HMS Lion (1777)
Capture of the Dorothea, 15 July 1798 (HMS Lion is at centre right)
Thomas Whitcombe, 1816 |
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| History | |
|---|---|
 UK
|
|
| Name: | HMS Lion |
| Ordered: | 12 October 1768 |
| Builder: | Portsmouth Dockyard |
| Laid down: | May 1769 |
| Launched: | 3 September 1777 |
| Honours and awards: |
Participated in: Battle of Grenada |
| Fate: | Sold for breaking up, 30 November 1837 |
| Notes: | Sheer hulk from 1816 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Worcester-class ship of the line |
| Tons burthen: | 1378 bm |
| Length: | 159 ft (48 m) (gundeck) |
| Beam: | 44 ft 6 in (13.56 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 19 ft 10 in (6.05 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sails |
| Sail plan: | Full rigged ship |
| Armament: | |
Participated in:
HMS Lion was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, of the Worcester class, launched on 3 September 1777 at Portsmouth Dockyard.
She fought at the Battle of Grenada under Captain William Cornwallis on 6 July 1779, where she was badly damaged and forced to run downwind to Jamaica. She remained on the Jamaica station for the next year.
In March 1780, Lion fought an action in company with two other ships against a larger French force off Monte Christi on San Domingo. A second action took place in June 1780 near Bermuda when Cornwallis in Lion, with three other ships of the line and a fifty-gun ship, met a larger French squadron carrying the troops of Rochambeau to North America. The French were too strong for Cornwallis's squadron, but were content to continue with their mission instead of attacking the smaller British force.. Lion then returned to England, carrying with her Horatio Nelson, who was ill with malaria.
In late July 1793, under the command of Captain Sir Erasmus Gower, Lion escorted the East Indiaman Hindostan, which carried the British ambassador Lord Macartney to the Bohai Gulf, off the Hai River, on his way to visit the Qianlong Emperor of China (the Macartney embassy). The ambassador and his party were conveyed up river by light craft to Tianjin before proceeding by land to Beijing On reaching Tianjin, Macartney sent orders to Lion to proceed to Japan, but because of sickness among the crew she was unable to do so. The embassy rejoined Lion at Canton in December 1793. The ship's journal from this voyage is in the library of Cornell University.
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Wikipedia