HMS ''Kent'' 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

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 17 January 1798 at

Blackwall Yard Blackwall Yard is a small body of water that used to be a shipyard on the River Thames in Blackwall, engaged in ship building and later ship repairs for over 350 years. The yard closed in 1987. History East India Company Blackwall was a sh ...

.Lavery 2003, p. 184

Career

'View of Mr Perry's Yard, Blackwall' RMG L8728

When ''Kent'' was launched on 17 January 1798, she was launched immediately after the

East Indiaman East Indiaman was a general name for any sailing ship operating under charter or licence to any of the East India trading companies of the major European trading powers of the 17th through the 19th centuries. The term is used to refer to vesse ...

. ''Kent'' followed nearly the same course as ''Lord Duncan'' had taken with the result that ''Kent''s stern ran into ''Lord Duncan''s bow, doing great damage to both vessels. Both vessels then had to go back into dock to effect repairs. On 9 May 1801 ''Kent'', and unsuccessfully chased the French corvette ''Heliopolis'', which eluded them and slipped into Alexandria. Because ''Kent'' served in the Navy's Egyptian campaign (8 March to 8 September 1801), her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal that the

Admiralty Admiralty most often refers to: *Admiralty, Hong Kong *Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964 *The rank of admiral *Admiralty law Admiralty can also refer to: Buildings * Admiralty, Traf ...

authorised in 1850 for all surviving claimants. On 13 December 1809 350 sailors and 250 marines from ''Kent'',and two other 74-gun third rates, and , attacked Palamós. (The sloops and covered the landing.) The landing party destroyed six of eight merchant vessels with supplies for the French army at Barcelona, as well as the vessels' escorts, a national ketch of 14 guns and 60 men and two

xebec A xebec ( or ), also spelled zebec, was a Mediterranean sailing ship that was used mostly for trading. Xebecs had a long overhanging bowsprit and aft-set mizzen mast. The term can also refer to a small, fast vessel of the sixteenth to nineteenth ...

s of three guns and thirty men each. The vessels were lying inside the mole under the protection of 250 French troops, a battery of two 24-pounders, and a 13" mortar in a battery on a commanding height. Although the attack was successful, the withdrawal was not. The British lost 33 men killed, 89 wounded, and 86 taken prisoner, plus one seaman who took the opportunity to desert.James (1837), Vol. 5, pp.259-60.

Fate

''Kent'' became a

sheer hulk A hulk is a ship that is afloat, but incapable of going to sea. Hulk may be used to describe a ship that has been launched but not completed, an abandoned wreck or shell, or to refer to an old ship that has had its rigging or internal equipment ...

in 1856, and was broken up in 1881.

Notes and citations

Notes Citations

References

* * * Lavery, Brian (2003) ''The Ship of the Line - Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850.'' Conway Maritime Press. .

External links

* Ships of the line of the Royal Navy Ajax-class ships of the line 1798 ships Ships built by the Blackwall Yard {{UK-line-ship-stub