HMS Thunderer (1760)

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Thunderer.

HMS Thunderer was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 19 March 1760 at Woolwich.^[1] She earned a battle honour in a single-ship action off Cadiz with the French ship Achille (64 guns) in 1761, during the Seven Years' War.

Model of a 74-gun ship, 3rd rate, circa 1760. Thought to be either HMS Hercules or HMS Thunderer from 1760.
History
Great Britain
Name	Thunderer
Ordered	15 July 1756
Builder	Woolwich Dockyard
Launched	19 March 1760
Fate	Wrecked on 5 October 1780
General characteristics [1]
Class & type	Hercules-class ship of the line
Tons burthen	160933⁄94 (bm)
Length	166 ft 6 in (50.75 m) (gundeck)
Beam	46 ft 6 in (14.17 m)
Depth of hold	19 ft 9 in (6.02 m)
Propulsion	Sails
Sail plan	Full-rigged ship
Armament	74 guns: Lower gundeck: 28 × 32 pdrs Upper gundeck: 28 × 18 pdrs Quarter deck: 14 × 9 pdrs Forecastle: 4 × 9 pdrs

One of two cannons attributed to HMS Thunderer, displayed at a rum cake factory on Grand Cayman Island

Descriptive plaque at a cannon attributed to Thunderer

She foundered in the Great Hurricane of 1780 in the West Indies,^[1] reportedly 90 miles east of Jamaica on the Formigas Banks with the loss of all 617 on board.^[2] Among the lost sailors were the Captain, Robert Boyle-Walsingham (1736–1780), and Midshipman Nathaniel Cook (1764–1780), the second child of Captain James Cook.

Two cannons attributed to the ship are displayed at a rum cake factory on Grand Cayman Island. A plaque states that they were recovered in 1984 by the research vessel Beacon.^[2]