HMS Stately (1784)

History
UK
Name:	HMS Stately
Ordered:	10 December 1778
Builder:	Raymond, Northam
Laid down:	25 May 1779
Launched:	27 December 1784
Honours and awards:	Naval general Service Medal with clasps: "Egypt"[1] "Stately 22 March 1808"[2]
Fate:	Broken up, 1814
General characteristics [3]
Class & type:	Ardent-class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1388 (bm)
Length:	160 ft (49 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	44 ft 4 in (13.51 m)
Depth of hold:	19 ft (5.8 m)
Sail plan:	Full-rigged ship
Armament:	Lower deck: 26 ×  24-pounder guns Upper deck: 26 ×  18-pounder guns QD: 10 ×  4-pounder guns Fc: 2 ×  9-pounder guns

HMS Stately was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 27 December 1784 at Northam.^[3]

Operational life

Sir Richard King took command of Stately at Portsmouth on 24 July 1793, which was reported in The Times newspaper.

The Admiralty had Stately converted for use a troopship in 1799.

Napoleonic Wars

The Navy reverted her to a fully armed warship once war resumed after the end of the Treaty of Amiens.

Because Stately served in the navy's Egyptian campaign (8 March to 2 September 1801), her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal that the Admiralty issued in 1847 to all surviving claimants.^{[Note 1]}

Battle of Zealand Point

On 22 March 1808, Stately and Nassau destroyed the last Danish ship of the line, Prins Christian Frederik, commanded by Captain C.W.Jessen, in a battle at Zealand Point.

In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasps "Stately 22 March 1808" and "Nassau 22 March 1808" to any still surviving crew members of those vessels that chose to claim them.

Fate

Stately was broken up in 1814.^[3]

Notes and citations

Notes

1. A first-class share of the prize money awarded in April 1823 was worth £34 2s 4d; a fifth-class share, that of an able seaman, was worth 3s 11½d. The amount was small as the total had to be shared between 79 vessels and the entire army contingent.^[4]

Citations

1. The London Gazette: no. 21077. pp. 791–792. 15 March 1850.
2. The London Gazette: no. 20939. p. 241. 26 Jan 1849.
3. Lavery, Ships of the Line vol.1, p181.
4. The London Gazette: no. 17915. p. 633. 3 April 1823.

References

• Lavery, Brian (2003) The Ship of the Line - Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850. Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-252-8.