HMS Goliath (1781)
| Career (UK) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS Goliath |
| Ordered: | 21 February 1778 |
| Builder: | Deptford Dockyard |
| Laid down: | 10 April 1779 |
| Launched: | 19 October 1781 |
| Honours and awards: |
Participated in: |
| Fate: | Broken up, 1815 |
| General characteristics [1] | |
| Class and type: | Arrogant class ship of the line |
| Tons burthen: | 1604 bm |
| Length: | 168 ft (51 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 |
| Complement: | 584 officers and men |
| Armament: |
74 guns:
|
HMS Goliath was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line in the Royal Navy. She was launched on 19 October 1781 at Deptford Dockyard.[1] She was present at the Battle of the Nile.
Active service
She is recorded as entering Portsmouth Harbour on 24 September 1785. She is also recorded as being at the Tagus on 21 December 1796, when the Mediterranean Fleet arrived, and sailed from there on the following 20 January with a Portuguese convoy. On 6 February, she was joined off Cape St Vincent by a squadron detached from the Channel Fleet, and was present with it at Jervis's action against the Spanish on 14 February 1797. She was commanded during that action by Captain Charles H. Knowles, and lost only 8 wounded and none killed. However, Jervis called Knowles 'an imbecile, totally incompetent; the Goliath no use whatever under his command,' and so after the battle Knowles was ordered to exchange ships with Captain Thomas Foley of Britannia. Foley restored Goliath to order whilst Britannia slid under Knowles.[2]
She then sailed on 31 March 1797 from Lisbon to blockade (and, on 3 July), bombard Cadiz. She sailed away from the Cadiz area on 24 May 1798 with a squadron of 10 ships of the line to join Nelson's squadron in the Mediterranean in searching for the French fleet transporting Bonaparte to Egypt, arriving with them on 7 June. She was thus present at the Battle of the Nile on 1 August, at which Foley deduced that there was enough room to sail between the shore and the stationary anchored French ships. Four other ships followed, and it was this move that can be said to have won the battle. After it, on 19 August, she and Zealous, Swiftsure, Seahorse, Emerald, Alcmène, and Bonne-Citoyenne left Aboukir Bay to cruise off the port of Alexandria. There, six days later, her boats captured the French armed ketch Torride from under the guns of Aboukir Castle, and she remained stationed off Alexandria until at least the end of 1798.
On 28 June 1803 she captured the 16-gun ship-corvette Mignonne, which was subsequently added to the British navy under her French name. In May 1805 she was in the Channel Fleet, and on 15 August joined HMS Camilla in her pursuit of the French brig-corvette Faune, and helped her to capture it. On the same day she was joined by HMS Raisonnable in chasing the French frigate Topaze and two ship-corvettes (one of which, the ship-corvette Torche, was subsequently captured by the Goliath).
On 26 July 1807 Goliath sailed as a part of a fleet of 38 vessels for Copenhagen and was present from 15 August to 20 October that year for the siege and bombardment of Copenhagen and the capture of the Danish Fleet by Admiral Gambier. She was present from May to Oct 1808 in the Baltic with a fleet under Vice-admiral Sir J Saumarez, being chased on 19 August by the Russian fleet in Hango Bay. On 30 August she joined the Centaur, Implacable and the Swedish fleet blockading the Russians in the port of Rogerswick.
Fate
She finally sailed for home, heading for The Downs, arriving in Portsmouth on 25 July 1813 and then departing only 15 days later with the West Indies convoy. Calling at Falmouth on 15 August, and Cork, she escorted the convoy across the Irish Sea and then headed back to Portsmouth, arriving on 14 August 1814, The Downs a day later, and then the naval base at Chatham, where on 3 October 1814, she was paid off. She was broken up the following year.[1]
Notes
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.
- Admiral Sir John Jervis. St Vincent College. Retrieved 1 November 2008.
External links
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