HMS ''Arrogant'' 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 thir ...

ship 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 colu ...

of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...

, built of

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include L ...

oak by

John Barnard John Edward Barnard (born 4 May 1946, Wembley, London) is an English engineer and racing car designer. Barnard is credited with the introduction of two new designs into Formula One: the carbon fibre composite chassis first seen in with Mc ...

and launched on 22 January 1761 at King's Yard

Harwich Harwich is a town in Essex, England, and one of the Haven ports on the North Sea coast. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the north-east, Ipswich to the north-west, Colchester to the south-west and Clacton- ...

. She was the first of the ships of the line, designed by Sir

Thomas Slade Sir Thomas Slade (1703/4–1771) was an English naval architect, most famous for designing HMS ''Victory'', Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Early life He was the son of Arthur Slade (1682–1746) and his wife Hann ...

.Winfield 2007, pp. 6364

Service

Her first captain was

John Amherst Admiral John Amherst (1718 – 14 February 1778) was a Royal Navy officer served during the First Carnatic War and the Seven Years' War, and who went on to be Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth. Family He was the fourth son of lawyer Jeffrey Amherst a ...

Francis Light Captain Francis Light ( – 21 October 1794) was a British explorer and the founder of the British colony of Penang (in modern-day Malaysia) and its capital city of George Town in 1786. Light and his lifelong partner, Martina Rozells, were t ...

, founder of

Penang Penang ( ms, Pulau Pinang, is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia, by the Malacca Strait. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the Ma ...

, was a

midshipman A midshipman is an officer of the lowest rank, in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Canada (Naval Cadet), Australia, Bangladesh, Namibia, New Zealand, South Af ...

on ''Arrogant'' in 1761. In 1770 she was a

guard ship A guard ship is a warship assigned as a stationary guard in a port or harbour, as opposed to a coastal patrol boat, which serves its protective role at sea. Royal Navy In the Royal Navy of the eighteenth century, peacetime guard ships were usual ...

at Portsmouth. Captain

Taylor Penny Captain Taylor Penny (1721–1786) was an 18th-century officer of the Royal Navy who came to fame at the Battle of the Saintes. Life He was born in Weymouth in Dorset in 1721, probably into a seafaring family. He was commissioned as a lie ...

took command in January 1779. On 12 April 1782 she was recently re-equipped and was second in line in the main wave of attack on the French fleet at the

Battle of the Saintes The Battle of the Saintes (known to the French as the Bataille de la Dominique), also known as the Battle of Dominica, was an important naval battle in the Caribbean between the British and the French that took place 9–12 April 1782. The Brit ...

under captaincy of

Samuel Cornish Samuel Eli Cornish (1795 – 6 November 1858) was an American Presbyterian minister, abolitionist, publisher, and journalist. He was a leader in New York City's small free black community, where he organized the first congregation of black Pre ...

and under the overall command of Admiral

George Rodney Admiral George Brydges Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney, KB ( bap. 13 February 1718 – 24 May 1792), was a British naval officer. He is best known for his commands in the American War of Independence, particularly his victory over the French at ...

. ''Arrogant'' was at

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymout ...

on 20 January 1795 and so shared in the proceeds of the detention of the Dutch naval vessels,

East Indiamen East Indiaman was a general name for any sailing ship operating under charter or licence to any of the East India trading companies of the major European trading powers of the 17th through the 19th centuries. The term is used to refer to vesse ...

, and other merchant vessels that were in port on the outbreak of war between Britain and the Netherlands. Later in 1795 ''Arrogant'' was posted to the

East Indies The East Indies (or simply the Indies), is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The Indies refers to various lands in the East or the Eastern hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainlands found in and aroun ...

. She took part in the

action of 8 September 1796 The action of 9 September 1796 was an inconclusive minor naval engagement between small French Navy and British Royal Navy squadrons off northeastern Sumatra, near Banda Aceh, during the French Revolutionary Wars. The French squadron comprised s ...

and in January 1799 was with the British squadron at the defence of

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

during the Macau Incident. By 1804 she had been downgraded to a hulk ship (masts and rigging removed) at

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the '' de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the sec ...

where she served as a receiving ship,

sheer hulk A hulk is a ship that is afloat, but incapable of going to sea. Hulk may be used to describe a ship that has been launched but not completed, an abandoned wreck or shell, or to refer to an old ship that has had its rigging or internal equipment ...

, and

floating battery A floating battery is a kind of armed watercraft, often improvised or experimental, which carries heavy armament but has few other qualities as a warship. History Use of timber rafts loaded with cannon by Danish defenders of Copenhagen a ...

. In 1810 she was condemned as unfit for further service.Parkinson (1954), p.356. She was sold out of service at Bombay in 1810 It is unclear if she was then broken or re-used as an Indian ship.

References

Bibliography

*Lavery, Brian (2003) ''The Ship of the Line – Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650–1850.'' Conway Maritime Press. . *Parkinson, Cyril Northcote (1954) ''War in the Eastern Seas, 1793–1815''. (George Allen & Unwin). * Ships of the line of the Royal Navy Arrogant-class ships of the line 1761 ships Ships built in Harwich Floating batteries of the Royal Navy {{UK-line-ship-stub