The ''Black Prince''-class

ships of the line A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactic known as the line of battle, which depended on the two colum ...

were a class of four 74-gun

third rate In the rating system of the Royal Navy, a third rate was a ship of the line which from the 1720s mounted between 64 and 80 guns, typically built with two gun decks (thus the related term two-decker). Years of experience proved that the third r ...

s built for the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

in the closing years of the

Napoleonic War The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

. The draught for this class of ship was essentially a reduced version of the captured

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...

ship . ''Wellesley'', while ordered to be built to this design and always officially so classified, was actually built to the design of and used the moulds of , a ''Vengeur''/''Armada''-class ship previously built at Bombay; this was because the set of plans sent from the Navy Board and intended for the construction of ''Wellesley'' were lost en route to India when the ship carrying them was captured and burnt by the Americans. ''Wellesley'' later gained the distinction in 1940 of being the only ship of the line to be sunk by air attack. ''Hawke'' was converted to screw propulsion in the 1850s when adapted as a 60-gun "blockship".

Ships

* :Builder:

Bombay Dockyard Bombay Dockyard, also known as Naval Dockyard, is an Indian shipbuilding yard at Mumbai. The superintendent of the dockyard is a Naval Officer of the rank Rear Admiral, known as the Admiral Superintendent. Background Shipbuilding was an establ ...

:Ordered: 6 January 1812 :Begun: May 1813 :Launched: 24 February 1815 :Fate: Sunk in air attack by the

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

, 1940 * :Builder:

Woolwich Dockyard Woolwich Dockyard (formally H.M. Dockyard, Woolwich, also known as The King's Yard, Woolwich) was an English Royal Navy Dockyard, naval dockyard along the river Thames at Woolwich in north-west Kent, where many ships were built from the early 1 ...

:Ordered: 14 August 1810 :Begun: July 1814 :Launched: 30 March 1816 :Fate: Broken up, 1855 * :Builder: Bombay Dockyard :Ordered: 6 September 1813 :Begun: July 1815 :Launched: 17 February 1817 :Fate: Sold, 1873 * :Builder: Woolwich Dockyard :Ordered: 6 January 1812 :Begun: April 1815 :Launched: 16 March 1820 :Fate: Broken up, 1865

References

*Lavery, Brian (2003) ''The Ship of the Line - Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650–1850.'' Conway Maritime Press. . *Lyon, David and Winfield, Rif (2004) '' The Sail and Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815-1889'' Chatham Publishing, 2004. . *Winfield, Rif (2008) ''British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793-1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates''. 2nd edition, Seaforth Publishing, 2008. . Ship of the line classes Edward the Black Prince Ship classes of the Royal Navy {{UK-line-ship-stub