HMS Nassau (1785)

HMS Nassau was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 28 September 1785 by Hilhouse in Bristol.[1]

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

Silhouette of the ship-of-the-line Nassau
History
Great Britain
Name: HMS Nassau
Ordered: 14 November 1782
Builder: Hilhouse, Bristol
Laid down: March 1783
Launched: 28 September 1785
Fate: Wrecked 14 October 1799
General characteristics [1]
Class and type: Ardent-class ship of the line
Tons burthen: 1384 (bm)
Length: 160 ft (49 m) (gundeck)
Beam: 44 ft 4 in (13.51 m)
Depth of hold: 19 ft (5.8 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Armament:
  • 64 guns:
  • Gundeck: 26 × 24-pounder guns
  • Upper gundeck: 26 × 18-pounder guns
  • QD: 10 × 4-pounder guns
  • Fc: 2 × 9-pounder guns

One of her first ship's surgeons is thought to be John Sylvester Hay. He died young but he was the father of the actress Harriett Litchfield.[2]

During the Nore Mutiny she was commanded by Captain Edward O'Bryen. She was converted for use as a troopship in 1797.[1]

Nassau was wrecked on the Kicks sandbar off Texel, the Netherlands, on 14 October 1799, there being 205 survivors and about 100 lives lost.[3]

Notes
  1. Lavery, Ships of the Line vol.1, p181.
  2. K. A. Crouch, ‘Litchfield , Harriett (1777–1854)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 accessed 1 Feb 2015
  3. The Reading Mercury and Oxford Gazette, 11 November 1799

References
  • Lavery, Brian (2003) The Ship of the Line - Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850. Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-252-8.


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