HMS ''Berwick'' was a 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 ...

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

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 ...

, launched on 11 September 1809 at Blackwall.

Career

At the

action of 24 March 1811 The action of 24 March 1811 was a minor naval engagement of the Napoleonic Wars, fought as part of the Royal Navy blockade of the French English Channel ports. By 1811, Royal Navy control of the French coast was so entrenched that French ships ...

, ''Berwick'' under Captain

James Macnamara Rear admiral (Royal Navy), Rear-Admiral James Macnamara (1768 – 15 January 1826) was an officer of the Royal Navy who served during the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary Wars, French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. ...

led the pursuit and destruction of the French frigate ''Amazone'' near the

Phare de Gatteville Phare de Gatteville, also known as Pointe de Barfleur Light, is an active lighthouse near Gatteville-le-Phare at the tip of Barfleur, Manche department, in the Normandy region of France. At a height of it is the third tallest "traditional lightho ...

lighthouse,

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

. One sailor was killed in the engagement. Before the fall of Genoa in April 1814, the boats of ''Berwick'' and , together with two Sicilian gunboats, attacked French posts near the pass of Rona on 8 and 10 April to assist the British army in its advance. The British drove off the French defenders, who left behind two 24-pounder guns and two mortars. The British lost two men killed and five wounded.

Fate

''Berwick'' was broken up in 1821.

Notes

References

*Lavery, Brian (2003) ''The Ship of the Line - Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850.'' Conway Maritime Press. . Ships of the line of the Royal Navy Vengeur-class ships of the line 1809 ships Ships built by the Blackwall Yard {{UK-line-ship-stub