HMS Gibraltar (1780)

Ship-of-the-line Real Fénix by Rafael Berenguer y Condé, Naval Museum of Madrid
History
Spain
Name:	Fenix
Launched:	1749
Honours and awards:	Participated in: Battle of Cape St Vincent
Captured:	16 January 1780, by Royal Navy
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Gibraltar
Acquired:	16 January 1780
Honours and awards:	Participated in: Battle of Fort Royal Invasion of Tobago Battle of Cuddalore Glorious First of June Battle of Hyères Islands Battle of the Basque Roads Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Egypt"
Fate:	Broken up, 1836
General characteristics
Class and type:	80-gun third rate ship-of-the-line
Tons burthen:	2,184  25⁄94 (bm)
Length:	178 ft 10 3⁄4 in (54.5 m) (gundeck) 144 ft 5 3⁄4 in (44.0 m) (keel)
Beam:	53 ft 3 3⁄4 in (16.2 m)
Depth of hold:	22 ft 4 in (6.8 m)
Sail plan:	Full-rigged ship
Complement:	650
Armament:	Lower deck:30 × 24-pounder guns Upper deck: 1780:32 × 18-pounder guns 1781:32 × 24-pounder guns QD: 1780:12 × 9-pounder guns + 2 × 68-pounder carronades 1810:4 × 12-pounder guns + 8 × 32-pounder carronades Fc: 1780:6 × 9-pounder guns 1810:4 × 12-pounder guns + 2 × 32-pounder carronades

Fénix was an 80-gun ship-of-the-line of the Spanish Navy, launched in 1749. In 1759, she was sent to bring the new king, Carlos III, from Naples to Barcelona. When Spain entered the American Revolutionary War in June 1779, Fénix set sail for the English Channel where she was to join a Franco-Spanish fleet of more than 60 ships-of-the-line under Lieutenant General Luis de Córdova y Córdova. The Armada of 1779 was an invasion force of 40,000 troops with orders to capture the British naval base at Portsmouth.

As the flagship of Admiral Juan de Lángara, the ship fought at the Battle of Cape St Vincent on 16 January 1780, where she was captured by the British Royal Navy and commissioned as the third rate HMS Gibraltar in March of that year. She spent a short while in the English Channel before joining Samuel Hood's squadron in the West Indies and taking part in the Capture of St Eustatius in February 1781 and the Battle of Fort Royal the following month. Gibraltar and five other ships were sent to stop a French invasion fleet bound for Tobago in May 1781, but found the French too powerful and had to withdraw. In November, her 18-pound guns were replaced with 24-pounders, after which, in February 1782, she sailed to the East Indies and in the following year participated in the Battle of Cuddalore.