HMS Albion was a 74-gunthird-rateship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was built by Adam Hayes at Deptford Dockyard and launched on 16 May 1763, having been adapted from a design of the old 90-gun ship Neptune which had been built in 1730. She was the first ship to be called HMS Albion. She was the first of a series of ships built to the same lines, which became known as the Albion-class ship of the line.[1]
Albion's next action was a year later on 17 April 1780, when British and French fleets met in the Battle of Martinique. A month later, on 15 May, the fleets met again and after a few days of manoeuvring the head of the British line confronted the rear-most French warships. Albion, leading the vanguard of the British fleet suffered heavy casualties, but with little to show for it. Just four days later the two fleets clashed for the third time but again it was indecisive with Albion heavily engaged as before, suffering numerous casualties in the process.[citation needed]
In 1794 Albion was consigned to the role of a 60-gun floating battery[1] armed with heavy carronades and moored on the Thames Estuary. She was positioned in the Middle Swin, seven miles north-east of Foulness Point.[2]
Fate
In April 1797, while heading to a new position in the Swin Channel, off Maplin Sands and Foulness she ran aground due to pilot error. Two days later, during salvage efforts, her back broke, and she was completely wrecked.[3]HMSAstraea rescued Captain Henry Savage and his crew. The crew later transferred to the newly built HMSLancaster.[2]
The subsequent court-martial blamed the pilots, William Springfield and Joseph Wright, for imprudent maneuvering and going too far back before altering course. The court ordered that they lose all pay due to them and they never serve as pilots again.[3]
HMS Theseus was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy.
HMS Colossus was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was launched at Gravesend on 4 April 1787 and lost on 10 December 1798. During her years of service she participated in the Battle of Groix, the Battle of Cape St Vincent, and the Battle of the Nile. While carrying wounded from the latter, she was wrecked at the Isles of Scilly. The wreck is a Protected Wreck managed by Historic England.
HMS Albion was a 90-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. Ordered in 1839, she was built at Plymouth Dockyard, launched on 6 September 1842, and completed on 23 January 1844. Albion was designed by Sir William Symonds, was the only ship of her class to ever serve as a sailing ship, and the last British two-decker to be completed and enter service without a steam engine. She was the name ship of a class of three second rates—the others being Aboukir and Exmouth.
HMS Africa was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched by Barnard at Deptford on 11 April 1781.
HMS Thunderer was a ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built in 1783. It carried 74-guns, being classified as a third rate. During its service it took part in several prominent naval battles of the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars; including the Glorious First of June, the Battle of Cape Finisterre and the Battle of Trafalgar.
HMS Captain was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 26 November 1787 at Limehouse. She served during the French revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars before being placed in harbour service in 1799. An accident caused her to burn and founder in 1813. Later that year she was raised and broken up.
HMS Somerset was a three-decker 80-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Chatham Dockyard on 31 May 1698. She was the first ship to bear the name.
HMS Invincible was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 9 March 1765 at Deptford. Invincible was built during a period of peace to replace ships worn out in the recently concluded Seven Years' War. The ship went on to serve in the American War of Independence. May, 1778 under command of Capt. Anthony Parry. Fought at the battles of Cape St Vincent in 1780, and under the command of Captain Charles Saxton, the Battles of the Chesapeake in 1781 and St Kitts in 1782.
HMS Fortitude was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built by John Randall & Co. and launched on 23 March 1780 at Rotherhithe.
Duc d'Aquitaine was a 64-gun East Indiaman of the Compagnie des Indes, launched in 1754. On 30 May 1757, she was captured by the Royal Navy and commissioned as the third rate HMS Duc D'Aquitaine. She foundered in 1761 and was lost.
HMS Neptune was a 90-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was built under the 1677 "Thirty Great Ships" Programme and launched in 1683 at Deptford Dockyard.
HMS Ethalion was a 38-gun Artois-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was built by Joseph Graham of Harwich and launched on 14 March 1797. In her brief career before she was wrecked in 1799 on the French coast, she participated in a major battle and in the capture of two privateers and a rich prize.
HMS Sunderland was a 60-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built to the 1719 Establishment at Chatham Dockyard, and launched on 30 April 1724.
HMS Sans Pareil("Without Equal") was an 80-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was formerly the French ship Sans Pareil, but was captured in 1794 and spent the rest of her career in service with the British.
Seine was a 38-gun French Seine-class frigate that the Royal Navy captured in 1798 and commissioned as the fifth-rate HMS Seine. On 20 August 1800, Seine captured the French ship Vengeance in a single ship action that would win for her crew the Naval General Service Medal. Seine's career ended in 1803 when she hit a sandbank near the Texel.
HMS Foxhound was an 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by King at Dover and launched in 1806. She participated in the battle of the Basque Roads in early 1809 and foundered later that year.
HMS Magnet was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop built at Robert Guillaume’s yard at Northam and launched in 1807. She served in the Baltic, where she took two prizes, one an armed privateer, before wrecking in 1809.
HMS Widgeon was a Royal Navy Cuckoo-class schooner built by William Wheaton at Brixham and launched in 1806. Like many of her class and the related Ballahoo-class schooners, she succumbed to the perils of the sea relatively early in her career.
HMS Seaforth was the French privateer Dame Ernouf, which HMS Curieux captured in 1805. The Royal Navy took her into service, but she foundered later that year.
HMS Alphea was built of Bermudan pencil cedar as a cutter and launched in 1804. Later she was converted to a schooner. She captured a number of small prizes before September 1813 when she blew up in a single-ship action with the loss of her entire crew.
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