HMS Victorious (1785)

Career (UK)
Name:	HMS Victorious
Ordered:	28 December 1781
Builder:	Perry, Blackwall Yard
Laid down:	November 1782
Launched:	27 April 1785
Fate:	Broken up, 1803
General characteristics
Class and type:	Culloden-class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1683 tons (1710 tonnes)
Length:	170 ft (52 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 2 in (14.38 m)
Depth of hold:	19 ft 11 in (6.07 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	74 guns: Gundeck: 28 × 32 pdrs Upper gundeck: 28 × 18 pdrs Quarterdeck: 14 × 9 pdrs Forecastle: 4 × 9 pdrs

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

HMS Victorious was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Blackwall Yard, London on 27 April 1785. She was the first ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name.

Victorious participated in the capture of the Dutch colony of Cape Town, in which an invasion had been caused due to fears of France's expansion across the world. Britain seized the strategic Cape Town and thus secured the nation its routes to the East. The rest of her career was spent in the warm climates of the East Indies, patrolling the vast waters in that region.^{[citation needed]}

In 1803, while in Gibraltar, Victorious was condemned and then broken up at Lisbon.^{[citation needed]}

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.