HMS Swiftsure was a 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 ...

ship of the line 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 ...

, launched from

Bucklers Hard Buckler's Hard is a hamlet on the banks of the Beaulieu River in the English county of Hampshire. With its Georgian cottages running down to the river, Buckler's Hard is part of the Beaulieu Estate. The hamlet is some south of the village of ...

on 23 July 1804. She fought at Trafalgar. Coincidentally the French 74-gun ship ''Swiftsure'' also took part in the battle; she had originally been a British ship that the French had captured in 1801. This ''Swiftsure'' became a receiving ship in 1819, In September 1844, she heeled over and sank at

Portchester Portchester is a locality and suburb northwest of Portsmouth, England. It is part of the borough of Fareham in Hampshire. Once a small village, Portchester is now a busy part of the expanding conurbation between Portsmouth and Southampton on ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

. In November 1844, she was in use as a target ship by HMS ''Excellent''. She was sold out of the service in 1845.

Notes

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 Swiftsure-class ships of the line Ships built on the Beaulieu River 1804 ships Maritime incidents in September 1844 {{UK-line-ship-stub