HMS Alexander (1778)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources.
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. (help, get involved!)
This article has been tagged since February 2007.

Career (UK)

Name:	HMS Alexander
Launched:	8 October 1778
Captured:	6 November 1794, by French Navy
Career (France)
Name:	Alexandre
Captured:	22 June 1795, by Royal Navy
Career (UK)
Name:	HMS Alexander
Fate:	Broken up, 1819
Honours and awards:	Battle of the Nile
General Characteristics
Propulsion:	Sails
Armament:	74 guns of various weights of shot

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Alexander.

HMS Alexander was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched from Deptford on 8 October 1778. During her career she was captured by the French, and later recaptured by the British. She fought at the Nile in 1798, and was broken up in 1819. She was named for Alexander the Great.

Whilst returning to England from Spain on 6 November 1794, Alexander fell in with a French squadron of five 74-gun ships, and three frigates, and was taken by the French in the ensuing action. She was taken into the French Navy, and renamed Alexandre. On 22 June 1795, she was with a French fleet off Belle Isle when the Channel Fleet under Lord Bridport discovered them. The British ships chased the French fleet, and Alexander was retaken into the service.

Alexander took part in the Battle of the Nile in 1798. The ship was the second ship to fire upon the French fleet, namely its flagship, L'Orient. The Alexander sank three French ships, before retreating to the rear of the battle, due to a small fire on-board. The Alexander was one of the only ships not carring a soldier batallion^{[citation needed]}.

From 1803 she was out of commission in Plymouth, and was finally broken up in 1819.