a fierce storm accompanied by very heavy seas blew up. St George was under jury-rig and so Captain Atkins of Defence refused to abandon her without the Admiral's permission. Consequently, both ships were wrecked near Ringkøbing.However, Captain Pater did not ask for permission and thus Cressy avoided the fate of her consorts.



A View of the shipwreck and total loss of the St George and the Defence; Cressy can be seen top left of the picture


Both St George and Defence lost almost all their crews, including the Admiral. Most of the bodies that washed ashore were buried in the sand dunes of Thorsminde, which have been known ever since as "Dead Men’s Dunes".

War of 1812.


On the 12th of August 1812, shortly after the outbreak of the war with America, Cressy shared in the seizure of several American vessels: Cuba, Caliban, Edward, Galen, Halcyon, and Cygnet.
On the 21st of February 1813 she sailed for the Leeward Islands, but by the September of that year she had returned to Portsmouth to make good several defects. Recommissioned in the August of that year under Captain Charles Dashwood for the North sea, she then returned to the Leewards. On her return to Portsmouth in the May of 1814 she was paid off and went into ordinary.


Fate.


On the 20th of March,1827, by Admiralty Orders, Cressy was about to be cut down to a 50 gun Frigate, when the instructions were suddenly cancelled due to her state of decay. This led to her being broken up at Portsmouth in the December of 1832.

[Bligh]

HMS Egmont (1810)



HMS Egmont was another Armada Class 74-gun third rate ship of the line, built to the Peake and Rule design. She was ordered on the 13th of July, 1807 and built by Thomas Pitcher at Northfleet. Laid down in the October of 1807, she was launched on the 7th of March,1810, and completed in two stages, the first at Northfleet on the 20th of April, and the second at Woolwich on the 7th of November 1811.



Egmont.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Egmont
Ordered:	13 July 1807
Builder:	Pitcher, Northfleet
Laid down:	October 1807
Launched:	7 March 1810
Fate:	Sold, 1875
General characteristics
Class and type:	Armada Class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1760 (bm)
Length:	176 ft 2 in (53.6 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 9 in (14.5 m)
Depth of hold:	21 ft (6.4 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	·Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns ·Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns ·QD: 4 × 12-pounder guns + 10 × 32-pounder carronades ·Fc: 2 × 12-pounder guns + 2 × 32-pounder carronades ·Poop deck: 6 × 18 pdr carronades

Egmont and HMS Narcissus at the Fort on Villegagnon Island, Rio de Janeiro.


Service.

HMS Egmont was commissioned by Captain Charles Austin in the May of 1811, but command passed to Captain Joseph Bingham for service in the North Sea and the Channel until 1814. In 1812 she became the Flagship of Rear Admiral Edward Griffiths in North America, and then Rear Admiral Sir George Hope back in the North Sea in 1813. In 1814 she came under the command of Rear Admiral Penrose’s squadron serving under Lord Keith in the Gironde operations.
Egmont was paid off and laid up at Portsmouth in the August of 1814.

In the January of 1819, the London Gazette reported that Parliament had voted a grant to all those who had served under the command of Lord Viscount Keith between 1812 and 1814, and also in the Gironde; Egmont was listed among the vessels that had served in the Gironde.

She underwent a large repair costing £48,208 between the February of 1820 and the October of 1825, and then laid up once more.

Fate.

She was converted to serve as a store ship at a cost of £24,306 by Samuel J White between the October of 1861 and the October of 1862 and took up this role at Portsmouth only until the January of 1863, when she was transferred to Rio De Janeiro in the same guise.