HMS Magnificent (1766)
Loss of the Magnificent by John Christian Schetky
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| History | |
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 UK
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| Name: | HMS Magnificent |
| Ordered: | 16 December 1761 |
| Builder: | Deptford Dockyard |
| Laid down: | 15 April 1762 |
| Launched: | 20 September 1766 |
| Commissioned: | July 1778 |
| Fate: | Wrecked off Brest, 25 March 1804 |
| Notes: |
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| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Ramillies-class ship of the line |
| Tons burthen: | 1612 64⁄94 (bm) |
| Length: | 168 ft 6 in (51.36 m) (gundeck) |
| Beam: | 46 ft 9 in (14.25 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 19 ft 9 in (6.02 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sails |
| Sail plan: | Full rigged ship |
| Armament: | |
HMS Magnificent was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 20 September 1766 at Deptford Dockyard. She was one of the Ramillies-class built to update the Navy and replace ships lost following the Seven Years' War. She served through two wars before her loss during blockade duty off the French coast.
On 21 December 1779, HMS Magnificent with the 74-gun ships HMS Suffolk and HMS Vengeance, and the 64-gun HMS Stirling Castle under Rear-Admiral Joshua Rowley, fell in with the 32-gun French frigates Fortunee and Blanche and the 28-gun Elise, when off Guadeloupe. The French ships were in bad order; their crews were excessively weak; and thus they could not escape the vastly superior British force. The Blanche was overtaken and captured on the evening of the 21st; the Fortunes, by throwing her quarter-deck guns overboard, kept away a little longer, but was captured at last in the early morning of 22 December, an hour before the Elise.
Her war service in the American War of Independence was conducted with Rodney's fleet in the Caribbean, where she served in the battles off Grenada in 1779, Martinique in 1780 and the Saintes in 1782. Her duties during the Napoleonic Wars mainly consisted of blockade duties off the French coast, but between 1798 and 1800, the ship had received a complete overhaul designed to extend her service life and improve her ability at performing the close blockade.
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Wikipedia