HMS Centaur (1797)
HMS Centaur at Mount Diamond, Martinique
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| History | |
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 UK
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| Name: | HMS Centaur |
| Ordered: | 17 January 1788 |
| Builder: | Woolwich Dockyard |
| Laid down: | November 1790 |
| Launched: | 14 March 1797 |
| Honours and awards: |
Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Centaur 26 Augt. 1808" |
| Fate: | Broken up, 1819 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Mars-class ship of the line 74-gun |
| Tons burthen: | 1842 24⁄94 (bm) |
| Length: |
list error: <br /> list (help) 176 ft (54 m) (gundeck) 144 ft (43.891 m) (keel) |
| Beam: | 49 ft (15 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 20 ft (6 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sails |
| Sail plan: | Full rigged ship |
| Armament: | |
HMS Centaur was a 74-gun third rate of the Royal Navy, launched on 14 March 1797 at Woolwich. She served as Sir Samuel Hood's flagship in the Leeward Islands and the Channel. During her 22-year career Centaur saw action in the Mediterranean, the Channel, the West Indies, and the Baltic, fighting the French, the Dutch, the Danes and the Russians. She was broken up in 1819.
Captain John Markham commissioned Centaur in June 1797 and the next year sailed for the Mediterranean. In November she participated in the occupation of Minorca.
On 13 November, Centaur, HMS Leviathan, and HMS Argo, together with some armed transports, relatively unsuccessfully chased a Spanish squadron. Argo did re-capture the British 16-gun Pylades-class sloop HMS Peterel, which the Spanish had taken the day before.
The next year, on 2 February 1798, Centaur pursued two Spanish xebecs and a settee, all privateers in royal Spanish service. She captured the privateer La Vierga del Rosario, which carried fourteen brass 12-pounder guns and had a crew of 90 men. The other two vessels escaped.
A year later, on 16 February 1799 Centaur, Argo and Leviathan attacked the town of Cambrils. Once the defenders had abandoned their battery, the boats went in. The British dismounted the guns, burnt five settees and brought out another five settees or tartans laden with wine and wheat. One tartan, the Velon Maria, was a letter of marque, armed with one brass and two iron 12-pounders and two 3-pounders. She had a crew of 14 men.
Then on 16 March 1799, she and Cormorant drove the Spanish frigate Guadaloupe aground near Cape Oropesa. Guadaloupe, of 40 guns, was wrecked.
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Wikipedia