HMS Blenheim was a 90-gun, Second Rate Ship of the line of the Sandwich Class, built at the Woolwich Royal Dockyard.


The Sandwich Class was a group of three 90-gun ships, all of which were built in Kent shipyards. Designed by Sir Thomas Slade, the other ships of the Sandwich Class were HMS Sandwich and HMS Ocean, both built at the Royal Dockyard in Chatham. HMS Sandwich and her sister-ships were the first Second Rate Ships of the Line designed after the end of the era of the Establishments. During the era of the Establishments, the Navy Board would draw up a series of detailed specifications for a vessel and expect the Master Shipwright at the building yard to design it and oversee it's construction. The Establishments ended under reforms enacted by Admiral Lord Anson when he became First Lord of the Admiralty. After the reforms, the Surveyors at Navy Board would design vessels centrally and send the plans to the building yards. This enabled identical ships of the same class to be built at different shipyards.


The Second Rate ship of the line (carrying more than 80, but less than 100 guns) was regarded as a slightly cheaper alternative to the great First Rate ships. First Rate Ships of the Line in the Royal Navy were very few and far between, whereas Second Rate ships were much more numerous. Even at the time of the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, when the Royal Navy was larger than the rest of the worlds navies put together, there were only eight First Rate ships in commission and that included two ex-Spanish vessels, HMS San Josef (112) and HMS Salvador del Mundo (112). At the same time, there were sixteen Second Rate ships in commission. That stated, the First Rate ships, despite only carrying a few more guns, threw a much heavier broadside and were thus significantly more powerful than the similarly sized Second Rate ships.


As a more general point, vessels like the Second Rate Ship of the Line were unique to the Royal Navy in that only the British built ships of the line with three gundecks carrying less than 100 guns. Their French and Spanish rivals preferred instead to build 80-gun ships with two gundecks which threw a broadside of very similar weight and power. Despite the obvious advantages of the 80 gun two-decker in terms of building and running costs and superior speed and agility, the British preferred the 90 and later 98 gun three-decker because they felt that it's towering appearance, sheer physical presence and outward similarity to the First Rate ships would make the enemy much less keen on fighting. Although a number of 80 gun two deckers were serving in the Royal Navy at the time of the Battle of Trafalgar, all but two of them had been captured from the enemy. In other words, despite their advantages, the British only ever built two 80 gun two-deckers.


HMS Blenheim was ordered by the Navy Board on the 28th October 1755. At the time, the nation was sliding towards war against the old enemy across the English Channel because of a territorial dispute between French and British settlers in North America. This had started in 1754 in what is now known as the French and Indian War. The dispute escalated into a full-blown global war between the superpowers of the day when Britain declared war on France on the 17th May 1756. The drift towards war led to the decision by the Government of William Pitt the Elder to initiate a massive shipbuilding programme intended to both expand the Royal Navy and to replace old, obsolete ships. HMS Sandwich and her two sister-ships were ordered as part of this programme.


The construction of HMS Blenheim was overseen by Mr Israel Pownall, the Master Shipwright in the Woolwich Royal Dockyard. The project had started with a letter from the Navy Board to Mr Pownall instructing him to cause to be built, a ship of the line of 90 guns according to the drafts and specifications of His Majesty's Ship the Sandwich, a copy of which was enclosed. The reason why the Navy Board wrote directly to Mr Pownall was because unlike the Royal Dockyards further afield, the Royal Dockyards at Woolwich and Deptford were directly administered by the Navy Board from their offices in London. Once the order was received, the floor of the mould loft would have been painted matt black and the plans expanded to full size in chalk. Those full-size drawings were then used to build moulds from thin fir strips to be taken to the shipwrights. The Moulds were used by the shipwrights to mark out and cut the full-sized timbers to be used for the construction of the new ship.


The first keel section, made from elm, was laid at Woolwich on the 1st May 1756. For a ship whose keel was to be 143ft or so long, it was clearly impossible for it to be made from a single piece of timber, so the ship's keel was made from a number of sections, scarphed together. The reason that the keel was made from elm rather than oak was because elm is a much harder and more dense timber than oak and thus less susceptable to rot. The keel timbers themselves were square in cross-section. The keel of a 74-gun ship was 18in square amidships, but tapered towards the ends of the ship. The keel of a larger ship like HMS Blenheim would have been even bigger. Beneath the keel itself was the false keel, laid before the keel itself. This was the same width as the keel itself but was only about 6in thick. It's purpose was to protect the keel from damage in the event that the ship should run aground and to offer a degree of protection from the dreaded ship-worm. The false keel was topped by a layer of tar and hair to increase the protection against ship-worm. The scarphs themselves were about 4 to 6 feel long and were bolted together. The keel timbers themselves had a triangular groove cut in them near the top to receive the lowest of the planking timbers, known as the Garboard Strake. To the ends of this were fitted the bottom sections of the stem post and the stern post, made from oak. The joints were reinforced with deadwoods and were guyed or kept in position with rope until the ribs and ribbands were fitted. The ribs were also made from sections, again scarphed and bolted together. To the ribs were fitted the ribbands, timbers fitted temporarily to keep them in place until the hull planking was fitted. The ribs themselves were made from oak. As the project proceeded, she began to look more like a ship. To the ribs were fitted the beams, bolted into place and reinforced with knees and hanging knees. The hall planking was installed and as this was done, the ribbands were removed. Once the installation of the hull and deck planking was complete, hull and decks were caulked to make them waterproof. The caulkers would hammer in the caulking between the planks using caulking mallets and irons. The caulking itself was made from oakum, which is hemp fibres soaked in linseed oil. When the hull and deck planking was fitted to the frame, small gaps of about a quarter-inch were left to receive the caulking. The caulking was driven in so that it was about half an inch from the top of the timber and the final stage of caulking involved sealing it with a layer of pitch or resin. The hull was planked internally as well as on the outside, although the external planking was much thicker than the internal and was at its thickest at and just above the waterline. Once the hull was complete, the internal fixtures and fittings were installed. At this stage, the cabins for the Warrant and Commissioned officers, together with those for the Captain and, in the case of a three-decked ship like HMS Blenheim, quarters for the flag-officer. Looking at the ship from astern, she had three rows of windows or sternlights. The upper row was the captains quarters, the middle row was the flag officers quarters and the bottom row was the quarters for the commissioned sea officers, the marine officers and for those warrant officers who reported directly to the captain, (Sailing Master, Surgeon and Purser).


The original scheduled completion date for HMS Blenheim was in September of 1759, but the project fell behind schedule when during April of 1757, the shipwrights at the Woolwich Royal Dockyard walked out on strike. The strike was over attempts by the Navy Board to restrict the shipwrights traditional rights to "Chips". Chips were basically offcuts from the timber used in a construction project, but over time, the amount of timber being taken grew and grew to a point where the management in the Dockyard and the Navy Board considered it to be excessive. This strike was neither the first, or the last time that shipwrights in a Royal Dockyard would walk out over the issue of Chips.


By the time that HMS Blenheim was finally launched with all due ceremony into the River Thames in the presence of members of the Navy Board, local dignitories and the families of the men who had built her on the 5th July 1761, the war was pretty much over.


On completion, HMS Blenheim was a ship of 1,827 tons. She was 176ft 1in long on her upper gundeck, 142ft 7in long at her keel and 49ft 1in wide across her beams. The ship drew 15ft 2in of water at the bows and 17ft 10.5 inches at the rudder. She was armed with 28 x 32pdr long guns on her lower gundeck, 28 x 18pdr long guns on her middle gundeck, 30 x 12pdr long guns on her upper gundeck, with 2 x 6pdr long guns on her forecastle and two more on the quarterdeck. In addition to her main guns, she carried a dozen or so half-pounder anti-personnel swivel guns fitted to her forecastle and quarterdeck handrails and in her fighting tops. The ship was manned by a crew of 750 officers, seamen, boys and Marines. After her launch, HMS Blenheim was fitted with her guns, masts and rigging at Woolwich and was commissioned into the Channel Fleet under Captain William Gordon. On the 11th November 1761, HMS Blenheim was declared complete at Woolwich having cost a total of £53,919, 5s 5d.


Sandwich Class Plans


Orlop, Lower Gundeck and Middle Gundeck Plans:





Upper Gundeck, Forecastle and Quarterdeck Plans:





Inboard Profile and Plans:





Sheer Plan and Lines:





A contemporary model of a Second Rate Ship of the Line circa 1760, from the collection of the National Maritime Museum. From the date, dimensions and the arrangement of guns on her uppermost decks, this could only be a Sandwich Class ship. The lack of details of her decorations or figurehead mean that it's a generic model of the class, rather than of an individual ship.





Captain Gordon's first task was to recruit a crew. He didn't have to do this alone. The Admiralty appointed his commissioned sea officers into the ship. The eight lieutenants were ranked in order of seniority, based on the dates on which they had passed their examinations. The First Lieutenant was clearly the most important of these as he was second-in-command of the ship and controlled the day to day operations of the ship and her crew. Each of the Lieutenants was in effect a commander in waiting, gaining experience, seniority and making connections with the right people in the hope that they would one day be given a command of their own.


The Warrant Officers were the ship's core craftsmen and effectively heads of departments and the most senior of them were appointed into the ship by the Navy Board. The ship's Standing Officers were those men who men who would remain with the ship whether or not she was in commission and these were:


The Carpenter - He was a fully qualified shipwright, usually appointed from amongst the men who had built the ship. He answered to the First Lieutenant and was responsible for the repair and maintenance of the hull, frames and decks. In a Second Rate ship of the line, he would be assisted by two Carpenters Mates and would have a dedicated Carpenters Crew of ten men.


The Boatswain - He was an experienced seaman who had worked his way up from the ranks of seamen. He also answered to the First Lieutenant and was responsible for the maintenance, operation and repair of the ship's boats as well as her masts, rigging and sails. He was assisted in this by four Boatswains Mates. Amongst the duties of the Boatswains Mates was the administering of any floggings ordered by the Captain.


The Gunner - He was another man who had worked his way up the ranks of seamen. He also answered to the First Lieutenant and was responsible for the repair, maintenance and operation of the ship's main guns. Also amongst his responsibilities was the training of gun crews and training Midshipmen-in-Ordinary in the arts of gunnery. In action, he was responsible for the distribution of gunpowder and shot and would be stationed in the magazine. He was assisted by four Gunners Mates and 23 Quarter-Gunners, each of whom was responsible for four gun crews.


The Purser - He reported directly to the Captain and was thus entitled to a berth in the Wardroom with the commissioned officers. He was responsible for the purchase and distribution of the ship's provisions and stores.


The Cook - The least senior of the Standing Officers, his job title is self-explanatory. He was aso in overall charge of the ship's complement of servants.


In addition to the Standing Officers, there were other Warrant Officers who would only be in the ship when she was in commission. These were:


The Sailing Master - He was responsible for the day-to-day sailing and navigation of the ship and was a qualified Ships Master. If not employed by the Royal Navy, he was qualified to command a merchant vessel. He answered directly to the Captain and in addition to directing the sailing and navigation of the ship, he was also responsible for training Midshipmen-in-Ordinary in the arts of sailing and navigation. As a Warrant Officer reporting directly to the Captain, he was entitled to a berth in the Wardroom with the commissioned sea-officers. In a Second Rate ship of the line like HMS Blenheim, he was assisted by a Second Master, a less senior Sailing Master and four Masters Mates. In addition to the Masters Mates, there were also eight quartermasters responsible for the actual steering of the ship.


The Surgeon - Another man who reported directly to the Captain and entitled to a berth in the Wardroom, he was responsible for the day to day healthcare of the whole crew from the Captain down. Although not a doctor, a ship's surgeon had to serve and pass a seven-year apprenticeship which was overseen by the Royal College of Surgeons and the Royal College of Physicians before he would be alowed to practice unsupervised. He was assisted by three Assistant Surgeons, each of whom was a part-qualified Surgeon.


The Master at Arms - Responsible to the First Lieutenant, he was in effect, the ship's policeman, responsible for the day-to-day enforcement of discipline amongst the crew. In a Second Rate ship of the line like HMS Blenheim, he was assisted by two Ship's Corporals.


The Armourer - Answerable to the Gunner, he was a fully qualified blacksmith and was responsible for the maintenance and repair of the ships stocks bladed weapons. He could also manufacture new bladed weapons as required. As a Blacksmith, the Armourer may have also been called upon to fabricate iron parts of the ship as necessary. On a Second Rate ship of the line, he was assisted by two Armourers Mates.


The Sailmaker - Answerable to the Boatswain, he was responsible for the repair and maintenance of the ships sails, the storage of spare sails as well as the ships stocks of flags. He was assisted by a single Sailmakers Mate and a dedicated crew of two men.


The Caulker - Answerable to the Carpenter he was responsible for making sure the ship's hull and decks remained watertight. He was assisted by a Caulkers Mate and seamen as directed by the First Lieutenant.


The Gunsmith - Answerable to the Armourer, he was specifically responsible for the ship's stocks of muskets and pistols. Only First and Second Rate ships had a Gunsmith amongst their Company. On smaller ships, this role fell to the Armourer.


The Chaplain - An ordained Church of England priest, he was responsible for the spiritual well-being of the crew. He was answerable to the Captain. In action, the Chaplain would assist the Surgeons crew with the care of wounded men. In deference to his ordained status, he was entitled to a berth in the Wardroom.


The Schoolmaster - Answerable to the First Lieutenant, he was responsible for teaching the Midshipmen in Ordinary the theory and mathematics behind navigation. With the Captains agreement, he also taught the ship's Boys the basic '3rs'.


The Clerk - Answerable to the Purser, he was responsible for all the record keeping aboard the ship and making sure that the ships books were sent to the Admiralty.


In addition to these men, HMS Blenheim's crew would have been made up of Petty Officers in charge of specific areas of the ship or specific tasks to be carried out by the seamen. The seamen themselves would have been rated according to their experience at sea.


A Second Rate ship of the line had a complement of 24 Midshipmen. These men and boys were in effect, commanders in training and their role was to assist the ship's Lieutenants in their day to day duties until such a time that they could be put forward for their Lieutenant's Examination. The most senior of them was in charge of the ship's signals although when the ship was serving as a flagship, signals would be the responsibility of the Admiral's Flag Lieutenant. They were appointed into the ship by the local Commander-in-Chief wherever the ship commissioned or could be appointed by the Flag-officer flying his flag in the ship. In addition to the Midshipmen, the ship carried Midshipmen in Ordinary. Appointed by the Captain, these young men at the beginnings of their careers as officers in the Royal Navy, were the sons of friends of the Captain, people the Captain either owed a favour to or was doing a favour for, or were related to the Captain. They were on the ships books as Captains Servants and were paid at the same rate as an Able Seaman. The Captain of a Second Rate ship of the line was entitled to have up to 28 servants or four per rounded hundred of her Company. Unless he was extraordinariy extravagant, the Captain wouldn't require anything like this number of servants and in any case, usually came aboard with his own staff which included Stewards. The spare positions were taken up with the Midshipmen in Ordinary. They wore the uniform and performed the role of a Midshipman and they lived in the Midshipmen's quarters. In any case, the Captain would normally join the ship with his own staff consisting of his Steward, his Coxswain and his Secretary. These men would appoint their own Mates from amongst the existing Ships Company.


In addition to the seamen, HMS Blenheim carried a complement of Marines. In a Second Rate ship of the line, there was a Captain of Marines in command, assisted by two Lieutenants of Marines ranked in order of seniority, with four Sergeants, four Corporals, two Drummers and 70 Marine Privates. The Commissioned Marine officers would live in the Wardroom along with the Sea Officers and those Warrant Officers who reported directly to the Captain. The Non-Commissioned officers would have the same status aboard the ship as the Petty Officers. The Captain of Marines reported directly to the Captain.


Once his crew was assembled, Captain Gordon and his officers would have had to mould his ship and crew into an efficient, deadly fighting machine able to operate in all weathers and able to take on and defeat anyone unfortunate enough to cross their path. Failure was not an option.


On the 28th May 1762, HMS Blenheim sailed for the Mediterranean. Less than a year later, the war would be over. In the meantime, on the 26th September 1762, Captain Gordon was replaced in command by Captain Edward Hughes and the ship became flagship of the Commander in Chief in the Mediterranean, Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Saunders. A month later, Captain Gordon was promoted to Rear-Admiral and was appointed as Commander-in-Chief at the Nore.


The French Navy had suffered two catastrophic defeats in the Battles of Lagos and Quiberon Bay in 1759 and didn't put to sea again in numbers for the rest of the war. The Seven Years War was formally ended by the Treaty of Paris signed on the 17th February 1763. With the end of the war, the Royal Navy laid up it's largest ships, the great First and Second Rate ships of the line and HMS Blenheim was no exception. On the 21st May 1763, HMS Blenheim paid off into the Plymouth Ordinary and Captain Hughes was laid off on half pay. The ship was fitted with cabins for her Standing Officers, stripped of her stores, sails, running rigging and yards and her gunports and most of the hatches were sealed shut. Secured to a mooring buoy off Plymouth, she was manned by a skeleton crew consisting of her Standing Officers; the Carpenter with two servants, Boatswain with two servants, Gunner with two servants and Cook with one. Her Purser was allowed to live ashore within a reasonable distance of the Dockyard and she had a crew of 32 men rated at Able Seaman. The ship would be the responsibility of the Master Attendant at the Royal Dockyard, who would send gangs of labourers out to the ship should any maintenance tasks be beyond the crew's resources.


HMS Blenheim was to remain at her mooring off Plymouth for almost fourteen years. During that time, attempts by the British Government to raise the money needed to pay down the enormous debts they had run up during the Seven Years War were to eventually be the cause of the next war. The Seven Years War had been fought on a scale never before seen. The Government of William Pitt the Elder had decided on a strategy to distract the enemy by launching large scale amphibious operations to attack both their own coastlines and to seize overseas possessions. This had forced the French and their Spanish allies to send troops and ships to defend lucrative overseas colonies. As previously mentioned, the naval defeats at the Battles of Lagos and Quiberon Bay in 1759 had left the enemy unable to defend their overseas trading posts. Not only did this leave them unable to generate the money needed to continue the war, but it also led to international financiers declining requests for loans. The British had taken territory in India and the Caribbean, where the jewel in the crown of Spanish colonies, Havana in Cuba, had fallen. The British had taken all of French Canada and in the Pacific, the British had taken Manila in the Philippine Islands. In the Treaty of Paris, although many of the seized possessions in the Caribbean and India were returned, the French had been forced to cede all of Canada and all of the territory between the Appalacian Mountains and the Mississippi River. War on such a scale does not come cheap and to pay the debts, the Government had attempted to directly levy taxes on their colonies in North America. The colonists, while happy to pay taxes to pay for local colonial administrations and duties to regulate trade, were not willing to have taxes imposed on them by London over which they had no say. Over the years between 1765 and 1775, the colonists reluctance to pay the taxes was met by increasingly harsh and heavy-handed methods to enforce them. Political debate grew into protests, civil disobedience, riots and eventually, armed rebellion. The regular troops of the British Army were driven off by the part-time colonial militias in battles at Concorde and Lexington. Once the Colonial Militias had been organised into the Continental Army under General George Washington, the American Rebels were able to lay seige to the British stronghold at Boston, forcing the British to evacuate the city. An attempt to invade rebel-held territory from Canada was defeated by the Americans in two battles fought around Saratoga and an attempt to seize the important port of Charleston in South Carolina was driven off by the Americans. The King of France had seen an opportunity to regain the loss of lucrative territory and prestige while the British were bogged down in a seemingly unwinnable war in North America and from 1776, had begun to secretly supply the Americans with arms and money.


It was against this background that HMS Blenheim was taken into the Royal Dockyard at Plymouth and fitted as a Receiving Ship in January of 1777. The Admiralty had issued Press Warrants, activating Press Gangs in the ports to round up sailors for the fleet. The men they rounded up would be held aboard HMS Blenheim until they were sent to ships going to sea. The ship commissioned under Captain Broderick Hartwell as such during March of 1777.


In the meantime, the war continued to go from bad to worse for the British. In attempt to keep the French out of the war, the British appointed a commission to negotiate an end to the war with the Americans. The French had beaten them to the post however. After negotiations had opened between the French and the Americans, the Treaty of Amity and Commerce and the Treaty of Alliance were signed, committing the Americans to nothing less than complete independence from Britain in exchange for unlimited military and financial assistance from France. These Treaties recognised the United States of America as a sovereign nation for the first time. Their advances to the Americans rejected, on March 17th 1778, Britain declared war against France.


The Royal Navy was completely unprepared for the declaration of war and what followed was a desperate scramble to get ships of the line fitted for sea and in July of 1778, HMS Blenheim was fitted for sea and commissioned under Captain Hartwell for the Channel Fleet.


HMS Blenheim had a quiet time with the Channel Fleet. In the winter of 1779 into 1780, the ship was reported to be in a poor condition and on the 5th February 1780, she paid off at Chatham. In August of that year, the ship entered the Royal Dockyard to begin a Great Repair. In the weeks before actually being docked down at Chatham, the ship was stripped down to her bare hull with everything being removed. A Great Repair was a major undertaking. Once the ship was docked, all her copper sheathing was removed as were all of her fixtures and fittings. All of the deck and hull planking both internal and external was removed, stripping the ship down to her bare frame. Once this was complete, the frame was then thoroughly surveyed by the shipwrights. Any worn or rotten frame timbers were replaced with new. Once this was complete, the ship would be fitted with new deck and hull planking, re-caulked and the copper sheathing replaced with new. Fixtures and fittings were replaced and the ship was eventually refloated, secured to a mooring buoy off the Dockyard and fitted out. The amount of time this would take depended on the state of the ship and how much work was actually required. In the case of HMS Blenheim, the work wasn't completed until June of 1782 and cost a total of £58,531 16s 9d - more than it had cost to build her in the first place.


While the work was approaching completion, HMS Blenheim recommissioned for the Channel Fleet under Captain Adam Duncan, on the 11th April 1782. While the ship had been under repair at Chatham, the war ashore in North America had been lost when the bulk of the British Army had been forced to surrender at the Seige of Yorktown. That and other events had led to the fall of the Tory Government of Lord North and it's replacement by a weak Whig-led coalition led by the Marquess of Rockingham. The Whig party had been against the war in the first place and had attempted to open negotiations with the French, Spanish and Americans in order to bring it to an end. The Americans didn't care because they had what they wanted, independence. The French and the Spanish were holding out, for two reasons. Firstly, the French fleet under the Compte de Grasse was campaigning to expel the British from the Caribbean. The Compte de Grasse had taken the islands of St Kitts and Nevis from the British despite a tactical defeat in the Battle of Frigate Bay and was preparing an assault on Jamaica. Secondly, the French and Spanish were preparing for what they hoped would be a final, massive assault on Gibraltar. Thus far in the war, the British had been forced to relieve what is now known as the Great Seige of Gibraltar twice. For these reasons, neither France or Spain were particularly interested in talking. The day after Captain Duncan commissioned HMS Blenheim at Chatham, the Compte de Grasse was defeated in the Battle of the Saintes, ending French ambitions to kick the British out of the West Indies once and for all.


With a change of Government came a change of leadership in both the Royal Navy and in the Channel Fleet. the Whig-supporting Admiral Sir Augustus Keppel came out of retirement to become First Lord of the Admiralty and he appointed Vice-Admiral Richard, Lord Howe as Commander-in-Chief of the Channel Fleet. 


By September of 1782, the Franco-Spanish assault on Gibraltar had been repulsed, but the Rock was in dire need of further relief. In the UK, a fleet of transports had been assembled at Spithead, which was to be escorted to Gibraltar by the bulk of Lord Howe's Channel Fleet, comprised at the time of no less than 35 ships of the line including HMS Blenheim. Howe was to force the convoy through the Franco-Spanish blockade, come what may. On 11th September, the fleet departed Spithead, arriving off Gibraltar on 11th October. At this point, the British had an amazing stroke of luck. A storm had scattered the enemy fleet on the 10th October and Howe was able to get the convoy into Gibraltar without opposition. The same storm also swept Howe's fleet eastwards, into the Mediterranean and Howe knew that he would have to get through the massive enemy fleet, of 49 ships of the line, fighting his way through them if necessary, to get the bulk of the Royal Navy's battlefleet home.




HMS Blenheim had been assigned to the Second Division of the Centre, led by Rear-Admiral Alexander Hood, flying his command flag in the 98 gun Second Rate ship of the line HMS Queen, while Howe himself was commanding the fleet from the 100 gun First Rate ship HMS Victory. On 19th October, the enemy was sighted to the east of Gibraltar, so Howe ordered the fleet to weigh anchor and head west. Howe did not want to engage the superior Franco-Spanish force, which had the advantage of having more larger ships in that no less than seven of their ships mounted 100 or more guns. This included the gigantic Spanish ship Santissima Trinidad, mounting 140 guns on 4 gundecks; the largest and most powerful ship in the world at the time. Howe, on the other hand, only had two ships mounting 100 guns, HMS Victory and HMS Britannia. The British ships had the advantage of having their bottoms coppered and this gave them a huge advantage in speed.


Howe wanted to give the Spanish the impression he wanted to fight, so that they would shorten sail and prepare for battle and to this end, he ordered his fleet to reduce sail and to tighten the line of battle. Early in the morning 20th October, the Spanish Admiral, Louis de Cordova signalled a general chase, intending to fall on the British line of battle and annihilate them with weight of numbers and superior firepower. At about 13:00, the British further reduced sail, allowing the Spanish to close within about two miles and at 17:45, the Spanish vanguard opened fire, to which the British replied in kind. Howe then ordered his fleet to make all sail and use their advantage of superior speed and get away from the Spanish. By dawn the following day, the fleets were about 12 miles apart, with the British pulling away. The Spanish gave up their attempts at bringing Howe's fleet to action and resumed their blockade of Gibraltar. Gibraltar was saved and was able to hold out for the rest of the war. The Great Siege of Gibraltar, from 1779 to 1783 remains the longest seige ever endured by British forces. In what is now called the Battle of Cape Spartel, HMS Blenheim suffered casualties of two dead and three wounded.


Lord Howe's Relief of Gibraltar by Richard Paton:





Captain Duncan was to remain in command of HMS Blenheim until the 23rd December 1782 when he was replaced by Captain Thomas Lewis. He, in turn, was replaced by Captain Richard Boger on the 6th May 1783. Captain Adam Duncan was to achieve fame later on, during the French Revolutionary War. In 1797, he was an Admiral and  Commander-in-Chief in the North Sea and led the North Sea Fleet to an overwhelming but bloody victory against the Dutch in the Battle of Camperdown.


Now that their plans were thwarted, the French and Spanish were keen to talk and on the 3rd September 1783, the Treaty of Paris was signed, to be effective from May 12th 1784. On the 13th September 1784, HMS Blenheim paid off into the Plymouth Ordinary to be manned by a skeleton crew as before.


During the course of 1790, Britain came close to war in firstly the Spanish Armaments and then the Russian Armaments Crises. During these crises, the fleet was mobilised for war and the Navy Board decided to bring HMS Blenheim up to date by converting her into a 98-gun ship of the line. 90-gun ships like HMS Blenheim were considered to be obsolete and where possible, they were to be up-gunned. HMS Blenheim's two 6pdr forecastle guns were replaced with 12pdr long guns and the pair on her quarterdeck were replaced by a further 8 x 12pdr long guns. Once the work was completed, the ship returned to the Plymouth Ordinary.


The French Revolutionary War started on 1st February 1793, but it was to be August of 1794 before HMS Blenheim began fitting for sea and recommissioned under Captain Charles Holmes Calmady. On the 23rd October 1794, while still fitting for sea, Captain Calmady was promoted to Rear-Admiral and left the ship. He was replaced in command by Captain John Bazely and in April of 1795, she sailed to the Mediterranean. When the ship was fitted for sea, she was the last of the three Sandwich Class ships still in active service. HMS Sandwich had been reduced to harbour service as Receiving Ship at the Nore and HMS Ocean had been broken up.


At the time the ship joined the Mediterranean Fleet, it was under the overall command of Vice-Admiral Sir William Hotham, who flew his command flag in the First Rate ship of the line HMS Britannia (100). The French Toulon Fleet was active in support of operations in modern-day Italy and Hotham's ships had already fought an inconclusive action against them in the Battle of Genoa, fought on the 13th and 14th March 1795.


Shortly after joining Hotham's fleet, Captain Bazely was replaced in command of HMS Blenheim by Captain Thomas Lennox Frederick. Captain Frederick's previous appointment had been in command of HMS Illustrious (74) which had been badly damaged in the Battle of Genoa. His term in command of that ship had come to a sudden end shortly after that battle when whilst being towed by HMS Meleager at the height of a storm, her tow broke. If that wasn't bad enough, shortly after the tow broke, with the ship helplessly drifting, one of her foremost lower gundeck 32pdr guns had gone off by accident and blown it's gunport lid off. Eventually HMS Illustrious ran aground near Avenza in modern-day Tuscany. Once the weather had cleared, the ship was unable to be salvaged and was burned.


Hotham's fleet was a formidable force by this time and once HMS Blemheim joined, was comprised of:


The First Rate ships of the line HMS Britannia and HMS Victory (both of 100 guns), the Second Rate ships of the line HMS Windsor Castle, HMS St. George, HMS Princess Royal and HMS Blenheim (all of 98 guns), the Third Rate ships of the line HMS Gibraltar (ex-Spanish 80-gun two-decker), HMS Captain, HMS Fortitude, HMS Bombay Castle, HMS Saturn, HMS Cumberland, HMS Terrible, HMS Defence, HMS Egmont, HMS Culloden, HMS Bedford, the ex-French HMS Courageux, HMS Audacious, the Neopolitan ships Guiscardo and Samnito (all of 74 guns), HMS Agamemnon and HMS Diadem (both of 64 guns), the Frigates HMS Meleager (12pdr, 32) and HMS Cyclops (9pdr, 28), the Post-Ship HMS Ariadne (9pdr, 24), the Sloops of War HMS Eclair (Ship-Sloop, 6pdr-armed, 18 guns), HMS Fleche (ex-French Brig-Sloop, 18pdr carronade-armed, 18 guns), the fireship HMS Comet (18pdr carronade-armed, 14 guns) and the Armed Cutter HMS Resolution (4pdr-armed, 14 guns).


After their engagement against the French at the Battle of Genoa, in which ships of both sides had been damaged, both fleets withdrew to make repairs and to refit. On 4th July 1795, Hotham dispatched Captain Horatio Nelson in HMS Agamemnon in company with the 12pdr armed 32 gun frigate HMS Meleager, the 24 gun ex-French post-ship HMS Moselle, HMS Ariadne and the 14 gun Cutter HMS Mutine to patrol off Genoa. Three days later, Nelson's small force ran into the French Toulon fleet, which immediately gave chase. The following day, HMS Agamemnon was closing with San Fiorenzo Bay in Corsica and the rest of the British fleet. At 07:20, HMS Agamemnon began firing signal guns to alert the fleet and two hours later, the French, having spotted 22 British ships of the line and several frigates in the bay, broke off the chase and headed off to the West. For Hotham, this was too good an opportunity to miss. The entire French Toulon fleet at sea, there for the taking, if he could get his ships to sea and bring them to action. The problem was that most of his ships were refitting or taking on water. but despite this, by 9pm the ships were under way. By noon on the 8th July, the fleet was heading west under all sail and on 12th, received intelligence concerning the whereabouts of the enemy, seen off the Iles de Hyeres off south-eastern France. That night, the fleet was battered by a storm which damaged the sails of several of the British ships. At daybreak the following day, the enemy were spotted. At 08:00, Admiral Hotham made the signal for a general chase and for his ships to take stations for mutual support and to engage the enemy on bearing up with them in succession. Very quickly, the British ships were sailing under every scrap of canvas they could use and by noon, the leading British ships (HMS Victory, despite her size and her age, being 30 years old, was still one of the fastest ships in the Royal Navy, HMS Cumberland and HMS Culloden) were only three quarters of a mile from the rear of the enemy fleet. Such was the disorganised state of the British fleet following the previous nights storm that the rear-most of Hotham's ships were still eight miles away. At 12:30, a change in the wind allowed the three rear-most French ships to bring their guns to bear on the three leading British ships and a furious exchange of fire quickly followed. In less than an hour, the rear-most French ship, the Alcide, was seriously damaged and at 13:30, HMS Culloden's main-topmast was shot away. At 14:00, the Alcide was forced to surrender by HMS Cumberland, which then moved on to the next ship in the French line. The French frigates Alceste and Justice were sent to take the Alcide in tow, but were driven off by fire from HMS Victory. By now, more British ships were arriving on the scene and becoming engaged. At 14:42, HMS Blenheim, HMS Captain and HMS Defence began to exchange fire against the French rearguard, the Genereux, the ex-HMS Berwick, Tyrannicide and Aquilon (all of 74 guns). At the same time, Hotham signalled the fleet to discontinue the action. His reasons, given later, were that his fleet was too greatly scattered and that the French would overwhelm his vanguard before the rest of the fleet could catch up and support them. The decision to discontinue the action was and is still heavily criticised. Hotham's second-in-command, Rear Admiral Samuel Goodall flying his flag in HMS Princess Royal is reported to have kicked his hat across the quarterdeck in frustration and the then Captain Nelson wrote "In the forenoon we had every prospect of taking every Ship in the Fleet; and at noon it was almost certain we should have the six near ships."


In the Action off Hyeres, HMS Blenheim took casualties of two dead with two wounded and suffered damage to her masts and rigging.


After the battle, the fleet withdrew firstly to San Fiorenzo and then to Leghorn (modern-day Livorno in Italy). Hotham's hesitation had given the French confidence in the Mediterraean and their increasing successes led Vice-Admiral Sir William Hotham to resign his post in November of 1795 and hand over command of the Mediterranean Fleet to Vice-Admiral Sir John Jervis.


Ashore, French victories had eliminated Britain's Italian allies from the war rendering a continued British presence in the region untenable. Jervis was forced to withdraw from the Mediterranean altogether so that by the end of 1796, the fleet was based in the Tagus, in the mouth of the river of the same name near Lisbon in British ally Portugal. Unable to operate in the Mediterranean, Jervis and the fleet maintained a close blockade of the main Spanish naval base at Cadiz.


On 21st December 1796, Sir John Jervis led the fleet into the mouth of the Tagus in order to meet with a massive convoy due to leave for Brazil early in the new year. Jervis and his fleet were expected to escort the convoy out of harms way into the Atlantic Ocean. At this stage, the fleet lost a few ships in an unfortunate string of accidents. On entering the mouth of the river, HMS Bombay Castle ran aground on a sand bar while trying to avoid a collision with the storeship HMS Camel. The ship remained stuck fast on the sandbar until deteriorating weather led to the order being given to abandon her at 20:30 on 28th December. HMS St. Albans (64) was already in the Tagus but was under orders to escort the Lisbon Convoy back to the UK, so was unavailable to Jervis. HMS Zealous (74) had been damaged having struck a rock while leaving Tangier Bay while HMS Gibraltar (80) had been damaged having been driven on to the Pearl Rock at Gibraltar by a gale. Both these ships needed to be sent back to the UK for repairs. In addition, HMS Courageux had been wrecked with heavy loss of life on the coast of Morocco by the same storm which had driven HMS Gibraltar onto the Pearl Rock. This left Jervis with 11 ships of the line with which to contend with the combined might of the Spanish fleet, currently in Cartagena and the French Mediterranean Fleet in Toulon. It appeared at the time however, that neither of the enemy fleets had the slightest intention of going anywhere for the time being. That stated, Jervis was expecting reinforcements from the UK at any time.


On 18th January 1797, the fleet weighed anchor and headed out to sea. On the way out of the Tagus however, another disaster struck when HMS St. George collided with and seriously damaged a Portugese frigate and then ran hard aground on the South Cachop Bank at 19:30, detaching her rudder and breaking off the tiller head. HMS St. George was eventually floated off the bank on 20th January, but not before her foremast and mizzen mast were cut away to lighten the ship. Jervis continued to sea with the convoy with his remaining ten ships of the line. On 6th February, on his way to the planned rendezvous off Cape St Vincent, Jervis met with the expected reinforcements, five ships of the line and a frigate which had been detached from the Channel Fleet to reinforce his fleet. Vice-Admiral Sir John Jervis' fleet now comprised the following ships:


The First Rate ships of the line HMS Victory (Jervis' flagship) and HMS Britannia (both of 100 guns), the Second Rate ships of the line HMS Barfleur, HMS Prince George and HMS Blenheim (all of 98 guns), HMS Namur (90), the Third Rate ships of the line HMS Captain, HMS Goliath, HMS Excellent, HMS Orion, HMS Colossus, HMS Egmont and HMS Irresistible (all of 74 guns), HMS Diadem (64), the Frigates HMS Minerve (ex-French, 18pdr-armed, 38 guns), HMS Lively (18pdr-armed, 32 guns), HMS Southampton and HMS Niger (both 12pdr-armed Frigates of 32 guns), the 20 gun ex-French Post-Ship HMS Bonne Citoyenne, the Sloop of War HMS Raven (brig-rigged, 32pdr carronade-armed, 18 guns) and the 12-gun hired armed cutter Fox. Of these ships, HMS Minerve had been left behind keeping an eye on the French at Corsica and was flying the command pennant of the now Commodore Horatio Nelson. What Jervis didn't know was that the French had overrun Corsica and Nelson had had to evacuate the Court of the Viceroy of Corsica along with British officials attached to the Court and was headed in search of the fleet. The fleet suffered another disaster early in the morning of 12th February when HMS Colossus collided with HMS Culodden. HMS Colossus, being the bigger of the two ships escaped with relatively minor damage, but HMS Culloden was seriously damaged. Any other captain would have asked to go to a dockyard to have the damage repaired, but Captain Thomas Troubridge of HMS Culloden was determined to remain with the fleet and he and his crew surprised everyone when they reported ready for action come daybreak.


In the morning of 13th February, HMS Minerve, was sighted and Nelson was bringing Jervis some alarming news. He reported in person to Jervis aboard HMS Victory that on the 11th, while leaving Gibraltar having failed to find Jervis and the fleet there, he had been chased by two Spanish ships of the line and a little later, while in the mouth of the Straits of Gibraltar, he had spotted the entire Spanish fleet at sea and heading towards the Atlantic Ocean, presumably on their way from Cartagena to Cadiz. On hearing the news, Jervis, unaware of the size of the Spanish fleet, ordered his fleet to alter course and intercept. What Jervis didn't know know was that ranged against his fleet was an armada outnumbering his force almost two to one. What he also didn't know was that of the 27 Spanish ships of the line, there were no less than seven ships carrying 100 or more guns, including the largest and most powerful warship in the world, the Santissima Trinidad carrying 140 guns on four gundecks.


Dawn on the 14th February 1797 broke hazy, with a fresh wind from the west-by-south. The British fleet was formed up in two divisions with Cape St. Vincent bearing east-by-north distant 8 leagues (or 24 miles). At 06:30, HMS Culodden signalled HMS Victory that she had five sail in sight, a sighting confirmed by HMS Lively and HMS Niger shortly afterward. On being informed of the sighting, Vice-Admiral Jervis ordered HMS Bonne Citoyenne to take a closer look. At 08:15, Jervis ordered the fleet to form in close order and a few minutes afterwards, to prepare for battle. Aboard the ships of the fleet, all hell broke loose as captains ordered their ships to be cleared for action. Screens separating commissioned and warrant officers cabins were taken down, all the sailors chests and personal possessions were cleared away. The screens forming the captains quarters were also taken down and everything was stowed in the hold, deep in the bowels of the ships. Sand was scattered on the decks to give the gunners bare feet a better grip, powder cartridges were filled by the gunner and his assistants in the magazine and taken to the waiting gun captains by the powder monkeys, while shot was stored close to hand. Chains were rigged to hold the great yards secure should the rigging supporting them be shot away and nets were rigged across the ship's upper decks to offer the gunners some protection against debris falling from above. Hammocks were stowed in the nettings along the top of the ship to provide protection against incoming small-arms fire. The ships contingents of Marines drew their sea service muskets from the small-arms lockers and formed up on the forecastle, the poop deck, the quarterdeck and along the gangways linking the forecastle with the quarterdeck, ready to repel boarders and to rain small-arms fire onto the enemy. Sharpshooters climbed the shrouds to the fighting tops in preparation to mark down officers and gunners on the upper decks of any enemy warships they might come alongside. If there was enough time, the fragile boats would hoisted off their tier amidships, lowered over the side and either taken in tow or cast adrift lest they unleash a storm of deadly splinters when hit by incoming enemy fire. Commanders like Captain Thomas Frederick of HMS Blenheim drilled their crews in these actions day after day, to the point where they could achieve all this in ten minutes or less under all possible circumstances. By the time the process was completed, HMS Blenheim had been transformed from the home and workplace of 750 or so men from every background in Georgian Great Britain into a floating fortress, a deadly, efficient fighting machine.


At 09:30, HMS Blenheim, HMS Prince George and HMS Culloden were ordered by signal from HMS Victory to give chase to the enemy and at 09:55, on receiving a signal from HMS Bonne Citoyenne that she had now sighted eight sail, HMS Irresistible, HMS Colossus and HMS Orion were ordered to join them. By 10:00, the leading six British ships were so far ahead of the rest of Jervis' fleet that they could be made out to be ships of the line by the Spanish frigates Santa Catalina and Precioso. Up to this point, the Spanish had assumed that the British ships they had sighted in the hazy distance were part of a convoy. The Spanish at this point were over-confident. An American merchantman who had sighted the British fleet before the reinforcements had arrived, had informed the Spanish Admiral Don Josef de Cordova that Jervis only had nine ships of the line available to him. With his 27 ships of the line, he expected any encounter with the British to end in an easy victory.


From about 09:00, 31 enemy ships, including 20 of the line, could be seen by the masthead lookouts aboard HMS Victory. At 10:15, HMS Bonne Citoyenne made a signal confirming 20 enemy ships of the line, but by 11:00, she had signalled that there were now 25 enemy ships of the line in sight from her position. At this stage, either by incompetence or as a result of their overconfidence, the Spanish fleet had separated into two groups and once this had happened, the Spanish learned to their horror that Jervis actually had 15 ships of the line, formed into two tight lines of battle and that both columns were headed directly for the gap between the two groups of Spanish ships. The six ships of the separated group were sailing as hard as they could to close the gap and to join the larger group. At 11:00, Jervis ordered his fleet to form a single line of battle, ahead and astern of HMS Victory as convenient. The British Vice-Admiral made it his priority to cut off the group of six enemy ships from the larger group of 19 and engage both groups together on either side as they sailed through the gap.


The British line of battle now comprised, from front to rear, HMS Culloden, HMS Blenheim, HMS Prince George, HMS Orion, HMS Colossus, HMS Irresistible, HMS Victory, HMS Egmont, HMS Goliath, HMS Barfleur, HMS Britannia, HMS Namur, HMS Captain, HMS Diadem and HMS Excellent (74).


At 11:12, Jervis committed himself and ordered that the signal to engage the enemy be hoisted. At 11:28, HMS Victory ran up her huge Battle Ensign, measuring 40 feet by 20, followed by the rest of the British fleet, leaving the Spanish in no doubt about British intentions. At 11:30, the signal "Admiral intends to pass through enemy lines" was hoisted aboard HMS Victory.


At 11:31, with the British vanguard passing that of the Spanish, the leading British ship, HMS Culloden, opened fire with her starboard guns, to which those Spanish ships which were able to, replied in kind. At this point, two of the Spanish three-deckers and one of their two-deckers sailed across the head of the British line and joined the smaller Spanish division. HMS Culloden and the ships following her opened fire on the Spanish as they sailed past them, the two fleets heading in opposite directions as they were.


Battle of Cape St. Vincent - 10:45:





At 12:08, HMS Culloden passed the rear-most of the Spanish ships and on sighting the signal from HMS Victory to tack in succession, went about and sailed after the Spanish. Six minutes later, HMS Blenheim reached the position and went about, followed ten minutes later by HMS Prince George. A little before this, the smaller Spanish division, to leeward of the British line, put about and followed HMS Prince George. The next British ship to tack, HMS Orion, was quickly followed by HMS Colossus, but as that ship went about and was in stays (that is, the actual moment when the bow of the ship passes through the eye of the wind, with the ship briefly out of control and stationary), she came under fire from the smaller Spanish leeward division, having her fore yard, fore topsail yard and fore topmast shot away. This obliged HMS Colossus to wear ship, that is to change tack by passing the stern through the eye of the wind rather than the bows, a manoeuvre which took more time and as she did so, exposed herself to being raked by the leading Spanish three-decker. Seeing this, HMS Orion backed her main topsail, stopping the ship dead in the water, allowing herself to support the now damaged HMS Colossus. Once HMS Colossus had completed the manoeuvre, HMS Orion sailed on to join the rest of the British ships, now in pursuit of the Spanish. HMS Colossus was followed by HMS Irresistible, HMS Victory, HMS Egmont and HMS Goliath, all of which were exposed to the fire from two Spanish three-deckers while they completed their manoeuvres, with all the British ships returning the enemy's fire as they did so. At this point, the Spanish commander attempted a bold move, the Principe de Asturias (112) was ordered to cut through the British line ahead of HMS Victory, but that ship, despite her huge size and being over thirty years old was still one of the fastest ships of the line in the fleet and was far too fast to enable them to complete the move and the Spanish giant was forced to go about under the guns of the smaller but still massively powerful British First Rate ship. Raked by HMS Victory and also receiving fire from HMS Egmont and HMS Goliath, the Principe de Asturias was in utter confusion.


HMS Victory rakes the Principe de Asturias:





At 12:51, Jervis ordered the signal "Take stations for mutual support and engage the enemy as coming up in succession" to be hoisted. Commodore Nelson, seeing that the Spanish were threatening to get away, decided to interpret his Vice-Admiral's orders very liberally. Obeying the last signal, but disregarding the earlier one to tack in succession, he ordered that his flagship HMS Captain tack immediately, rather than waiting until she came up on the position where HMS Culloden had tacked. HMS Captain ran across the bows of the sixth Spanish ship, the mighty Santissima Trinidad.


Battle of Cape St. Vincent - 13:00 - Nelson tacks early and gets stuck into the heart of the Spanish fleet:





At this point, the Spanish windward division, rather than being in a tight, disciplined line like the British, were in a disorganised huddle, three or four deep and this had the effect of presenting the British gunners with a nice, big, fat target and they suffered for it. HMS Captain opened fire on the Santissima Trinidad while HMS Culloden opened fire from alongside the huddle. Coming under heavy fire from the two British seventy fours and with the larger British three-deckers HMS Blenheim and HMS Prince George coming up quickly in support, the Spanish Admiral abandoned his plan of running to leeward of the British. Instead he ordered his ships to bear up and present their broadsides to the advancing British, which gave the crew of HMS Captain time to replenish their shot before they came face to face with the Spanish giants. HMS Blenheim joined in the action at this point, letting the Spanish have a few of her mighty broadsides. At 14:00, HMS Prince George and HMS Orion added to the carnage being wrought on the now completely disorganised Spanish fleet, while at the same time, HMS Victory, HMS Barfleur, HMS Namur, HMS Egmont and HMS Goliath were coming up in support. At 14:36, HMS Excellent, commanded by Captain Cuthbert Collingwood, later to be Nelson's second-in command at the Battle of Trafalgar, arrived alongside the disabled Spanish ship Salvador del Mundo (112) before moving on to the San Ysidro and battering that ship into surrender. Salvador del Mundo was then attacked by HMS Diadem and HMS Irresistible and continued fighting the two British ships until she saw HMS Victory, closely followed by HMS Barfleur about to cross her stern, which convinced her captain to surrender before his ship was reduced to a bloody and shattered ruin. HMS Excellent then moved on to the San Nicholas, already damaged after a fight against HMS Captain. Passing within ten feet of the Spanish ship's starboard side, HMS Excellent let them have it at virtually point blank range. In attempting to escape from HMS Excellent's withering broadsides, the San Nicholas collided with the San Josef, already crippled by a prolonged bombardment from HMS Captain, HMS Culloden, HMS Blenheim and HMS Prince George. HMS Captain had been left crippled by her fight against the San Nicholas so as soon as HMS Excellent was out of the way, Nelson ordered that the San Nicholas be boarded. After a brief fight in which Nelson personally led yelling and cheering British seamen onto the Spanish ship's deck, San Nicholas surrendered. Nelson then led the boarders onto the deck of the San Josef, a huge ship of 112 guns, which they also captured.


Battle of Cape St. Vincent, situation at 14:00:





HMS Goliath, damaged in her rigging, briefly withdrew from the fighting to make repairs, after which she took the Santissima Trinidad under her lee, slowing that ship and allowing HMS Blenheim, HMS Irresistible, HMS Orion and HMS Excellent to surround the Spanish giant and batter her into submission. The lee division of the Spanish fleet had by now recovered and headed towards the shattered Santissima Trinidad, driving off the British ships, allowing their now badly damaged flagship to make off towards safety. At 15:52, Jervis having seen this Spanish move, ordered his ships to be ready to protect the prizes taken thus far together with the disabled British ships. At 16:15, HMS Victory signalled the Frigates to take the prizes in tow and at 16:39, for the fleet to form into a line astern of her. At 17:00, HMS Victory ordered the fleet to discontinue the action.


In the Battle of Cape St Vincent, the British fleet of 15 ships of the line had taken on a Spanish fleet of 27 ships and had comprehensively defeated them. HMS Blenheim had been in the thickest part of the fighting and suffered casualties of 12 dead and 49 men wounded during the battle. Across the rest of the fleet, British casualties came to 73 dead and 327 wounded. Spanish casualties were more severe, with 250 dead, 550 wounded and 3,000 men taken prisoner by the British. The Spanish had lost four ships of the line taken by the British, which included two enormous 112-gun three-deckers, the Salvador del Mundo and the San Josef, both of which would be taken into the Royal Navy and commissioned as First Rate ships under their Spanish names.


The day after the battle, the battered British ships anchored in Lagos Bay and began to make repairs. For the victors, the rewards were very rich indeed. Vice-Admiral Sir John Jervis was made Baron of Jervis of Meaford and Earl St. Vincent and given a pension of £3,000 per annum. Commodore Nelson was knighted, becoming a Knight of the Bath and was given the Freedom of the City of London. By coincidence, he was about to be automatically promoted to Rear-Admiral through seniority anyway and received the promotion shortly after the battle. Jervis' divisional commanders were also richly rewarded. Jervis' Second in Command, Vice-Admiral Charles Thompson who flew his command flag in HMS Britannia was made a Baronet, as was Rear-Admiral William Parker, who had flown his command flag in HMS Prince George during the battle and Vice-Admiral the Honourable William Waldegrave who had flown his command flag in HMS Barfleur, was appointed Commander in Chief in Newfoundland. In addition, all of the British First Lieutenants including Mr Robert Campbell of HMS Blenheim were ordered to be made Masters and Commanders when vessels became available.


On the 20th February 1798, Captain Frederick was promoted to Rear-Admiral and left the ship. His replacement was Captain Arthur Phillip who in turn was replaced in December by Mr Campbell, now a captain.


In the meantime, HMS Blenheim returned with the fleet to the blockade of Cadiz, where the remnants of the Spanish fleet had taken shelter after the Battle of Cape St Vincent. At some point in the late summer of 1798, Captain Campbell reported to Lord St Vincent that his ship was badly hogged and was unsafe to continue at sea. In October of 1798, the ship was ordered to return to the UK and on the 11th November, the ship paid off into the Chatham Ordinary to await a decision about her future, if any.


Hogging is where the structure of the hull droops at the ends. Not only does it seriously affect the vessel's performance under sail, but it also means that the structure of the hull is seriously weakened and is more likely to break up in a storm. Not only that, but it also causes the caulking between the hull planks to fail and the ship begins to leak badly. By the time the ship paid off at Chatham, she was almost forty years old and that should have been the end of her career in active service. Fate however, had other ideas. At the time the ship paid off, new, larger Second Rate ships had entered service and older smaller Second Rate ships like HMS Blenheim were obsolete. In the years after the end of the American War of Independence, there had been no large scale programme of building ships of the line and as a result, the average age of a British ship of the line was rising. Many of the ships of the line in the Royal Navy had been ordered during the Seven Years War which had ended almost forty years before and those ships which had been ordered during the American War were still amongst the newest in the fleet. The increasingly aged battle fleet was requiring more and more time spent in Dockyards undergoing repairs of some sort or another, so it is perhaps not surprising that the Admiralty was constantly clamouring for new ships of the line, preferably Third Rate ships of 74 guns as these were the most versatile.


On the 31st January 1801, the Resident Commissioner at the Chatham Royal Dockyard, Mr Charles Hope, one of the Surveyors at the Navy Board, Sir John Henslow and Sir Andrew Snape Hammond, the Comptroller of the Navy Board, all conducted a survey of HMS Blenheim, moored in the River Medway near Chatham and the three men agreed that the ship could be taken into the Dockyard and cut down into a 74-gun Third Rate ship of the line. In this work, the poop and forecastle were removed completely. The old quarterdeck was reduced in length to form new poop, the section of the upper gundeck between the main mast and the fore mast was partially removed and the gap grated over to form a new boat tier and waist section. The remaining after section of the former upper gundeck would become the new quarterdeck and the forward section of it would become the new forecastle. The rest of the hull was repaired as well as possible. Cut down three-deckers had an advantage over purpose-built seventy-fours because they retained the structure of their bows at the forward end of the upper gundeck and forecastle rather than those areas of the ship being terminated by a flat bulkhead as was the case with a purpose-built British two-decker. All Frigates and French ships of the line had been built with this feature for decades, but the British did not start extending the bow hull planking up to the forward end of the upper gundeck and forecastle of ships of the line until ships ordered after about 1800 were built. Ships with this feature were better able to resist incoming fire from enemy ships across their bows than those with weaker and more vulnerable flat bulkheads terminating the upper gundeck.


In May of 1801, the work was completed and HMS Blenheim recommissioned for the North Sea under Captain Peter Turner Bover. The ship was formally Established as a Third Rate ship of the line of 74 guns. In her new configuration, she was armed with 28 x 32pdr long guns on her lower gundeck, 28 x 18pdr long guns on her upper gundeck, 4 x 9pdr long guns and 2 x 32pdr carronades on her forecastle and 4 x 9pdr long guns and 10 x 32pdr carronades on her quarterdeck with a further 6 x 18pdr carronades on her poop. Post-conversion, she was now manned by a crew of 650 seamen, officers, marines and boys.


Sheer plan and lines of HMS Blenheim after her conversion to a 74-gun, Third Rate ship of the line:





On the 10th May 1801, HMS Blenheim sailed from Chatham to the Blackstakes anchorage off Queenborough on the Isle of Sheppey where she remained while she completed manning and storing. On the 20th May, manning and storing complete, the ship sailed for Yarmouth where she was to become the flagship of Admiral Archibald Dickson, Commander in Chief, North Sea.


On the 27th March 1802 the Treaty of Amiens was signed, ending the war. Amidst politicians promises of a lasting peace, Admiral Dickson shifted his flag from HMS Blenheim to HMS Veteran (64) on the 20th April, and the ship left Yarmouth arriving at the Downs two days later and Spithead on the 26th. From there, the ship went into Portsmouth Harbour where she remained until the 16th August. On the 16th August 1802, she was moved back to the anchorage at Spithead where she was to become Guardship and flagship of Admiral Mark Milbanke, Commander in Chief of His Majesty's Vessels at Portsmouth. In her role as Guardship, she was keptfully rigged and armed, but only carried about half her normal crew complement. Her job was to provide security for the ships of the Portsmouth Ordinary and ships moored at Spithead.


On the 22nd October 1802, amidst rising tensions with the French, HMS Blenheim was ordered along with the ex-French ships HMS Donegal and HMS Hercule (both of 74 guns) to be loaded with four months worth of stores and be ready to set sail for the Mediterranean. Admiral Milbanke transferred his command flag to the Frigate HMS Dryad (18pdr, 36). It was expected that on arrival in the Mediterranean, HMS Blenheim was to become flagship of Rear-Admiral Sir James Saumarez. On the 31st, HMS Blenheim moved from Spithead to St. Helens. On the 7th November 1802, Captain Samuel Hood embarked on HMS Blenheim as a passenger. He had been ordered to go to the West Indies and take the position of Commodore of a squadron. Captain Samuel Hood was the younger cousin of the much more famous Samuel, Admiral Lord Hood. The ship which had been originally intended as his flagship, HMS Centaur (74) was not yet ready, so he had been ordered to embark in HMS Blenheim, go to the West Indies and set up his headquarters ashore until HMS Centaur arrived. On the day Captain Hood arrived, HMS Blenheim departed St Helens bound for Trinidad.


HMS Centaur eventually arrived in the Caribbean in December of 1802 and Commodore Hood hoisted his Broad Pennant in her.


On the 16th February 1803, it was reported that Captain Bover had died from Yellow Fever. Captain Bover was succeeded in command of HMS Blenheim by Captain Sir Thomas Graves.


On the 14th May 1803, it was reported that HMS Blenheim had run aground and her crew had had to throw 18 of her guns overboard to refloat her. The ship was reported to have gone to Martinique for repairs.


Despite the proclamations of everlasting peace made by the politicians, the Peace of Amiens was always uneasy with Britain, France and Spain continuing to bicker about the concessions they had unwillingly made for the sake of ending the war. In the end, the British had enough of French threats and declared war on 18th May 1803, starting what is more commonly known as the Napoleonic War. The news would have taken some weeks to reach the Caribbean, but when it did, Commodore Hood immediately embarked on a strategy of reducing French possessions in the area and shutting down their shipping and trade.


On the 16th September 1803, Captain Graves wrote to his Commodore as follows:


Blenheim,
Off Martinique,
16th September 1803.


S I R,


YESTERDAY at Two P. M. I discovered a small Schooner Privateer, apparently just returned from her Cruize, and endeavouring to get into Port Royal; it being nearly-calm, I directed Lieutenant Furber, of His Majesty's Ship Blenheim, under my Command, to take the Pinnace, and Lieutenant Campbell, the Barge, and to cut, her out;


She was rowing with her Sweeps, but the Boats nevertheless came up with her in about an Hour and a Half, and in a most spirited Manner, under the Fire of Grape and Musketry, boarded and carried her.


I am happy to add, that no Lives were lost ; the Enemy had one Man wounded ; she is called La Fortunee; mounts Two Carriage Guns, and had Twenty-nine Men on board.


I am,


&c. THO . GRAVES.


On the 14th November 1803, HMS Blenheim was laying at her anchor near Diamond Rock, off the coast of Martinique when intelligence reached them that the French privateer schooner Harmonie had put into the harbour at Marin. Captain Graves decided that he would try to capture the Harmonie. Harmonie was well known to the Royal Navy in the region as a very successful privateer. The weather and strong currents delayed the ship's arrival off Marin until the 16th. After having had a good look at the harbour and the shore battery above it, Captain Graves issued his orders. 60 seamen under Lieutenants Thomas Cole and Thomas Furber were to attack the privateer while Lieutenants George Beatty and Walter Boyd of the Royal Marines were to take 60 of their men and attack Fort Dunkirk. As the party was about to depart, HMS Blenheim was joined by the Sloop of War HMS Drake (brig-rigged, 6pdr-armed, 14 guns) and the hired armed cutter Swift. Commander William Ferris of HMS Drake immediately volunteered the services of his vessel and 14 of his seamen joined HMS Blenheim's cutting-out party. The boats with the seamen were towed by HMS Drake to the mouth of the harbour, while the boats with the Marines were towed by HMS Swift. The Marines landed, stormed the fort taking ten prisoners and spiked the guns including half a dozen 24 pounders. Despite coming under a heavy musket-fire, the seamen boarded the Harmonie and quickly captured her losing one man killed with five wounded. The French crew lost two men killed with 14 wounded. The Harmonie was a privateer of 8 guns and 66 men.


In early August of 1804, Captain Graves was promoted to Rear-Admiral and was ordered to return to the UK. He was temporarily replaced in command of HMS Blenheim by the newly Posted Captain George Younghusband, formerly Master and Commander in the Sloop of War HMS Osprey (ship-rigged, 32pdr carronade-armed, 18 guns). Captain Younghusband was in command for a short while until he was replaced by Captain Loftus Otway Bland. Captain Bland had received orders to escort the homeward bound West Indies Convoy of 107 vessels and they all arrived off Spithead on the 18th September 1804 after a 45-day voyage.


In March of 1805, Captain Bland was replaced in command by Captain Austin Bissel and became flagship to Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Troubridge who had been ordered to take up the appointment of Commander in Chief of the Eastern part of the East Indies Station, complementing Rear-Admiral Sir Edward Pellew who would remain in command of the rest. On the 24th April, HMS Blenheim left Spithead for the last time bound for Madras with the East India Convoy.


HMS Blenheim (right), HMS Harrier (left) departing Funchal Roads in Madeira bound for Madras by Thomas Buttersworth:





On the 6th August 1805 whilst transitting the Indian Ocean, HMS Blenheim's mast head lookouts sighted what turned out to be the French seventy-four Marengo and the large frigate Belle Poule at a distance of about four miles. These were under the command of the French Rear-Admiral Charles-Alexandre Linois who was on a mission to disrupt British shipping in the far east. He had had some successes so far. The French identified HMS Blenheim and Linois decided that rather than risk defeat against the British seventy-four, he would attack the rear of the convoy and try to cut out a straggler. Troubridge ordered that HMS Blenheim lay to to await the French attack and seeing this, Linois decided to just overtake the British convoy and open fire at long range as he passed them. In the heavy seas, HMS Blenheim was unable to open her lower gundeck gunports, so could only return fire with her upper gundeck 18pdr guns. The only damage received by HMS Blenheim in this skirmish was some shot holes in her topsails. The two French ships suffered some damage to their masts and rigging. HMS Blenheim and her convoy arrived in Madras on the 23rd August without further incident and Rear-Admiral Troubridge was able to relieve Rear-Admiral Sir Edward Pellew of his duties in the Eastern part of the Indian Ocean.


Sir Thomas Troubridge, Baronet, in the uniform of a Rear-Admiral, Painted before his departure for the East Indies by Sir William Beechey:





At the beginning of 1807, Rear-Admiral Troubridge received orders to take command of the Cape of Good Hope Station in modern-day South Africa. He decided that he was going to go from Madras to Cape Town in HMS Blenheim. HMS Blenheim was by this time in a very poor state. The ship had run aground off Penang in modern-day Malaysia and suffered damage to her lower hull and the ship was leaking to the point where her pumps were required to be going day and night to keep her afloat. Rear-Admiral Pellew strongly advised Troubridge to take another ship because he doubted if HMS Blenheim would make it. The Rear-Admiral was not alone in this concern. Captain Bissel was also convinced that the ship was going to founder en-route and wrote his goodbyes to his wife before they left. Troubridge would not be swayed and on the 12th January 1807, HMS Blenheim set sail for Cape Town in company with the ex-Dutch 12pdr-armed Frigate HMS Java (32) and the Sloop of War HMS Harrier (brig-rigged, 32pdr carronade-armed, 18 guns).


Less than three weeks later, the squadron ran into a powerful typhoon off Madagasgar. The following entries from HMS Harrier's log detail the fury of the typhoon and it's tragic results:


1 Feb 1807 02:00 Course SW Wind NE. AM Threatening weather; in third reef of fore-topsail, heavy rain and wind increasing; sent the topgallant yards down; in third reef of main topsail; hauled the mainsail up and bent the storm-staysails and trysail.


04:00 Strong gales with heavy squalls and rain


06:00 Ditto weather; struck the fore topgallant mast; the wind still increasing, found it dangerous to attempt striking the main topgallant mast; the wind blowing so strong, sent all the small sails from aloft.


08:00 Strong gales, with heavy rain; Admiral and Java in company.


10:00 Strong gales, with rain; handed the mainsail; close-reefed the mainsail; close-reefed the fore topsail; people employed in clearing the ship and lashing the booms.


12:00 Noon. Heavy gales. Admiral and Java in company. Course S 50° W, distance 225 miles. Lat 21°4'S, long 65°11'E, Rodrigues N 80°W, 180 miles.


13:00 PM. Strong gales; in fourth reef main topsail; the gale increasing with a very heavy sea.


14:00 Signal No 331 sent by Blenheim to Java. "The ship is overpressed with sail and cannot keep her station on that account".


14:30 hauled up the foresail and reefed it; carried away the fore-topmast backstay, repeated then knotted and spliced ditto. Blenheim and Java in company.


15:00 Signal No 80 sent by Blenheim to general "Steer SW".


17:00 Signal No 80 sent by Blenheim to general "Steer SW by S". Blenheim made another signal which we could not make out. This was the last signal made by the Blenheim. The main topsail yard carried away in the slings, owing to the lift and brace giving way; endeavoured to furl the sail from the yard.


17:20 Lost sight of the Admiral in a very heavy squall, bearing NW by N distant half a mile ; and the Java, bearing NE by E distant a quarter of a mile ; at this time we were shipping a great quantity of water.


17:30 The foretopsail blew away from the fourth-reefed band ; the gale still continued to increase, with the most violent squalls of wind and rain, the vessel labouring very much and the sea striking her in all directions very heavily; stove several half-ports in and much water going below; kept the pumps continually going.


19:50 The main royal mast blew away; the gale increased to a hurricane and shifting around in tremendous squalls to the eastward, obliged us to keep before the sea.


2 Feb 1807 Course W Wind E 01:00 AM At this time we shipped a great quantity of water, which washed a great quantity of the shot-boxes to pieces.


02:10 The wind flew round from East to South in a most tremendous squall; kept right before it; a great quantity of water in the waist, so as to effect the vessel's steerage very much; most of the starboard ports either stove in or washed out, as also many of the larboard ones; the squall still coming on with great violence and a most enormous sea.


04:00 At 3, the fore staysail blew away. 03:49 shipped two seas, which filled the waist and waterlogged the brig for some minutes, which caused her to broach to; endeavoured to get the foresheet aft but the foresail blew away fromn the yard leaving the reef; she went off but did not rise to the sea, the waist being full of water, a great quantity going forward she settled dow by the head; sounding the well, found it increased from 12 to 30 inches in two minutes; hove the four foremost guns overboard which relieved her much; hove overboard all the round and canister shot on deck; a great quantity of water having lodged in the wings between decks, got up all the old rope and some shot and threw it overboard; the water in the waist flew with such violence from side to side as to wash overboard the studding sails and hammock cloths, which were lashed under the booms, about the deck and in consequence went overboard; washed overboard the starboard binnacle and compass.


08:00 At daylight blowing most violently, employed in clearing the deck and splicing the rigging that was chafed through and cut in the night.


12:00 Noon Strong gale Course S 67°W distance 114 miles. Lat observed 19°29'S Long 64°26'E Rodrigues N 84°W 64 miles.


14:00 PM Strong gales and cloudy; carpenters employed in stopping up the ports; got the old maintopsail yard on deck and the remains of the old foresail and bent the new one.


16:00 Ditto weather 16:40 reefed the foresail.


17:00 strong gales with squalls; sent the main topgallant mast down on deck.


19:00 More moderate; the vessel labouring very much and shipping great quantities of water. Strong gales and cloudy weather.


When last seen, HMS Blenheim appeared to be settling in the water and was flying flags of distress. It is thought that HMS Java was lost coming alongside the sinking HMS Blenheim to evacuate her officers and crew, but that is conjecture. Whatever happened, neither HMS Blenheim or HMS Java were seen again and despite an extensive search ordered by Rear-Admiral Pellew in which the French assisted, no traces of either ship were found.


HMS Blenheim in the typhoon by Thomas Buttersworth. In this painting, HMS Blenheim is the ship in the foreground:





Another view of the loss of HMS Blenheim by the same artist. In this painting, HMS Harrier is the vessel in the foreground having lowered her main topmast while HMS Java to the left is losing her main topmast and HMS Blenheim is in the background, almost dismasted: