HMS ''Cressy'' was a 74-gun
third rate 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, launched on 7 March 1810 at
Frindsbury
Frindsbury is part of the Medway Towns conurbation in Kent, southern England. It lies on the opposite side of the River Medway to Rochester, Kent, Rochester, and at various times in its history has been considered fully or partially part of the ...
.
Service
On 24 December 1811 ''Cressy'' was off the west coast of
Jutland,
Denmark, under command by commander
Charles Dudley Pater and in the company of , under Rear-admiral
Robert Carthew Reynolds, and , when an
extratropical cyclone
Extratropical cyclones, sometimes called mid-latitude cyclones or wave cyclones, are low-pressure areas which, along with the anticyclones of high-pressure areas, drive the weather over much of the Earth. Extratropical cyclones are capable of ...
and heavy seas came up. ''St George'' was
jury-rigged and so Captain Atkins of ''Defence'' refused to leave her without the Admiral's permission. As a result, both were wrecked near
Ringkøbing
Ringkøbing (older spelling ''Ringkjøbing'') is a town in Ringkøbing-Skjern Municipality in Region Midtjylland on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula in west Denmark. It has a population of 9,894 (1 January 2022). . ''Cressy'' did not ask for permission and so avoided wrecking.
Both ''St George'' and ''Defence'' lost almost all their crews, including the Admiral. Most of the bodies that came ashore were buried in the sand dunes of
Thorsminde, which have been known ever since as "Dead Mens Dunes".
Shortly after the outbreak of the
War of 1812, on 12 August, ''Cressy'' shared in the seizure of several American vessels: ''Cuba'', ''Caliban'', ''Edward'', ''Galen'', ''Halcyon'', and ''Cygnet''.
On 11 February 1813m ran down and sank ''Wargrave''. ''Cressy'' rescued ''Wargrave''s crew. ''Wargrave'', Ostler, master, was on a voyage from
Dublin to Surinam.
['']Lloyd's List
''Lloyd's List'' is one of the world's oldest continuously running journals, having provided weekly shipping news in London as early as 1734. It was published daily until 2013 (when the final print issue, number 60,850, was published), and is ...
'
№4722.
/ref>
Fate
She was broken up in 1832.
Notes
Citations
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
Ships built on the River Medway
1810 ships
{{UK-line-ship-stub