HMS Anson (1781)

HMS Arethusa and HMS Anson capture the Pomona off Havana, depicted by Thomas Whitcombe
History
UK
Name:	HMS Anson
Ordered:	24 April 1773
Builder:	Plymouth Dockyard
Laid down:	January 1774
Launched:	4 September 1781
Honours and awards:	Participated in: Battle of the Saintes
Fate:	Wrecked, 29 December 1807
General characteristics
Class and type:	Intrepid-class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1369 bm
Length:	159 ft 6 in (48.62 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 44 guns: Gundeck: 26 × 24-pounder guns QD: 8 × 12-pounder guns 4 × 42-pounder carronades Fc: 2 × 12-pounder guns 2 × 42-pounder carronades

HMS Anson was a ship of the Royal Navy, launched at Plymouth on 4 September 1781. Originally a 64-gun third rate ship of the line, she fought at the Battle of the Saintes.

The ship proved too weak to stand in the line of battle, so in 1784 she was razéed to produce a frigate of 44 guns (fifth rate). Stronger than the average frigate of the time, the razee frigate Anson subsequently had a successful career during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars, mostly operating against privateers, but also in small actions against enemy frigates.

Anson was lost in a shipwreck on 29 December 1807. Trapped by a lee shore off Loe Bar, Cornwall, she hit the rocks and between 60 and 190 men were killed. The subsequent treatment of the recovered bodies of drowned seamen caused controversy, and led to the Burial of Drowned Persons Act 1808.

The ship was ordered on 24 April 1773 as an Intrepid-class ship of the line of 64 guns. The lead ship of the class, HMS Intrepid, had entered service in 1771 and proved satisfactory in sea trials, so the Royal Navy increased their order from four to fifteen ships. Anson was part of the expanded order, named after George Anson, 1st Baron Anson, the victorious admiral of the First Battle of Cape Finisterre (1747).