HMS ''Eagle'' 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 27 February 1804 at

Northfleet Northfleet is a town in the borough of Gravesham in Kent, England. It is located immediately west of Gravesend, and on the border with the Borough of Dartford. Northfleet has its own railway station on the North Kent Line, just east of Ebbsfl ...

. On 31 March, she was driven ashore and severely damaged at Northfleet. She was taken into dock for repairs. On 11 November 1804, , together with ''Eagle'', , , , ''Africiane'', , , and the

hired armed vessels During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the Royal Navy made use of a considerable number of hired armed vessels. These were generally smaller vessels, often cutters and luggers, that the Navy used for duties ranging from carrying and pa ...

''Swift'' and ''Agnes'', shared in the capture of the ''Upstalsboom'', H.L. De Haase, Master. ''Eagle'' returned to the Downs in early 1814. In January 1815 she was in Chatham dockyard undergoing repair. In 1830 she was reduced to a 50-gun ship. In November 1844 Capt. George B. Martin commissioned her for service on the West Indies and North American station. She was back in Devonport by 1848. In 1860 she was employed by the Coast Guard service at Milford Haven. She was renamed HMS ''Eaglet'' in 1918, when she was the

Royal Naval Reserve The Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) is one of the two volunteer reserve forces of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. Together with the Royal Marines Reserve, they form the Maritime Reserve. The present RNR was formed by merging the original Ro ...

training centre for

North West England North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, administrative counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of ...

. A fire destroyed ''Eagle'' in 1926.

Notes

References

Bibliography

*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 Repulse-class ships of the line 1804 ships Maritime incidents in 1804 Maritime incidents in 1926 {{UK-line-ship-stub