Dreadnought/Neptune-class 2nd rate 98 (3m).
L/B:
185 × 51 × 21.5 (56.4m × 15.5m × 6.6m). Tons:
2,121 bm. Hull:
wood. Comp.:
750. Arm.:
28 × 32pdr, 60 × 18pdr, 10 × 12pdr. Des.:
John Henslow. Built:
Chatham Dockyard, Eng.; 1798.
The second ship of the name, HMS Téméraire spent her first three years as flagship of the Channel Fleet and the Western Squadron during the War of the Second Coalition against France. At the end of 1801, she called at Bantry Bay bound for her new station in the Caribbean when the crew mutinied. Twenty were arrested and the ship returned to Spithead where eighteen were hanged at the yardarm. In 1803, Téméraire was assigned to blockade duty off western France. In 1805, she was one of eighteen ships detached from the Channel Fleet to a squadron under Admiral Sir Robert Calder in order to follow the Franco-Spanish Combined Fleet (Vice Admiral Pierre Villeneuve) to Spain. Vice Admiral Lord Nelson relieved Calder on September 28 and with his fleet stalked the Combined Fleet until it sailed from Cadiz on October 19-20. The following day, Téméraire was next astern of
HMS Victory in Nelson's weather column at the Battle of Trafalgar. Téméraire relieved pressure on Victory by raking Redoutable's starboard side. She was being mauled by the French 74 and Neptune (80 guns) when she was approached by Fougueux (80), against which she unleashed two devastating broadsides. The French ship drifted onto Téméraire and was swiftly captured by a British prize crew. With losses totaling 121 killed and wounded and her masts and rigging a shambles, Téméraire was unfit for further sea duty. She was employed as a prison ship from 1813 to 1815, and thereafter as a receiving ship at Devonport and Sheerness. In 1836 she was briefly recommissioned under Captain Thomas Fortescue Kennedy, who as her first lieutenant led in the capture of Fougueux at Trafalgar. Two years later she was en route to be broken up at Rotherhithe when J. M. W. Turner was inspired to paint "The Fighting Téméraire."
Longridge, Anatomy of Nelson's Ships. Mackenzie, Trafalgar Roll.
