HMS Worcester (1769)

Career (UK)
Name:	HMS Worcester
Ordered:	16 November 1765
Builder:	Portsmouth Dockyard
Laid down:	6 May 1766
Launched:	17 October 1769
Honours and awards:	Participated in: Battle of Cuddalore
Fate:	Broken up, 1816
General characteristics
Class and type:	Worcester-class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1379 tons (1401.1 tonnes)
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:	64 guns: Gundeck: 26 × 24 pdrs Upper gundeck: 26 × 18 pdrs Quarterdeck: 10 × 4 pdrs Forecastle: 2 × 9 pdrs

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Worcester.

HMS Worcester was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 17 October 1769 at Portsmouth, and was the fourth ship to bear the name.

In 1783, Worcester took part in the Battle of Cuddalore.^{[citation needed]}

She was broken up in Deptford in 1816, after having been hulked in 1788. She is best known as the ship on which Lord Nelson won an acting commission in 1776 as the fourth lieutenant.^{[citation needed]}

In fiction

A 74-gun ship by the name of HMS Worcester featured in the The Ionian Mission by Patrick O'Brian. Despite the events of the novel taking place during this ship's lifetime, the Worcester of the novel is described as being one of the 'forty-thieves'—a name ascribed to the ships of the later, and somewhat infamous Surveyors' class of third rates, sometimes also known as the Vengeur-class.

References

• Lavery, Brian (2003) The Ship of the Line - Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850. Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-252-8.