HMS ''Albion'' was a

74-gun The "seventy-four" was a type of two- decked sailing ship of the line, which nominally carried 74 guns. It was developed by the French navy in the 1740s, replacing earlier classes of 60- and 62-gun ships, as a larger complement to the recently-de ...

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 ...

ship 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 colu ...

of the

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. She was built by Adam Hayes at

Deptford Dockyard Deptford Dockyard was an important naval dockyard and base at Deptford on the River Thames, operated by the Royal Navy from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. It built and maintained warships for 350 years, and many significant events a ...

and launched on 16 May 1763, having been adapted from a design of the old 90-gun ship which had been built in 1730. She was the first ship to be called HMS Albion. She was the first of a series of ships built to the same lines, which became known as the . She saw her first action in the

American War of Independence The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

in July 1779 at the indecisive

Battle of Grenada The Battle of Grenada took place on 6 July 1779 during the American Revolutionary War in the West Indies between the British Royal Navy and the French Navy, just off the coast of Grenada. The British fleet of Admiral John Byron (the grandfath ...

, when the British Fleet under the command of Vice Admiral Byron managed to avoid defeat from superior French forces. ''Albion's'' next action was a year later on 17 April 1780, when British and French fleets met in the Battle of Martinique. A month later, on 15 May, the fleets met again and after a few days of manoeuvring the head of the British line confronted the rear-most French warships. ''Albion'', leading the vanguard of the British fleet suffered heavy casualties, but with little to show for it. Just four days later the two fleets clashed for the third time but again it was indecisive with ''Albion'' heavily engaged as before, suffering numerous casualties in the process. In 1794 ''Albion'' was consigned to the role of a 60-gun floating battery armed with heavy carronades and moored on the

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. She was positioned in the Middle Swin, seven miles north-east of Foulness Point.

Fate

In April 1797, while heading to a new position in the Swin Channel, off

Maplin Sands The Maplin Sands are mudflats on the northern bank of the Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in ...

and

Foulness Foulness Island () is a closed island on the east coast of Essex in England, which is separated from the mainland by narrow creeks. In the 2001 census, the usually resident population of the civil parish was 212, living in the settlements of Ch ...

she ran aground due to pilot error. Two days later, during salvage efforts, her back broke, and she was completely wrecked. rescued Captain Henry Savage and his crew. The crew later transferred to the newly built .Grocott (1997), p.49. The subsequent court-martial blamed the pilots, William Springfield and Joseph Wright, for imprudent maneuvering and going too far back before altering course. The court ordered that they lose all pay due to them and they never serve as pilots again.Hepper (1994), p.84.

Commanders of Note

*Captain

Samuel Barrington Admiral Samuel Barrington (1729 – 16 August 1800) was a Royal Navy officer. Barrington was the fourth son of John Barrington, 1st Viscount Barrington of Beckett Hall at Shrivenham in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire). He enlisted in the navy at th ...

1770 to 1773 * Captain John Leveson Gower 1773 to 1775 * Captain George Bowyer 1778 to 1781

Citations and references

Citations References *Grocott, Terence (1997) ''Shipwrecks of the revolutionary & Napoleonic eras'' (Chatham). * *Lavery, Brian (2003) ''The Ship of the Line - Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850.'' Conway Maritime Press. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Albion (1763) Albion-class ships of the line (1763) 1763 ships Ships built in Deptford Shipwrecks in the North Sea Shipwrecks of England Maritime incidents in 1797