HMS Ramillies (1763)

Loss of HMS Ramillies by Robert Dodd artist
History
Great Britain
Name: HMS Ramillies
Ordered: 1 December 1759
Builder: Chatham Dockyard
Launched: 15 April 1763
Fate: Burned, 1782
General characteristics [1]
Class and type: Ramillies-class ship of the line
Tons burthen: 1619 (bm)
Length: 168 ft 6 in (51.36 m) (gundeck)
Beam: 46 ft 9 in (14.25 m)
Depth of hold: 19 ft 9 in (6.02 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Armament:
  • Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
  • Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
  • QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
  • Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

HMS Ramillies was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 15 April 1763 at Chatham Dockyard.[1]

In 1782 she was the flagship of a fleet under Admiral Thomas Graves off Newfoundland. Ramillies was badly damaged in a violent storm of 1782, and was finally abandoned and burned on 21 September 1782.[2]

’The Storm increas'd. Distressed situation of the Ramillies when Day broke with the Dutton Store Ship foundering'

On 16-19 September, she was escorting a convoy from Jamaica when they were hit by the storm. Frantic efforts were made to save her. All anchors, cannon, and masts were shipped over the side. The hull was bound together with rope, officers and men manned the pumps for 24 hours a day for 3 days. However despite all the water continued to rise. The exhausted crew were rescued by nearby merchantmen, and the last man, Captain Sylverius Moriarty,[3] set her on fire as he left.

Robert Dodd painted a series of four documenting the tragedy. "The demise of the Ramillies" comprises: A storm coming on (shown right), ’The Storm increas'd (shown left), The Ramillies Water Logg'd with her Admiral & Crew quitting the Wreck, and The Ramillies Destroyed. In 1795 a set of four coloured mezzotints were engraved and published by Jukes from his shop at No.10 Howland Street.[4][5]

Notes

  1. 1 2 Lavery, Ships of the Line vol.1, p177.
  2. ↑ The sinking
  3. ↑ Sylverius Moriarty
  4. ↑ Paintings "The demise of the Ramillies"
  5. ↑ The Ramillies Destroyed

References

  • Lavery, Brian (2003). The Ship of the Line - Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850. Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-252-8. 

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