HMS Defiance (1783)

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HMS Defiance was a 3rd rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, of 74 guns, built in 1783 by Randall and Co., at Rotherhithe on the River Thames.

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[edit] History

Her crew mutinied three times, in October 1795 (Commanded by Captain Sir George Horne : HMS Calcutta, Captain William Bligh commanding , was ordered to embark 200 troops and take them alongside in order for the troops to take it over. The threat of the soldiers ended the mutiny. Also in 1797 [1] and 1798 [2].

She fought at Copenhagen April 2, 1801 (Flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Thomas Graves , Commanded by Captain Richard Retalick). Also Cape Finisterre July 22, 1805 and Trafalgar October 21, 1805, (Commanded by Captain Philip Charles Durham - who claimed that "She was the fastest 74 gun ship in the British fleet"). In the latter battle she captured the Spanish ship San Juan Nepomuceno and sustained casualties of 17 killed, 53 wounded.

After serving as a prison ship at Chatham from 1813, she was broken up in 1817.

[edit] Captains

[edit] Trafalgar Wood Project

As a part of the Trafalgar Wood Project to commemorate the 33 Royal Navy ships that were at Trafalgar, a wood of 10 acres was planted October/November 2005 in Dumfries, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland to honour HMS Defiance

[edit] Further reading

  • Trafalgar Captain: Durham of the Defiance, Hilary Rubinstein, Tempus Publishing Ltd, 2005, ISBN 0-7524-3435-7

See HMS Defiance for other ships of this name.

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Spithead mutiny
  2. ^ The rising of the United Irishmen

[edit] External links