HMS Tremendous (1784)

The Action of 21 April 1806 as depicted by Pierre-Julien Gilbert. In the foreground, HMS Tremendous aborts her attempt at raking Cannonière under the threat of being outmanoeuvered and raked herself by her more agile opponent. In the background, the Indiaman Charlton fires her parting broadside at Cannonière. The two events were in fact separated by several hours.
History
UK
Name:	HMS Tremendous
Ordered:	1 January 1782
Builder:	Barnard, Deptford
Laid down:	August 1782
Launched:	30 October 1784
Renamed:	HMS Grampus, 1845
Fate:	Sold, 1897
General characteristics [1]
Class & type:	Ganges-class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1,656 ^64⁄94 (bm)[2]
Length:	169 ft 6 in (51.66 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 8 ^1⁄2 in (14.542 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft 3 in (6.17 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

HMS Tremendous was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 30 October 1784 at Deptford.^[1]

Throughout May 1794 Tremendous, whilst under the command of Captain James Pigott, participated in the campaign which culminated in the Battle of the Glorious First of June. Pigott had kept his ship too far to windward of the enemy to make best use of his guns in the battle; Tremendous's captain was one of several denied medals afterwards.^[3]

On 11 December 1799, she destroyed the Preneuse at the Battle of Port Louis.

On 21 April 1806, she fought the inconclusive Action of 21 April 1806 against Canonnière^[4]

On 13 May she was present at the surrender of Naples during the Neapolitan War. A British squadron, consisting of Tremendous, the frigate Alcmene, the sloop Partridge, and the brig-sloop Grasshopper blockaded the port and destroyed all the gunboats there. Parliament voted a grant of £150,000 to the officers and men of the squadron for the property captured at the time, with the money being paid in May 1819.^{[Note 1]}

Early in September 1811, the Primus, carrying tar and hemp, the Worksam, in ballast, the Experiment, carrying iron, the Columbus, carrying linseed, the Neptunus, carrying timber, and the Hctor, carrying sundry goods, came into Yarmouth. They were prizes to Tremendous, Ranger, Calypso, Algerine, Musquito, Earnest. and Portia.^[6]

Fate

In 1845 she was reduced to a 50-gun ship, and renamed HMS Grampus. Grampus became a powder hulk in 1856, and was eventually sold out of the service in 1897.^[1][7]

Footnotes

Notes

1. A first-class share for each of the captains of the first three vessels was worth £5805 3s 0d; a sixth-class share for an ordinary seaman on the same vessels was worth £60 13s 11d. The amounts were equivalent to 10-20 years salary for a captain and more than two years for an ordinary seaman.^[5]

Citations

1. Lavery, Ships of the Line vol.1, p180.
2. Winfield (2004) p.47.
3. Naval History of Great Britain, Volume I, by William James.
4. Naval History of Great Britain, Volume IV, by William James.
5. The London Gazette: no. 17476. pp. 827–828. 11 May 1819.
6. Lloyd's List, no. 4596, - accessed 16 May 2014.
7. Ships of the Old Navy, Grampus.

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.
• Michael Phillips. Tremendous (74) (1784). Michael Phillips' Ships of the Old Navy. Retrieved 1 November 2008.
• Winfield, Rif & Lyon, David (2004). The Sail and Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815–1889. London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-032-6. OCLC 52620555.