The ''Repulse''-class

ships 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 colum ...

were a class of eleven 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 ...

s, designed for 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 ...

by Sir William Rule. The first three ships to this design were ordered in 1800, with a second batch of five following in 1805. The final three ships of the class were ordered towards the end of the

Napoleonic War The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

to a modified version of Rule's draught, using the new constructional system created by Sir

Robert Seppings Sir Robert Seppings, FRS (11 December 176725 April 1840) was an English naval architect. His experiments with diagonal trusses in the construction of ships led to his appointment as Surveyor of the Navy in 1813, a position he held until 1835. Bi ...

; all three were completed after the war's end.

Ships

* :Builder: Dudman,

Deptford Wharf Deptford Wharf in London, UK is situated on the Thames Path southeast of South Dock Marina, across the culverted mouth of the Earl's Sluice and north of Aragon Tower. In the late 18th and early 19th century this area was used for shipbuildi ...

:Ordered: 4 February 1800 :Laid down: December 1800 :Launched: 11 December 1802 :Fate: Broken up, 1821 * :Builder: Barnard,

:Ordered: 4 February 1800 :Laid down: September 1800 :Launched: 22 July 1803 :Fate: Broken up, 1820 * :Builder: Pitcher,

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 ...

:Ordered: 4 February 1800 :Laid down: August 1800 :Launched: 27 February 1804 :Fate: Burnt, 1926 * :Builder: Perry, Wells & Green,

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 ...

:Ordered: 31 January 1805 :Laid down: April 1805 :Launched: 30 August 1806 :Fate: Sold out of the service, 1843 * :Builder: Perry, Wells & Green, Blackwall :Ordered: 24 January 1805 :Laid down: April 1805 :Launched: 24 January 1807 :Fate: Broken up, 1823 * :Builder: Wells, Blackwall :Ordered: 24 January 1805 :Laid down: August 1805 :Launched: 23 May 1807 :Fate: Broken up, 1820 * :Builder: Pitcher, Northfleet :Ordered: 24 January 1805 :Laid down: August 1805 :Launched: 19 August 1807 :Fate: Sold out of the service, 1870 * :Builder: Pitcher, Northfleet :Ordered: 24 January 1805 :Laid down: December 1805 :Launched: 12 April 1808 :Fate: Broken up, 1838 * :Builder:

Woolwich Dockyard Woolwich Dockyard (formally H.M. Dockyard, Woolwich, also known as The King's Yard, Woolwich) was an English Royal Navy Dockyard, naval dockyard along the river Thames at Woolwich in north-west Kent, where many ships were built from the early 1 ...

:Ordered: 15 February 1814 :Laid down: July 1814 :Launched: 15 October 1818 :Fate: Burnt, 1840 * :Builder:

Bombay Dockyard Bombay Dockyard, also known as Naval Dockyard, is an Indian shipbuilding yard at Mumbai. The superintendent of the dockyard is a Naval Officer of the rank Rear Admiral, known as the Admiral Superintendent. Background Shipbuilding was an establ ...

:Ordered: 7 March 1815 :Laid down: April 1817 :Launched: 28 December 1818 :Fate: Sold out of the service, 1905 * :Builder:

Pembroke Dockyard Pembroke Dockyard, originally called Pater Yard, is a former Royal Navy Dockyard in Pembroke Dock, Pembrokeshire, Wales. History It was founded in 1814, although not formally authorized until the Prince Regent signed the necessary Order in Cou ...

:Ordered: 17 November 1812 :Laid down: February 1816 :Launched: 26 April 1819 :Fate: Broken up, 1872

References

*Lavery, Brian (2003) ''The Ship of the Line - Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850.'' Conway Maritime Press. . *Winfield, Rif (2008) ''British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1793-1817''. Seaforth Publishing. . Ship of the line classes {{UK-line-ship-stub