HMS Cumberland (1774)

Last updated

Plan showing the inboard profile profile (and approved) for Elizabeth (1769).jpg
Cumberland
History
Naval Ensign of Great Britain (1707-1800).svg Great Britain
NameHMS Cumberland
Ordered8 June 1768
Builder Deptford Dockyard
Laid down7 January 1769
Launched29 March 1774
FateBroken up, 1804
Notes
General characteristics [1]
Class and type 74-gun third-rate Elizabeth-class ship of the line
Tons burthen1647 (bm)
Length168 ft 6 in (51.36 m) (gundeck)
Beam46 ft (14 m)
Depth of hold19 ft 9 in (6.02 m)
PropulsionSails
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

HMS Cumberland was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 29 March 1774 at Deptford Dockyard. [1]

Contents

She participated in actions against the French Navy both prior to and during the Napoleonic Wars. She was broken up in 1804.

Pre-Napoleonic Wars

She participated in the Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1780. She captured the French 18-gun privateer ship-sloop Duc de Chartres in c. February 1781. The Royal Navy took the privateer into service as HMS Duc de Chartres. [2]

Cumberland then sailed to the East Indies, where she participated in the Battle of Cuddalore in 1783.

Napoleonic Wars

Cumberland took an incidental part in the action of 28 June 1803, during the Blockade of Saint-Domingue. Two days later, Cumberland and her squadron were between Jean-Rabel and St. Nichola Mole in the West Indies, having just parted with a convoy when they spotted a sail of what appeared to be a large French warship. Cumberland and Vanguard approached her and after a few shots from Vanguard the French vessel surrendered, having suffered two men badly wounded, and being greatly outgunned. She proved to be the frigate Créole, of 44 guns, primarily 18-pounders, under the command of Citizen Le Ballard. She had been sailing from Cape François to Port au Prince with General Morgan (the second in command of San Domingo), his staff, and 530 soldiers on board, in addition to her crew of 150 men. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Creole.

While the British were taking possession of Creole, a small French navy schooner, under the command of a lieutenant, and sailing the same trajectory as Creole, sailed into the squadron and she too was seized. She had on board 100 bloodhounds from Cuba, which were "intended to accompany the Army serving against the Blacks." [3]

Fate

Cumberland was broken up in 1804. [1]

Citations and notes

  1. 1 2 3 Lavery, Ships of the Line vol. 1, p. 179.
  2. Demerliac (1996), p. 182, #1777.
  3. "No. 15620". The London Gazette . 13 September 1803. p. 1228.

Related Research Articles

HMS Vanguard was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 6 March 1787 at Deptford. She was the sixth vessel to bear the name.

HMS Victorious was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Blackwall Yard, London on 27 April 1785. She was the first ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name.

HMS Thunderer was a ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built in 1783. She carried 74-guns, being classified as a third rate. During her service she 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 <i>Alexander</i> (1778) Ship of the line of the Royal Navy

HMS Alexander was a 74-gun third-rate of the Royal Navy. She was launched at Deptford Dockyard on 8 October 1778. During her career she was captured by the French, and later recaptured by the British. She fought at the Nile in 1798, and was broken up in 1819. She was named after Alexander the Great.

HMS <i>Foudroyant</i> (1758) Ship of the line of the Royal Navy

The Foudroyant was an 80-gun ship of the line of the French Navy. She was later captured and served in the Royal Navy as the Third Rate HMS Foudroyant.

HMS <i>Thames</i> (1758) Frigate of the Royal Navy

HMS Thames was a 32-gun Richmond-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy built by Henry Adams and launched at Bucklers Hard in 1758. She served in several wars, including for some four years in French service after her capture. She was recaptured in 1796 and was broken up in 1803.

HMS <i>Révolutionnaire</i> (1794) Frigate of the Royal Navy

Révolutionnaire, was a 40-gun Seine-class frigate of the French Navy, launched in May 1794. The British captured her in October 1794 and she went on to serve with the Royal Navy until she was broken up in 1822. During this service Revolutionnaire took part in numerous actions, including three for which the Admiralty would in 1847 award clasps to the Naval General Service Medal, and captured several privateers and merchant vessels.

Mutine was an 18-gun Belliqueuse-class gun-brig of the French Navy, built to a design by Pierre-Alexandre-Laurent Forfait, and launched in 1794 at Honfleur. She took part in the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, where the British captured her. She was recommissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Mutine, and eventually sold in 1803.

French frigate <i>Sémillante</i> (1791) French Navy ship

The Sémillante was a 32-gun frigate of the French Navy and the lead ship of her class. She was involved in a number of multi-vessel actions against the Royal Navy, particularly in the Indian Ocean. She captured a number of East Indiamen before she became so damaged that the French disarmed her and turned her into a merchant vessel. The British captured her and broke her up in 1809.

HMS <i>Santa Margarita</i> (1779) Frigate of the Royal Navy

HMS Santa Margarita was a 36-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She had been built for service with the Spanish Navy, but was captured after five years in service, eventually spending nearly 60 years with the British.

The first HMS Epervier, sometimes spelled HMS Epervoir, was the French ex-naval brick-aviso and then privateer Épervier, launched in 1788. The British captured her in 1797 and registered her in 1798 as an 18-gun brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. The Navy never commissioned her and she was sold in 1801.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Ushant (1782)</span>

The Third Battle of Ushant or the action of 20–21 April 1782 was a naval battle fought during the American Revolutionary War, between a French naval fleet of three ships of the line protecting a convoy and two British Royal naval ships of the line off Ushant, a French island at the mouth of the English Channel off the northwesternmost point of France. This was the third battle that occurred in this region during the course of the war.

HMS Monsieur was the former 40-gun French privateer Monsieur, built at Le Havre between July 1778 and 1779, then armed at Granville. The Royal Navy captured her in 1780 and subsequently put her into service as a 36-gun Fifth Rate. This frigate was sold in 1783.

HMS Moucheron was a French privateer, built in 1799, that the British captured in 1801. The British government purchased her in 1802 for the Royal Navy. She foundered in 1807 in the Mediterranean without leaving a trace.

HMS <i>Crescent</i> (1779) Enterprise-class Royal Navy frigate

HMS Crescent was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Crescent was launched in 1779. The French captured her in 1781. She was wrecked in 1786.

Countess of Scarborough was launched at Whitby in 1777. The Royal Navy hired her as a hired armed ship in 1777. She participated in the capture of two privateers before she and HMS Serapis succumbed to a small American flotilla off Flamborough Head in 1779. She briefly became a French privateer. Her subsequent fate is unknown.

Créole was a 40-gun frigate of the French Navy, a one-off design by Jacques-Augustin Lamothe. The French Navy loaned her to a privateer in 1797. Later, she served in the Brest squadron, took part in Ganteaume's expeditions of 1801 to Egypt, and was involved in the French acquisition of Santo Domingo and briefly detained Toussaint Louverture before he was brought to France. The 74-gun ships HMS Vanguard and HMS Cumberland captured her Santo Domingo on 30 June 1803. The Royal Navy took her into service but she foundered soon afterwards during an attempt to sail to Britain; her crew were rescued.

HMS <i>Rosario</i> (1800) Sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Rosario was a 20-gun sixth rate of the British Royal Navy. She was previously the French privateer Hardi, which HMS Anson captured in 1800. The navy took her into service as HMS Hardi but renamed her HMS Rosario later in 1800. She was sold in 1809.

The French brig Duc de Chartres was built between 1779 and 1780 at Le Havre as a 24-gun privateer. As a privateer she captured one British warship before in 1781 the Royal Navy captured her. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Duc de Chartres. She then captured several American privateers and armed merchant vessels, and one French naval corvette in a noteworthy single-ship action. The Navy sold Duc de Chartres in 1784.

HMS Barbadoes was originally a French privateer and then slave ship named Brave or Braave. A British slave ship captured her in September 1803. In 1803–1804 she became the British privateer Barbadoes for a few months. In 1804 the inhabitants of Barbados purchased her and donated her to the Royal Navy, which took her into service as HMS Barbadoes. She wrecked on 27 September 1812.

References