HMS Venerable (1784)

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

HMS Venerable was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 19 April 1784 at Blackwall Yard.^[1]

The Battle of Camperdown, 11 October 1797 by Thomas Whitcombe, painted 1798, showing the British flagship Venerable (flying the Blue Ensign from her stern) engaged with the Dutch flagship Vrijheid.
History
Great Britain
Name	HMS Venerable
Ordered	9 August 1781
Builder	Perry, Wells & Green, Blackwall Yard
Laid down	April 1782
Launched	19 April 1784
Fate	Wrecked 24 November 1804
Notes	Participated in: Battle of Camperdown
General characteristics [1]
Class & type	Culloden-class ship of the line
Tons burthen	1669 (bm)
Length	170 ft (51.8 m) (gundeck)
Beam	47 ft 2 in (14.4 m)
Depth of hold	19 ft 11 in (6.1 m)
Propulsion	Sails
Sail plan	Full-rigged ship
Armament	Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

Service history

In 1795, Veneraable is known to have been under the command of Captain James Bissett.^[2] In 1797, Venerable served as Admiral Duncan's flagship at the Battle of Camperdown.^[3]

In 1801, Venerable took part in the First Battle of Algeciras on 6 July and the Second Battle of Algeciras on 12–13 July. During the latter engagement, she was driven ashore on the coast of Spain in Algeciras Bay, but she was refloated, repaired, and returned to service.

Fate

Loss of His Majesty's Ship Venerable... Shipwreck on the Night of 24 November 1804 on the Rocks in Torbay, by Robert Dodd

Venerable was wrecked on 24 November 1804, off Roundham Head near Torbay.^[3] Three of her crew were lost.^[4] Newspapers reported a dispatch dated 28 November: The Venerable had gone to pieces in a tremendous gale, the number of men drowned is said to be 13 — they are supposed to have been intoxicated when the ship struck. The commander of the Venerable was Captain Hunter, a brave and skilful officer and a gentleman of considerable literary and scientific acquirements who was for some time governor of New South Wales and has favoured the public with an interesting account of that colony.^[5]

Two days later, on 26 November, the hired armed ship Lady Warren sailed from Plymouth to Torbay with Growler, six gun-vessels and yard-lighters, and other craft, to save the stores, guns, etc. from the wreck of Venerable.^[6]

Elizabeth Goudge used the event of the destruction of H.M.S. Venerable in a storm as a key event in her 1950 novel, Gentian Hill, as Goudge acknowledged in her prefatory Note.