HMS Thunderer (1783)

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Career (UK)
Name:	HMS Thunderer
Ordered:	23 July 1781
Builder:	John & William Wells, Deptford
Laid down:	March 1782
Launched:	13 November 1783
Commissioned:	January 1793
Honours and awards:	Participated in: Glorious First of June Battle of Cape Finisterre Battle of Trafalgar
Fate:	Broken up, March 1814
General characteristics
Class and type:	Culloden-class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1,679 tons (1705.9 tonnes)
Length:	170 ft 8 in (52.0 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 7 in (14.5 m)
Depth of hold:	19 ft 11 in (6.1 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	74 guns: Gundeck: 28 × 32 pdrs Upper gundeck: 28 × 18 pdrs Quarterdeck: 14 × 9 pdrs Forecastle: 4 × 9 pdrs

HMS Thunderer was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at the Wells brother's shipyard at Deptford and launched on 13 November 1783. After completion, she was laid up until 1792, when she underwent a "Middling Repair" to bring her into service in 1793.

In 1794 she fought at the Glorious First of June under Captain Albemarle Bertie, and from 1796 to 1801 served in the West Indies, under a succession of captains.

Recommissioned in 1803, in 1805 Thunderer fought in Admiral Calder's action at Finisterre, and later that year she fought at the Battle of Trafalgar under the command of her First Lieutenant John Stockham, as her Captain, William Lechmore, had returned to England to attend a court martial as a witness at the time of the battle.

The surgeon on board was Scotsman James Marr Brydone, who was the first to sight the French fleet. Thunderer signaled the Victory and three minutes later battle orders were signalled to the British fleet beginning the Battle of Trafalgar.

In 1807, Thunderer served in the Dardanelles as part of a squadron under Admiral Sir John Duckworth and was badly damaged when the squadron withdrew from the area.

She was decommissioned in November 1808 and broken up in March 1814.

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