HMS Hercule (1798)
{{Short description|Téméraire class ship of the line}}
{{other ships|French ship Hercule|HMS Hercules}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2016}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image=Fight of the Poursuivante mp3h9426.jpg |Ship image size=200px |Ship caption=Fight of the {{Ship|French frigate|Poursuivante|1798|2}} – 28th of June 1803, by Louis-Philippe Crépin (detail) }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=France |Ship flag={{Shipboxflag|France|naval}} |Ship name=Hercule |Ship namesake=Hercules |Ship ordered=14 August 1793 |Ship builder=Lorient shipyard |Ship laid down=June 1794 |Ship launched=5 October 1797 |Ship acquired= |Ship commissioned= |Ship decommissioned= |Ship completed=March 1798 |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship renamed= |Ship captured=21 April 1798 |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship honours= |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header=title |Ship country=Great Britain |Ship flag={{shipboxflag|Kingdom of Great Britain|naval}} |Ship name=HMS Hercule |Ship namesake= |Ship acquired=21 April 1798 |Ship commissioned= |Ship decommissioned= |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship renamed= |Ship captured= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship fate=Broken up in December 1810 |Ship honours= |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Ship class={{sclass|Téméraire|ship of the line}} |Ship tons burthen=1,876 bm{{Cite Colledge2006}} P. 161 |Ship displacement=*2,966 tonnes
|Ship length={{convert|55.87|m|ft}} (172 pied) |Ship beam={{convert|14.90|m|ftin}} |Ship draught={{convert|7.26|m|ft}} (22 pied) |Ship propulsion=Up to {{convert|2485|m2|sqft|abbr=on}} of sails |Ship armament=*74 guns:
|Ship armour=Timber }} |
HMS Hercule was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was previously Hercule, a {{sclass|Téméraire|ship of the line|4}} ship of the line of the French Navy, but was captured on her maiden voyage in 1798, and spent the rest of her career as a British ship. She was broken up in 1810.
French career and capture
During her maiden journey, on 21 April 1798, and just 24 hours out of port, she was captured by the British ship {{HMS|Mars|1794|6}} after a violent fight at the Battle of the Raz de Sein, off Île de Sein near Brest. Hercule attempted to escape through the Passage du Raz, but the tide was running in the wrong direction, and she was forced to anchor, giving the British the chance to attack at close quarters. The two ships were of equal force, both seventy-fours, but Hercule was newly commissioned; after more than an hour and a half of bloody fighting at close quarters she struck her colours at 10.30 pm, having lost — by her own officers' estimate — 290 men killed and wounded. On Mars, 31 men were killed, including her captain, Alexander Hood, and 60 wounded. Captain Louis Lhéritier of Hercule was wounded by sabre and spike leading his boarding party.{{cite book
| first = Danielle et Bernard
| last = Quintin
| year = 2003
| chapter =
| title = Dictionnaire des capitaines de Vaisseau de Napoléon
| isbn = 2-901952-42-9
| oclc =
| pages = 242–243
| publisher = S.P.M.
}}
The Hercule was recommissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Hercule.
British career
In mid-1803, the squadron under Captain Henry William Bayntun, consisting of {{HMS|Cumberland|1774|2}}, Hercule, {{HMS|Bellerophon|1786|2}}, {{HMS|Elephant|1786|2}}, and {{HMS|Vanguard|1787|2}} captured Poisson Volant and {{HMS|Superieure|1803|2}}.{{London Gazette|issue=15620|page=1228|date=13 September 1803}} The Royal Navy took both into service.
In May 1803, Hercule's captain Solomon Ferris died suddenly on board the ship.
{{main|Action of 28 June 1803}}
On 28 June 1803, during the Blockade of Saint-Domingue in the Caribbean Hercule was under First Lieutenant John B. Hills, acting captain as Ferris had died a month before. She encountered the French frigate {{ship|French frigate|Poursuivante|1798|2}} and the corvette {{ship|French corvette|Mignonne|1797|2}}, and attempted to capture Poursuivante. However, the latter outmaneuvered and delivered raking fire to assure her escape. Hercule was stricken across its rigging and dropped out of the fight. Louis-Philippe Crépin painted the sails, sky, smoke and fire in his relevant seascape. {{HMS|Goliath|1781|6}} then captured Mignonne.
Hercule, under Captain Dun, participated in the failed attempt in January 1804 to capture Curaçao.
File:H.M.S. Theseus Vice Admiral Dacres, after a Hurricane which happened in Septr 1804, in the West Indies. Plate 4 RMG PU6030.tiff, (seen in the foreground) after a Hurricane she was caught in off San Domingo between 4 and 11 September 1804. Both Theseus and Hercule (seen in the background) were badly damaged, but eventually survived to reach Port Royal on 15 September]]
Hercule, was caught in a Hurricane off San Domingo between 4 and 11 September 1804, both she and HMS Theseus were badly damaged, but eventually survived to reach Port Royal on 15 September.
Fate
She was broken up in 1810.Roche, p.240
See also
Citations
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}
References
- {{cite book |first=Rif|last=Winfield|title=British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates|publisher=Seaforth|year=2007|isbn=978-1-86176-246-7}}
- {{Cite book|first=Jean-Michel |last=Roche |year=2005 |title=Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours 1 1671 - 1870 |isbn=978-2-9525917-0-6 |oclc=165892922}}
External links
- {{Commons category-inline|HMS Hercule (ship, 1798)}}
- {{cite web |url=http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/18-1900/H/02230.html |title=HMS Hercule |first=P. |last=Benyon |work=Index of 19th Century Naval Vessels |year=2011 |access-date=21 January 2008 |archive-date=7 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120207144455/http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/18-1900/H/02230.html |url-status=dead }}
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Category:Ships of the line of the French Navy
Category:Ships of the line of the Royal Navy