Dutch ship Hercules

Hercules was a Dutch 68-gun third-rate ship of the line of the navy of the Dutch Republic, the Batavian Republic, and the Royal Navy.

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

The ship Hercules shortly after the Battle of Camperdown.
History
Dutch Republic
Name: Hercules
Laid down: 1781
Launched: 12 April 1782
Commissioned: 1782
Decommissioned: 1795
Batavian Republic
Name: Hercules
Commissioned: 1795
In service: 1795
Out of service: 1797
Captured: 11 October 1797
Fate: Captured
UK
Name: HMS Delft
Acquired: 1797
Commissioned: 1797
Decommissioned: 1822
Reclassified:
Fate: Sunk as a breakwater in 1822
General characteristics
Class and type: 68-gun third-rate ship of the line
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Armament:
  • 68 guns:
  • Lower gundeck: 26 x 24 pdrs
  • Upper gundeck: 26 x 18 pdrs
  • Quarterdeck & Forecastle: 8 x 8 pdrs

The order to construct the ship was given by the Admiralty of the Meuse in 1781.[1]

In 1795, the ship was commissioned in the Batavian Navy.

Hercules on fire at the Battle of Camperdown, by Thomas Whitcombe

On 11 October 1797 Hercules took part in the Battle of Camperdown under Captain G.J. van Rijsoort. Fire broke out on the ship, and she was eventually captured by the British and renamed HMS Delft, in honour of the brave resistance the ship Delft had made in the battle.[2]

In 1799, Delft served as a troop transport ship. She became a prison hulk in 1802, and in 1822 she was sunk to serve as a breakwater close to the town of Harwich.[3]

References
  1. J.F. Fischer Fzn. De Delft: De dagjournalen met de complete en authentieke geschiedenis van 's Lands schip van oorlog Delft en de waarheid over de zeeslag bij Camperduin (Franeker: Van Wijnen, 1997), 135.
  2. J.F. Fischer Fzn. De Delft: De dagjournalen met de complete en authentieke geschiedenis van 's Lands schip van oorlog Delft en de waarheid over de zeeslag bij Camperduin (Franeker: Van Wijnen, 1997), 394.
  3. J.F. Fischer Fzn. De Delft: De dagjournalen met de complete en authentieke geschiedenis van 's Lands schip van oorlog Delft en de waarheid over de zeeslag bij Camperduin (Franeker: Van Wijnen, 1997), 394.


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