HMS Invincible (1765)

Last updated

'Monarch' (1765); 'Ramilies' (1763); 'Invincible' (1765); 'Robust' (1764); 'Magnificent' (1766); 'Marlborough' (1767) RMG J3358.png
Invincible
History
Naval Ensign of Great Britain (1707-1800).svgGreat Britain
NameHMS Invincible
Ordered4 November 1761
BuilderWells, Deptford
Launched9 March 1765
FateWrecked, 16 March 1801
Notes
General characteristics [1]
Class and type Ramillies-class ship of the line
Tons burthen1631
Length168 ft 6 in (51.36 m) (gundeck)
Beam46 ft 11 in (14.30 m)
Depth of hold19 ft 9 in (6.02 m)
PropulsionSails
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

HMS Invincible was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 9 March 1765 at Deptford. [1] 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. [2] 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.[ citation needed ]

Contents

She survived the cull of the Navy during the next period of peace, and was present, under the command of Thomas Pakenham, at the Glorious First of June in 1794, where she was badly damaged and lost fourteen men, and, under the command of William Cayley, the Invasion of Trinidad (1797), which resulted in the transfer of Trinidad from the Spanish.[ citation needed ]

Quasi War:Sometime in 1800 recaptured American merchantman "Richmond" that had been taken by a French privateer. [3]

A watercolor by Charles de Lacy depicting the ship of the line Invincible and the battlecruiser Invincible, 120 years apart. HMS Invincible 1907 and 1783 by Charles De Lacy.jpg
A watercolor by Charles de Lacy depicting the ship of the line Invincible and the battlecruiser Invincible , 120 years apart.

Captains

Captains of the ship included: [4]

Shipwreck

Memorial, Happisburgh, Norfolk Juste vs HMS Invincible.jpg
Memorial, Happisburgh, Norfolk
HMS Invincible -2020-11-13 Memorial stone for 119 men of HMS Invincible which sank on the 16 March 1801, St Mary's, Happisburgh, Norfolk.JPG
HMS Invincible

On 16 March 1801, she was lost in a shipwreck off the coast of Norfolk, England. She had been sailing from Yarmouth under the flag of Rear-Admiral Thomas Totty in an effort to reach the fleet of Admiral Sir Hyde Parker in the Sound preparing for the upcoming attack on the Danish fleet, with approximately 650 people on board. As the ship passed the Norfolk coast, she was caught in heavy wind and stuck on the Hammond Knoll Rock off Happisburgh, where she was pinned for some hours in the afternoon before breaking free but immediately being grounded on a sandbank, where the effect of wind and waves tore down the masts and began to break up the ship. She remained in that position for all of the following day, but late in the evening drifted off the sandbank and sank in deep water. [5]

The admiral and 195 sailors escaped the wreck, either in one of the ship's boats or were picked up by a passing collier and fishing boat, but over 400 of their shipmates drowned in the disaster, most of them once the ship began to sink in deeper water. [5]

The compulsory court martial investigating the incident, held on Ruby in Sheerness, absolved the admiral and the captain (posthumously) of culpability in the disaster, posthumously blaming the harbour pilot and the ship's master, both of whom had been engaged to steer the ship through the reefs and shoals of the dangerous region, and should have known the location of Hammond Knoll, especially since it was daytime and in sight of land. [6]

The remains of many of her crew were located by chance in a mass grave in Happisburgh churchyard during the digging of a new drainage channel. [7] A memorial stone was erected in 1998 to their memory by the Ship's Company of the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Invincible, and by the Happisburgh parochial church council.

Citations

  1. 1 2 Lavery, Ships of the Line, vol. 1, p. 177.
  2. "NAVAL DOCUMENTS OF The American Revolution" (PDF). history.navy.mil. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  3. Naval Documents related to the Quasi-War Between the United States and France (PDF). Vol. VII Part 1 of 4: Naval Operations December 1800-December 1801, December 1800-March 1801. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 426. Retrieved 3 October 2024 via Ibiblio.
  4. "HMS Invincible". Three Decks. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
  5. 1 2 Ships of the Old Navy, Invincible.
  6. Caledonian Mercury, 23 March 1801
  7. "Losses at sea" . Retrieved 21 April 2010.

Related Research Articles

HMS <i>Albion</i> (1763) 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy

HMS Albion was a 74-gun third-rate ship 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.

HMS <i>Queen</i> (1769) British ship of the line (1769-1821)

HMS Queen was a three-deck 90-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 18 September 1769 at Woolwich Dockyard. She was designed by William Bateley, and was the only ship built to her draught. Her armament was increased to 98 guns in the 1780s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sir Richard Bickerton, 2nd Baronet</span> British admiral (1759–1832)

Admiral Sir Richard Hussey Bickerton, 2nd Baronet, KCB, was a British naval officer. He was born in Southampton, the son of Vice-admiral Sir Richard Bickerton and first served aboard HMS Medway in June 1774, in the Mediterranean. His first command came in March 1779 when he was given HM Sloop Swallow as a reward for his part in an engagement with a much larger opponent. Bickerton later joined Rodney's squadron in the West Indies where he took part in the capture of Sint Eustatius in 1781. Making post captain on 8 February 1781, he took temporary command of HMS Invincible and fought in her at the Battle of Fort Royal on 29 April 1781.

HMS <i>Raisonnable</i> (1768) Ship of the line of the Royal Navy

HMS Raisonnable was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, named after the ship of the same name captured from the French in 1758. She was built at Chatham Dockyard, launched on 10 December 1768 and commissioned on 17 November 1770 under the command of Captain Maurice Suckling, Horatio Nelson's uncle. Raisonnable was built to the same lines as HMS Ardent, and was one of the seven ships forming the Ardent class of 1761. Raisonnable was the first ship in which Nelson served.

HMS <i>Arrogant</i> (1761) 74-gun Royal Navy ship of the line

HMS Arrogant was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built of Suffolk oak by John Barnard and launched on 22 January 1761 at King's Yard Harwich. She was the first of the Arrogant-class ships of the line, designed by Sir Thomas Slade.

HMS <i>Edgar</i> (1779) 74-gun Royal Navy ship of the line

HMS Edgar was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, that saw service in the American Revolutionary, French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Launched in 1779, she fought in the battles of Cape St Vincent and Copenhagen, two of the major naval engagements of the wars.

HMS <i>London</i> (1766) Ship of the line of the Royal Navy

HMS London was a 90-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 24 May 1766 at Chatham Dockyard.

HMS <i>Monarch</i> (1765) Ship of the line of the Royal Navy

HMS Monarch was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built by Adam Hayes and launched on 20 July 1765 at Deptford Dockyard.

HMS <i>Europa</i> (1765) Ship of the line of the Royal Navy

HMS Europa was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 21 April 1765 at Lepe, Hampshire. She was renamed HMS Europe in 1778, and spent the rest of her career under this name.

HMS <i>Cambridge</i> (1755) Ship of the line of the Royal Navy

HMS Cambridge was an 80-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, designed by Sir Joseph Allin and built at Deptford Dockyard by Adam Hayes to the draught specified by the 1745 Establishment as amended in 1750, and launched on 21 October 1755.

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

HMS <i>Monmouth</i> (1772) Ship of the line of the Royal Navy

HMS Monmouth was an Intrepid-class 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built by Israel Pownoll and launched on 18 April 1772 at Plymouth. Being relatively compact in relation to her gun power, she was affectionately known as the "Little Black Ship".

HMS <i>America</i> (1777) Intrepid-class ship of the line

HMS America was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, designed by John Williams and built by Adam Hayes at Deptford Dockyard and was launched on 5 August 1777. The name was a traditional name in the Royal Navy and continued unabated despite the American War of Independence in 1776.

HMS <i>Assistance</i> (1781) Ship of the line of the Royal Navy

HMS Assistance was a 50-gun Portland-class fourth rate of the Royal Navy. She was launched during the American War of Independence and spent most of her career serving in American waters, particularly off Halifax and Newfoundland. Assistance was the flagship of several of the commanders of the station. She was in service at the beginning of the French Revolutionary Wars, and was wrecked off Dunkirk in 1801.

HMS <i>Sprightly</i> (1778) Cutter of the Royal Navy

HMS Sprightly was a 10-gun cutter of the Royal Navy, built to a design by John Williams, and the name ship of her two-vessel class of cutters. She was launched in 1778. The French captured and scuttled her off the Andulasian coast in 1801.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sir Charles Saxton, 1st Baronet</span> Royal Navy officer (1732–1808)

Sir Charles Saxton, 1st Baronet was an officer of the Royal Navy who saw service during the War of the Austrian Succession, the Seven Years' War, the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, rising to the rank of captain.

HMS <i>Pearl</i> (1762) Royal Navy frigate, in service 1762–1832

HMS Pearl was a fifth-rate, 32-gun British Royal Navy frigate of the Niger-class. Launched at Chatham Dockyard in 1762, she served in British North America until January 1773, when she sailed to England for repairs. Returning to North America in March 1776, to fight in the American Revolutionary War, Pearl escorted the transports which landed troops in Kip's Bay that September. Much of the following year was spent on the Delaware River where she took part in the Battle of Red Bank in October. Towards the end of 1777, Pearl joined Vice-Admiral Richard Howe's fleet in Narragansett Bay and was still there when the French fleet arrived and began an attack on British positions. Both fleets were forced to retire due to bad weather and the action was inconclusive. Pearl was then despatched to keep an eye on the French fleet, which had been driven into Boston.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leeward Islands Station</span> Military unit

The Leeward Islands Station originally known as the Commander-in-Chief at Barbadoes and the Leeward Islands was a formation or command of the Kingdom of Great Britain and then the United Kingdom's Royal Navy stationed at English Harbour, Antigua, Leeward Islands. It existed from 1743 to 1821.

HMS Alexander was the French privateer schooner Alexandre that the British Royal Navy captured in 1796, purchased, and took into service as a ship's tender to HMS Prince of Wales, and later a troopship. She was the victor in two single-ship actions against opponents of equal or greater force. The Navy sold her in 1802.

Captain William Cayley was a British Royal Navy officer.

References