HMS Nonsuch (1774)

History

UK
Name:	HMS Nonsuch
Ordered:	30 November 1769
Builder:	Plymouth Dockyard
Laid down:	January 1772
Launched:	17 December 1774
Fate:	Broken up, 1802
General characteristics
Class and type:	Intrepid-class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1373 (bm)
Length:	159 ft 5 in (48.59 m) (gundeck);130 ft 10 ¹⁄₂ in (39.891 m) (keel)
Beam:	44 ft 0 ⁷⁄₈ in (13.433 m)
Depth of hold:	19 ft 0 ¹⁄₂ in (5.804 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Complement:	As third rate: 500 (491 from 1794) As floating battery: 230 officers and men, 14 Marines, and 50 supernumeraries.
Armament:	As third rate: Gundeck: 26 × 24-pounder guns Upper gundeck: 26 × 18-pounder guns QD: 10 × 4-pounder guns Fc: 2 × 9-pounder guns As floating battery: Lower deck: 20 x 68-pounder carronades Upper deck: 26 x 24-pounder guns

HMS Nonsuch was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 17 December 1774 at Plymouth. She was broken up in 1802.

Nonsuch was commissioned in August 1775 as a guardship at Plymouth. She was fitted for the in December 1776, but sailed for North America on 23 March 1777.

On 7 July 1780 Nonsuch, under the command of Sir James Wallace, captured the brig-rigged cutter Hussard of Saint Malo.Hussard was armed with eighteen 6-pounder guns. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Echo.

On 14 July Nonsuch captured the 26-gun frigate Belle Poule off the Loire. The Royal Navy took Belle Poule into service under her existing name.

In April 1781, Nonsuch was part of Admiral George Darby's relief fleet during the Great Siege of Gibraltar. On 14 May 1781, on the homeward voyage, while scouting ahead, Nonsuch chased and brought to action the French 74-gun Actif, hoping to detain her until some others of the fleet came up. However, Actif was able to repulse Nonsuch, causing her to suffer 26 men killed and 64 wounded, and continued on to Brest.

Nonsuch fought at the Battle of the Saintes (9 April—12 April 1782).

Late in 1782 Nonsuch and Zebra escorted a fleet from Georgia "with the principal inhabitants, their Negroes, and their Effects" to Jamaica.

Between February and May 1794 Nonsuch was at Chatham, being cut down and fitted as a floating battery. Captain Bill Douglas commissioned her in March. In June she was at Jersey under Captain Philippe d'Auvergne, Prince of Bouillon, and Senior Officer of Gunboats, in charge of a small flotilla of useless gunvessels, including Eagle, Lion, Repulse, Scorpion, and Tiger. (The Navy disposed of most of them within a year or so.) Nonsuch was paid off in December. In February 1795 Captain William Mitchell recommissioned her in the Humber at Hull as a floating battery.

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Wikipedia