HMS Culloden (1776)
Engraving of HMS Culloden
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| History | |
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 Great Britain
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| Name: | Culloden |
| Ordered: | 30 November 1769 |
| Builder: | Deptford Dockyard |
| Laid down: | July 1770 |
| Launched: | 18 May 1776 |
| Fate: | Ran aground 23 January 1781 on Culloden Point, Montauk, NY and destroyed to avoid falling into the hands of the enemy. |
| Notes: |
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| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Culloden-class ship of the line |
| Tons burthen: | 1659 (bm) |
| Length: | 170 ft (52 m) (gundeck) |
| Beam: | 47 ft 2 in (14.38 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 19 ft 11 in (6.07 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sails |
| Sail plan: | Full rigged ship |
| Complement: | 650 officers and men |
| Armament: |
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H.M.S. Culloden Shipwreck Site
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| Nearest city | Montauk, New York |
| Coordinates | 41°4′20.5″N 71°57′38.3″W / 41.072361°N 71.960639°WCoordinates: 41°4′20.5″N 71°57′38.3″W / 41.072361°N 71.960639°W |
| NRHP Reference # | 79003795 |
| Added to NRHP | 5 March 1979 |
HMS Culloden was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Deptford Dockyard, England, and launched on 18 May 1776. She was the fourth warship to be named after the Battle of Culloden, which took place in Scotland in 1746 and saw the defeat of the Jacobite Rising.
She served with the Channel Fleet during the American War of Independence, seeing action at the Battle of Cape St Vincent, before being sent out to the West Indies. Her stay there was brief, sailing for New York with Admiral Rodney in August 1780 to join the North American station. The ship's specific duties were to blockade the French at Newport, Rhode Island where a French army of 6,000 had disembarked in July 1780.
On 23 January 1781, while trying to intercept French ships attempting to run the blockade at Newport, RI, Culloden encountered severe weather and ran aground at North Neck Point (Will's Point) in Montauk. All attempts to refloat the vessel were unsuccessful, but all the crew were saved, and Culloden's masts were taken aboard HMS Bedford. The area is today known as Culloden Point.
The British conducted salvage operations on the ship throughout March, retrieving all 28 eighteen-pounder guns from the upper deck, and all 18 nine-pounders from the quarterdeck. The larger cannons were pushed into the sea and the ship was then burned to the waterline and abandoned.
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Wikipedia