HMS Temeraire was a 98-gun second-rate ship of the line of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy. Launched in 1798, she served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, mostly on blockades or convoy escort duties. She fought only one fleet action, the Battle of Trafalgar, but became so well known for that action and her subsequent depictions in art and literature that she has been remembered as The Fighting Temeraires. She was converted to a prison ship and moored in the River Tamar until 1819. The Admiralty ordered her to be sold in 1838, and she was towed up the Thames to be broken up.
About HMS Temeraire (1798) in brief
HMS Temeraire was a 98-gun second-rate ship of the line of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy. Launched in 1798, she served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, mostly on blockades or convoy escort duties. She fought only one fleet action, the Battle of Trafalgar, but became so well known for that action and her subsequent depictions in art and literature that she has been remembered as The Fighting Temeraires. She was converted to a prison ship and moored in the River Tamar until 1819. The Admiralty ordered her to be sold in 1838, and she was towed up the Thames to be broken up. A reproduction of the painting appears on the back of the Bank of England £20 note issued in 2020. Her final costs came to £73,241, and included £59,428 spent on the hull, masts and yards, and a further £13,813 on rigging and stores. The ship was one of three ships of the Neptune class, alongside her sisters HMS Neptune and HMS Dreadnought. Her construction was initially overseen by Master Shipwright Thomas Pollard and completed by his successor Edward Sison. The keel was laid down at Chatham in July 1793, and the ship was commissioned on 21 March 1799 under Captain Peter Puget, becoming the second ship to bear the name. Her predecessor had been the 74-gun third-rate HMS Temeraire, a former French ship taken as a prize at the battle of Lagos on August 19, 1759.
The vessel was superseded by Captain Thomas Eyles on 27 July 1799 while the vessel was anchored off Helensight, Isle of Wight, flying the flag of Rear Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren. The Channel Fleet at that time was principally engaged in the blockade of the French port of Brest, and spent several years in that role. After undergoing substantial repairs, she was employed blockading the French fleets and supporting British operations off the Spanish coasts. Her last action was against the French off Toulon, when she came under fire from shore batteries. The ship returned to Britain in 1813 for repairs, but was laid up. She was voted Britain’s favourite painting in a BBC radio poll in 2005 and it appears briefly in the James Bond movie Skyfall. The final voyage was depicted in a J. M. W. Turner oil painting greeted with critical acclaim, entitled The Fighting temeraire tugged to her last Berth to be broke up, 1838. The painting continues to be held in high regard: it was voted UK’s favourite Painting of the Year by the BBC in 2005, and it is featured in a reproduction of Skyfall’s Skyfall, which was released in October 2013. The last time she was seen at sea was on July 27, 1799, off the coast of St Helens, where she was fitted with copper sheathing.
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This page is based on the article HMS Temeraire (1798) published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 03, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
