HMS Blenheim (1761)
| History | |
|---|---|
 UK
|
|
| Name: | HMS Blenheim |
| Ordered: | 12 November 1755 |
| Builder: | Woolwich Dockyard |
| Launched: | 5 July 1761 |
| Honours and awards: |
Naval General Service Medal with clasp "St Vincent" |
| Fate: | Foundered, 1807 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Sandwich-class ship of the line |
| Tons burthen: | 1,827 (bm) |
| Length: |
|
| Beam: | 49 ft 1 in (14.96 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 21 ft (6.4 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sails |
| Sail plan: | Full rigged ship |
| Armament: |
|
Naval General Service Medal with clasp
HMS Blenheim was a 90-gun second rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 5 July 1761 at Woolwich. In 1797 she participated in the Battle of Cape St Vincent. In 1801 Blenheim was razeed to a Third Rate. She disappeared off Madagascar with all hands in February 1807.
Blenheim was first ordered to be built in November 1755 as part of an Admiralty program to expand the Royal Navy fleet ahead of the onset of the Seven Years' War with France. Construction was assigned to the Navy dockyard at Woolwich with an intended completion date of September 1759. However there were major delays arising from a lack of skilled workmen in the yard, and by Navy Board attempts to reduce waste and misuse in dockyard practices. In April 1757 Blenheim's shipwrights walked out in protest against a Navy Board reform that impacted on their traditional entitlement to remove spare timbers for personal use. Construction had fallen further behind schedule by the time they returned to work, with Blenheim not finally completed until July 1761.
The newly built vessel was commissioned into the Royal Navy in August 1761, for the final year of the Seven Years' War, but paid off in June 1762. She was recommissioned in March 1777 under Captain Broderick Hartwell, but paid off again in September 1784.
She was recommissioned for her third war in August 1794 under Captain Charles Calmady. Under the command of John Bazely from December 1794, she took part in the Battle of Hyères Islands in 1795. Blenheim then fought at the Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1797. By 1801, this by now 40-year-old ship had become so badly hogged as to be unsafe for sea. However, she was razeed to a 74-gun Third Rate in 1801–1802, and set sail for Barbados under the command of Captain Peter Bover at the end of the year, carrying Captain Samuel Hood and other commissioners to Trinidad.
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