FOUDROYANT HMS 1798

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aukepalmhof
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FOUDROYANT HMS 1798

Post by aukepalmhof » Thu Feb 15, 2018 8:15 pm

Built as a 2nd Rate ship-of-the-line for the Royal Navy.
17 January 1788 ordered.
May 1789 keel laid down.
31 March 1798 launched under the name HMS FOUDROYANT named after a French warship that was captured in May 1758. The name means destroy.
Tonnage 2.054 tons (bm), dim. 184.0 x 50.6 x 22.6ft.
Armament: lower deck 30 – 32pdrs., upper deck 32 – 24pdrs., quarter deck 14 – 12pdrs. forecastle 4 – 12pdrs. and 2 – 32pdrs., poop deck 6 – 18pdrs.
Crew 650.
May 1798 commissioned under command of Capt. James Dacres, command was taken over on 25 May 1798 by Capt. Sir. Thomas Byard.
26 June 1798 completed.

11 October 1798 the FOUDROYANT came in action off Ireland with other British warship against the French invasion fleet to Ireland under command of Admiral J.B.F. Bompart, during this action nine men were wounded. Many French ships destroyed or captured, and the French invasion of Ireland was lost.
31 October 1798, Capt Byard died on board and Commander William Butterfeld took over command temporarily.
November 1798 under command of Capt. John Elphinston, as flagship of Vice Admiral Lord Keith.
06 December 1798 she sailed for the Mediterranean.
April 1799 command was taken over by William Brown and in June 1799 by Capt. Thomas Hardy.

06 June 1799 Rear Admiral Nelson moved his flag from the VANGUARD to the FOUDROYANT at Palermo.
It was on this ship that Nelson fell in love with Lady Emma Hamilton when the FOUDROYANT was in Naples, and their daughter Horatia most probably was conceived on board.
From October 1799 under command of Capt. Sir Edward Berry, 1800 blockaded Malta.
18 February 1800 captured the French Le GÉNÉREUX (74-gun).
Lord Nelson got ill at the beginning of March 1800 while on board the FOUDROYANT and was landed in Palermo on 16th March; the FOUDROYANT sailed from Palermo on 21st without Nelson.

30 March 1800 together with the PENELOPE and LION she captured Le GUILLAUME TELL, she lost 8 men and got 61 men wounded, she was partly dismasted in this action.
During this action she used 161 barrels of gunpowder, and fired 1200 32-pound round shot, 1240 20-pound, 100 18-pound and 200 12-pound round shot.

24 April 1800 she took Lord Nelson from Palermo to Syracuse, where she arrived on the 30th.
At Malta from 20 May till 1 June 1800 when she returned to Palermo.
05 June 1800 carried the Queen of Naples her suite and Lord Nelson to Livorno, arrived Livorno during a fresh gale in the evening of 14th.
She was then in need of a refit, and Nelson struck his flag at the end of June, from where he overland returned to England together with Lady Hamilton.
The FOUDROYANT sailed to Minorca for a refit.
She changed in 1801 a few times from commanders, when she was flagship of Vice Admiral Lord Keith in the Mediterranean. She took part in the Egypt operations.
22 February 1801 sailed from Marmarice, Turkey together with the fleet and transports, arrived Aboukir Bay on 2 March. The troops were landed on the 8th. During this operation the FOUDROYANT lost one sailor and one wounded.
June 1801 command taken over by Capt. John Clarke Searle.
September 1801 command taken over by John Elphinston
03 July 1802 the FOUDROYANT arrived at Portsmouth, still as flagship of Lord Keith.
July 1802 paid off at Plymouth, thereafter she got a refit from January 1803 till November that year.
June 1803 re-commissioned under command of Capt. Peter Spicer, as flagship of Rear Admiral Sir James Draces
From October 1803 flagship of Sir Thomas Graves in the Channel Fleet.
March 1804 under command of Capt. Peter Puget.
October 1805 under command of Capt. John White, she was then flagship of Vice Admiral Sir John Warren.
13 March 1806 in action against a French squadron, taken the French Le MARENGO.
January 1807 under command of Capt. Richard Peacock, late 1807 under command of Capt. Norborn Thompson, at the blockade of the River Tagus.
1808 Under command of Capt. Charles Schomberg, as flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Sydney Smith for the South America Station at Rio de Janeiro.
1810 As flagship of Admiral Michael de Courcy and under command of Capt. Richard Hancoock returned to the U.K from the South America Station in August 1812.
November 1812 paid off.
From January 1815 till April 1819 under repair at Plymouth.
1820 Guardship at Plymouth.
From October 1839 till June 1840 under repair at Plymouth, thereafter in reserve.
March 1861 fitted out to receive Armstrong guns for training the Channel Squadron.
From 1862 till 1884 gunnery training ship at Plymouth.
Then moved to Cambridge.
12 January 1892 sold to J. Read, who sold her to a German shipbreaking firm.
After a public outcry to sell a vessel where Lord Nelson had been on board, money was raised by Joseph Cobb and his son Geoffrey to buy the ship back.
She was bought back for £6.000 from the German breaker in the Baltic, where dismantling had already begun.
Thereafter fitted out by J.R. Wheatly Cobb, an other £20.000 was spent to restore her as a training ship for boys.
Whilst on a fundraising and propaganda cruise, at anchor off Blackpool on 16 June 1897 during a gale she broke one of her anchor chains, and dragged the remaining anchor, she went ashore, and became a wreck.
Her crew and some young boys were rescued by the Blackpool lifeboat.
Attempts to refloate her were not successful, her guns were removed and the wreck was sold for £200.
During the December gales that year she broke up.

Source: Some web-sites under which http://www.cronab.demon.co.uk/F.HTM The lost Ships of the Royal Navy 1793-1900 by Gosset.
British warships in the Age of Sail 1793-1817 by Rif Winfield.
Malta 2006 29c sg?, scott?
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