HMS Ajax (1809)
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| History | |
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 UK
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| Name: | HMS Ajax |
| Ordered: | 1 July 1807 |
| Builder: | Perry, Blackwall Yard |
| Laid down: | August 1807 |
| Launched: | 2 May 1809 |
| Fate: | Broken up, 1864 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Vengeur-class ship of the line |
| Tons burthen: | 1761 bm |
| Length: | 176 ft (54 m) (gundeck) |
| Beam: | 47 ft 6 in (14.48 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 21 ft (6.4 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sails |
| Sail plan: | Full rigged ship |
| Armament: |
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HMS Ajax was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 2 May 1809 at Blackwall Yard.
On 11 September 1810, in a ship action off Elba in the Mediterranean, Charles Benyon, Lieutenant in 'Ajax', aged 22, was killed attempting to board a French vessel. 3rd son of Richard Benyon of Englefield House, Berks, where the Benyon family still live.
On 13 December 350 sailors and 250 marines from the 74-gun third rates Ajax, Cambrian and Kent attacked Palamós. (The sloops Sparrowhawk and Minstrel covered the landing.) The landing party destroyed six of eight merchant vessels with supplies for the French army at Barcelona, as well as their escorts, a national ketch of 14 guns and 60 men and two xebecs of three guns and thirty men each. The vessels were lying inside the mole under the protection of 250 French troops, a battery of two 24-pounders, and a 13" mortar in a battery on a commanding height. Although the attack was successful, the withdrawal was not. The British lost 33 men killed, 89 wounded, and 86 taken prisoner, plus one seaman who took the opportunity to desert.
On 31 March 1811, Ajax and HMS Unite encountered a French squadron comprising the frigates Adrienne and Amélie, and the armed transport French corvette Dromadaire. Ajax captured Dromadaire, while the frigates managed to escape to Portoferraio. Captain Otway of Ajax reported that Dromadaire was frigate-built and sailed remarkably well. Her cargo consisted of 15,000 shot and shells of various sizes and 90 tons of gunpowder. Apparently Napoleon Bonaparte intended them as a present for Hammuda ibn Ali, the Bey of Tunis. Admiral Sir Charles Cotton, commander in chief of the British Mediterranean Fleet, decided to buy her and her stores for the Royal Navy.
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Wikipedia