HMS Belleisle (1795)
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HMS Belleisle was a Royal Navy third rate ship of the line.
She was built at Rochefort for the French Navy. Initially named Lion, she was renamed Marat and then Formidable with the changing fortunes of the French Revolution.
She was captured in June 1795 at the Battle of Groix near the French port of Lorient. She was taken into service in the Royal Navy, but because the Navy already had a Formidable, she was renamed Belleisle, apparently in the mistaken belief that she had been captured off Belle Ile, rather than the Ile de Groix.
Captained by William Hargood, she was the first ship in the British lee column at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, and as such was engaged by the French ships Achille, Aigle, Neptune and Fougeux. She was soon totally dismasted (the only British ship which suffered that fate), unable to manoeuvre and largely unable to fight, as her sails blinded her batteries, but kept flying her flag for 45 minutes until the British ships behind her in the column came to her rescue. With 33 dead and 93 wounded, she was then towed to Gibraltar after the battle by the frigate HMS Naiad.
She was sold at the end of the Napoleonic wars in 1814.
