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ACHILLE
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(74) |
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Built in 1798, Gravesend.
Sold in 1865. |
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- 1798 Capt. H. E. STANHOPE, 07/1798.
On 15 February 1799 a court martial was held on board GLADIATOR at Plymouth on James HAILY, a seaman from ACHILLE, who was charged with striking a midshipman in the execution of his duty and other mutinous conduct.
The charge being proved he was sentenced to be hanged. - 1799 Capt. G.
MURRAY, 04/1799.
With the Channel fleet.
On the evening of 13 June ACHILLE arrived in Plymouth from off Brest after being run foul of by CAESAR. She had lost her bowsprit and foretop mast and received much other damage.
One of the crew had been killed.
On 19 July orders came down for 50 bullocks to be delivered to ACHILLE to be taken out to Vice Ad. POLE's squadron.
Several tons of hay at 5 pounds per ton were delivered for the use of the cattle on the voyage. - ACHILLE arrived in Plymouth Sound with other ships of the Channel fleet on 28 August 1800.
On 5 September Earl ST. VINCENT sent in orders for all ships ready for sea to join him without delay.
ROYAL SOVEREIGN, PRINCESS ROYAL, PRINCE, PRINCE GEORGE, BELLONA and ARCHILLE sailed at once from Cawsand Bay and they were all clear of Penlee Point by nightfall. - ACHILLE arrived in Plymouth on 8 January 1801 from a cruise off Brest and sailed again to join the Channel fleet on 29 January. She was employed in the blockade of Brest and Rochefort until the cessation of hostilities.
Capt. MURRAY exchanged commands with Capt. Edward BULLER of the EDGAR because the latter drew less water and was intended for the North Sea with which Capt. MURRAY was well acquainted.
In February a French convoy of 160 sail which had been lying at Bordeaux with stores for the fleet at Brest sailed under convoy of two brigs.
Two days later they were dispersed in a gale.
ACHILLE took one of them, a brig laden with wheat, and sent her into Plymouth on 21 February. - ACHILLE came in to Plymouth for a refit on 15 July and she and EXCELLENT struck yards and topmasts to overhaul their rigging.
In the autumn she experienced dreadful weather off Rochefort before returning on 29 October. - Capt. WALLIS took temporary command during November December, Capt. BULLER returning in January.
On 26 November ACHILLE was in Cawsand Bay to be paid wages before sailing to join Ad. MITCHELL's squadron in Bantry Bay.
There were several bum boats alongside and the first lieutenant, Mr MUDGE, fearing that seamen would find ways of getting ashore in them had ordered the traders off the ship.
When one of them, with a boat alongside with some girls, did not comply, the lieutenant took a musket from the gangway sentry and asked him if it was loaded.
The sentry replied that he thought not so Lieut. MUDGE threw away the ball from a cartridge, emptied the powder into the barrel and fired it at the boat.
Unfortunately there was already a ball cartridge in the musket and the shot hit the man in the face.
He was immediately sent to the Royal hospital where he died.
Lieut. MUDGE was sent on board the flagship in the Hamoaze. - A coroner's jury brought in a verdict of manslaughter against Lieut. MUDGE on the 28th. and ACHILLE sailed for Ireland in a snowstorm the following day.
- On 19 January three of the mutineers from TEMERAIRE, which had been ordered to sail from Bantry Bay to the West Indies, were executed on board ACHILLE at Portsmouth and two more on CENTAUR.
(18 of the 20 who were tried were sentenced to death.)
- On 4 March 1802 ACHILLE arrived in Plymouth from Torquay to be paid and returned on the 28th.
- ACHILLE was paid off all standing on 27 April.
The crew was discharged then she was re-commissioned again under the same captain and officers.
A party of Royal Marines consisting of a Captain, two Lieutenants and 60 privates was embarked on 17 May, however the following month she was found to be badly in need of repair so she was stripped and the crew was paid off in the Hamoaze on 29 June.
It was arranged for her to go into the Great Portland Dock on the first spring tide. - 1803 Out of commission, Plymouth.
- 1805 Capt. Richard KING, Channel fleet.
ACHILLE was in Vice Ad. COLLINGWOOD's lee division at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October.
Her first opponent was the Spanish MONTANEZ (74) and she was then closely engaged for hour with the ARGONAUTA (80) before the enemy ceased firing.
Next the French ACHILLE (74) engaged her in passing, leaving ACHILLE in single combat with the French BERWICK (74).
The latter ship was completely subdued and ACHILLE took possession of her.
ACHILLE lost 13 killed and 59 wounded. - 1807 off Rochefort in the spring, off Ferrol in December, and subsequently employed in the ill-fated expedition to Walcheren when Capt. John HAYES was placed in temporary command.
He brought home 700 French soldiers who had been taken prisoner at Flushing and for his skill in personally navigating ACHILLE to and from the Roompot (pilots being unavailable) he was appointed to FREIJA. - On 28 February 1810 ACHILLE arrived off Cadiz where, during the following month, her people witnessed the destruction of seven Spanish warships, one Portuguese line-of-battle ship, and twenty-four merchant men, all driven ashore in a gale, and burnt to prevent them being pulled off by the enemy.
- In the summer of 1810 men from ACHILLE manned a Spanish gun vessel under the command of Lieut. Joseph HARRISON which was used in the defence of Cadiz.
- 1811 Capt. Aiskew Paffard HOLLIS, 16/04/1811, from STANDARD.
ACHILLE was first attached to the fleet blockading Toulon, then, after visiting Malta, she was employed in the defence of Sicily.
For eighteen months she was in the Adriatic blockading three line-of-battle ships and a frigate in Venice and others repairing in the arsenal.
The boats of ACHILLE and MILFORD captured and destroyed four of the enemy's coastal vessels off Corselazzo on 27 March 1813. - By the summer of 1813 ACHILLE was badly in need of repair so she escorted home the Mediterranean trade. She was re-fitted at Portsmouth and, after a short period blockading Cherbourg, escorted a convoy of vessels bound round Cape Horn as far as the southern latitudes before joining Vice Ad. DIXON at Rio de Janeiro.
- The squadron returned to England in the autumn of 1815 and ACHILLE was put out of commission at Chatham. She remained at Sheerness until sold for breaking up in 1
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