HMS Glorieux

History
France
Name: Glorieux
Launched: 10 August 1756
Captured: At the Battle of the Saintes on 12 April 1782
United Kingdom
Name: HMS Glorieux
Acquired: 12 April 1782
Commissioned: 13 April 1782
Fate: Foundered in a hurricane on 18 September 1782
General characteristics
Class and type: 74-gun third rate ship of the line
Tons burthen: 1,718 (Builder's Old Measurement)
Length: 175 ft (53 m)
Beam: 47 ft 4 in (14.43 m)
Depth of hold: 21 ft 3 in (6.48 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Complement: 600
Armament:
  • Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
  • Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
  • QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
  • Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

The French ship Glorieux was a second rate 74 gun ship in the French Navy. Built by Clairin Deslauriers at Rochefort and launched on 10 August 1756, she was rebuilt in 1777.

French service

On 30 August 1781, she was with the French fleet under Admiral de Grasse. According to French sources, the British sloop Loyalist and the frigate Guadeloupe were on picket duty in the Chesapeake when they encountered the French fleet. Guadeloupe escaped up the York River to York Town, where she would later be scuttled.[1] The English court martial records report that Loyalist was returning to the British fleet off the Jersey coast when she encountered the main French fleet. The French frigate Aigrette, with the 74-gun Glorieux in sight, was able to overtake Loyalist.[2] The French took her into service as Loyaliste in September, but then gave her to the Americans in November 1781.[1]

The British captured Glorieux at the Battle of the Saintes on 10 April 1782 and commissioned her into the Royal Navy as HMS Glorieux or HMS Glorious the following day. She was rated as a third rate.

Fate

She sailed with the fleet for England on 25 July 1782 but was lost later that year in a hurricane storm off Newfoundland on 16–17 September, along with the other captured French prize ships Ville de Paris, Hector and Caton. Glorieux was lost with all hands, including her captain, Thomas Cadogan, son of Charles Cadogan, 3rd Baron Cadogan. This disaster to the fleet of Admiral Graves also saw the loss of HMS Ramillies, HMS Centaur, the storeships Dutton and British Queen, and other merchantmen from a convoy of 94 ships, with a total of over 3,500 men lost.

Other

Heller SA has created a 1:150 scale model of Le Glorieux in its French guise.

Citations

  1. 1 2 Demerliac (1996), p.75, #481.
  2. Hepper (1994), p.65.

See also

References

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