HMS Goliath (1781)
| History | |
|---|---|
 UK | |
| Name | HMS Goliath |
| Ordered | 21 February 1778 |
| Builder | Deptford Dockyard |
| Laid down | 10 April 1779 |
| Launched | 19 October 1781 |
| Honours and awards | list error: <br /> list (help) Naval General Service Medal with clasps: "St. Vincent"[1] |
| Fate | Broken up, 1815 |
| General characteristics [3] | |
| 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 | list error: <br /> list (help) Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder 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.[3] She was present at the Battle of Cape St Vincent, Battle of the Nile, and Battle of Copenhagen. She was broken up in 1815.
French Revolutionary Wars
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.[4]
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, Alcmene, and Bonne Citoyenne left Aboukir Bay to cruise off the port of Alexandria. There, on 25 August, her boats captured the French armed ketch Torride from under the guns of Aboukir Castle. Goliath then remained stationed off Alexandria until at least the end of 1798.
Napoleonic Wars
On 28 June 1803, during the Blockade of Saint-Domingue, she gave sailed inshore off Cape Nicholas Mole, Haiti, to try to find two vessels seen earlier. She encountered and after a few shots captured the ship-corvette Mignonne,[5] which the British navy took into service under her French name. In Brisbane's words, she was a "remarkable fast sailing Ship Corvette,". She carried sixteen long 18-pounder guns, six of which she had landed. Her crew of only 80 men was under the command of Monsieur J. P. Bargeaud, Capitaine de Fregate, and she was two days out of Les Cayes, sailing to France via the Cape.[5] The day before, Goliath sent out a boat that captured a small French schooner that had been on her way from Santiago de Cuba to Port-au-Prince, with a cargo of sugar and $3,476 in cash. The schooner was armed with three carriage guns and some swivel gunss.[5]
In May 1805 Goliath was in the Channel Fleet. On 15 August Goliath spotted three French sail, the 44-gun frigate Topaze, the French brig-corvette Faune, and the ship-corvette Torche. Goliath joined Camilla in her pursuit of Faune, and helped Camilla to capture her.[6] On the same day Raisonnable joined Goliath in chasing Topaze and Torche. Goliath subsequently captured Torche, which was under the command of M. Dehen, carried 18 guns and a crew of 196 men. She also had on board as prisoners 52 men from Blanche.[7] The French flotilla had captured Blanche on 19 July, some 150 miles north of Puerto Rico.
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 October 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.[3]
References
- Citations
- ^ "No. 20939". The London Gazette. 26 January 1849.
- ^ "No. 20939". The London Gazette. 26 January 1849.
- ^ a b c Lavery, Ships of the Line vol.1, p180.
- ^ St Vincent College, Sir John Jervis.
- ^ a b c "No. 15620". The London Gazette. 13 September 1803.
- ^ "No. 15917". The London Gazette. 10 May 1806.
- ^ "No. 15839". The London Gazette. 31 August 1805.
- Bibliography
- 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.