HMS ''Victorious'' 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). Rating When the rating system was f ...

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 tactics in the Age of Sail, naval tactic known as the line of battl ...

of the

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, launched at

Blackwall Yard Blackwall Yard is a small body of water that used to be a shipyard on the River Thames in Blackwall, engaged in ship building and later ship repairs for over 350 years. The yard closed in 1987. History East India Company Blackwall was a sh ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

on 27 April 1785.Lavery, Ships of the Line, vol. 1, p. 180. She was the first ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name.

Career

In April 1795, ''Victorious'' ran aground on the Shipwash Sand, in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

off the coast of

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

and was dismasted. During the month of February 1796, ''Victorious'' encountered and captured the French privateer brig ''Hasard'', formerly the British pilot ship ''Cartier'', which was returning to

Île de France Ile or ILE may refer to: Ile * Ile, a Puerto Rican singer * Ile District (disambiguation), multiple places * Ilé-Ifẹ̀, an ancient Yoruba city in south-western Nigeria * Interlingue (ISO 639:ile), a planned language * Isoleucine, an amino aci ...

(Mauritius) with a 10-man crew after having captured the

East Indiaman East Indiamen were merchant ships that operated under charter or licence for European trading companies which traded with the East Indies between the 17th and 19th centuries. The term was commonly used to refer to vessels belonging to the Bri ...

''Triton''.Demerliac, p. 309, no 2915 She took part in the action of 9 September 1796. ''Victorious'' participated in the capture of the Dutch colony of

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

, in which an invasion had been caused due to fears of

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's expansion across the world.

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seized the strategic Cape Town and thus secured the nation its routes to the East. The rest of her career was spent in the warm climates of the

East Indies The East Indies (or simply the Indies) is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The ''Indies'' broadly referred to various lands in Eastern world, the East or the Eastern Hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainl ...

, patrolling the vast waters in that region. In 1801 Captain Pulteney Malcolm took command as ''Victorious'' served as flagship for Admiral Peter Rainier.

Fate

On her homeward passage from the East Indies in 1803, ''Victorious'' proved exceedingly leaky. When she met with heavy weather in the North Atlantic, her crew had difficulty keeping her afloat till she reached the

Tagus The Tagus ( ; ; ) is the longest river in the Iberian Peninsula. The river rises in the Montes Universales between Cuenca and Teruel, in mid-eastern Spain, flows , generally westward, and empties into the Atlantic Ocean in Lisbon. Name T ...

, where she was run ashore. Malcolm, with the officers and crew, returned to England in two vessels that he chartered at Lisbon. She was condemned and then broken up in August at

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

.Winfield (2008), p.60. On 1 August ''Sir Andrew Mitchell'' arrived at Portsmouth, in company with , carrying Malcolm, his officers, and crew. ''Sir Andrew Mitchell'', R. Gilmore, master, was a 14-year old, 522-ton (bm) ship on the Cork-Lisbon trade.''Lloyd's Register'' (1804).

Citations

References

* *Lavery, Brian (1983) ''The Ship of the Line - Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850.'' Conway Maritime Press. . * Ships of the line of the Royal Navy Culloden-class ships of the line Ships built by the Blackwall Yard 1785 ships Maritime incidents in 1795 Maritime incidents in 1803 Shipwrecks of Portugal Shipwrecks in rivers {{UK-line-ship-stub