HMS Nassau (1785)

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Nassau.

Silhouette of the ship-of-the-line Nassau
History
Great Britain
Name	HMS Nassau
Ordered	14 November 1782
Builder	Hilhouse, Bristol
Laid down	March 1783
Launched	28 September 1785
Fate	Wrecked 14 October 1799
General characteristics [1]
Class & type	Ardent-class ship of the line
Tons burthen	1384 (bm)
Length	160 ft (49 m) (gundeck)
Beam	44 ft 4 in (13.51 m)
Depth of hold	19 ft (5.8 m)
Propulsion	Sails
Sail plan	Full-rigged ship
Armament	64 guns: Gundeck: 26 × 24-pounder guns Upper gundeck: 26 × 18-pounder guns QD: 10 × 4-pounder guns Fc: 2 × 9-pounder guns

HMS Nassau was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 28 September 1785 by Hilhouse in Bristol. ^[1]

One of her first ship's surgeons is thought to be John Sylvester Hay. He died young but he was the father of the actress Harriett Litchfield. ^[2]

During the Nore Mutiny she was commanded by Captain Edward O'Bryen. She was converted for use as a troopship in 1797. ^[1]

Nassau was wrecked on the Kicks sandbar off Texel, the Netherlands, on 14 October 1799, there being 205 survivors and about 100 lives lost. ^[3]

Notes

1. Lavery, Ships of the Line, vol. 1, p. 181.
2. K. A. Crouch, ‘Litchfield, Harriett (1777–1854)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 accessed 1 Feb 2015
3. The Reading Mercury and Oxford Gazette, 11 November 1799

References

• Lavery, Brian (1984). The Ship of the Line. Vol. 1: The Development of the Battlefleet 1650-1850. Naval Institute Press. ISBN   0-85177-252-8.
• Winfield, Rif (2007). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714–1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN   978-1-84415-700-6.

External links

• Media related to HMS Nassau (ship, 1785) at Wikimedia Commons