#hms thunderer

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HMS Thunderer

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The Ganges shortening sail in Rio de Janeiro Harbour by Samuel Hood Inglefield, c. 1848 (NMM).

In his memoir Twenty Years Before the Mast, American sailor Charles Erskine described a scene in the busy harbour of Rio de Janeiro in the late 1830s. Warships of all nations occupied the bay, and a British man-o-war taunted Erskine and his mates with a War of 1812 ditty, leading to musical retaliation:

Among other vessels there was the English line-of-battleship Thunderer of ninety guns and a crew of one thousand men. They usually sang on board of her every night, and always wound up at eight bells by singing the first or second part of "The Chesapeake and Shannon," which was very aggravating to American patriotism. [...]

One night Commander Wilkes happened to appear on deck just as they were singing the obnoxious song, which seemed to annoy him extremely. I will do him the justice to say that, with all his faults, he was a true American, and loved dearly the old flag. One of the crew went aft and asked him if we might return that song next Saturday evening by giving them "The Parliaments of England." "Yes, my man,” was the reply, "and give it to them in thunderous tones, with plenty of Yankee lightning.” Fifty of the best singers began to practice, and on the next Saturday evening, just as the crew on board of the Thunderer had finished singing their usual song, our chorus commenced.

HMS Thunderer (1831), firing a salute in an 1842 drawing by Ebenezer Landells (Wikimedia Commons). Not pictured: her musical accompaniment.

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[ltwilliammowett]

HMS 'Thunderer' Culloden Class, 1781, by Frederick W. Bumford (active 1979–1986)

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HMS Thunderer - Frederick W. Bumford

[ltwilliammowett]

One of two cannons attributed to HMS Thunderer (1760), displayed at a rum cake factory on Grand Cayman Island.

She was a 74-gun, third rate ship-of-the-line. She earned a battle honour in a single ship action off Cadiz with the French ship Achille (64 guns) in 1761. 1780 she foundered a hurrican and lost almost all of the lifes onboard.

[ltwilliammowett]

HMS Thunderer, Culloden Class, 1781 by Frederick W. Bumford (active 1979–1986)

She was ordered in 1781 and only launched in 1783. She was ship-of-the-line with, 74 guns. In 1794 she fought at the Glorious First of June under Captain Albemarle Bertie, and from 1796 to 1801 served in the West Indies, under a succession of captains.[citation needed] During this period, under Captain Pierre Flasse, Thunderer fought at the Battle of Jean-Rabel in which she and HMS Valiant forced the crew of the French frigate Harmonie to scuttle their vessel to prevent her capture.

On 15 October, Melampus and Latona, and later Orion and Thalia, and later still Pomone and Concorde, chased two French frigates, Tartu and Néréide, 50-gun frigate Forte and the brig-aviso (or corvette) Éveillé. The British ships had to give up on the frigates due to the closeness of the shore. However, Pomone and Thunderer, which had joined the chase, were able to take Eveillé, of 18 guns, and 100 men. The French force had been out for 60 days and had captured 12 West Indiamen, two of which, Kent and Albion, the British had already recaptured. Pomone and her squadron had recaptured Kent on 9 October. Orion recaptured Albion. Warren’s squadron returned to England in December with the remnants of the expedition to Quiberon Bay.

In mid-1799 Thunderer was part of a British squadron that detained the schooner Pegasus. Pegasus had been flying an American flag and was carrying 68 slaves from Jamaica to Havana. Her captors sent Pegasus into the Bahamas where they were sold in late June and early July. The advertisements for the sales gave the origins of the slaves as Martinique, suggesting that Pegasus had been carrying false papers.

On 10 October 1800, Thunderer rescued the crew of Diligence which had struck a reef off the north coast of Cuba. The British set fire to Diligence as they left. It turned out that she had hit an uncharted shoal near Rio Puercos. HMS Thunderer in a storm off Crookhaven in 1803

Thunderer was recommissioned in 1803.

In 1805 she fought in Admiral Calder’s fleet at the Battle of Cape Finisterre. Her captain, William Lechmere, returned to England to attend a court-martial as a witness to the events of Admiral Calder’s action off Cape Finisterre at the time of the battle. Later that year she fought at the Battle of Trafalgar under the command of her First Lieutenant, John Stockham. The surgeon on board was Scotsman James Marr Brydone, who was the first of the main British battle fleet to sight the Franco-Spanish fleet. Thunderer signalled the Victory and three minutes later battle orders were signalled to the British fleet beginning the Battle of Trafalgar. On 25 November, Thunderer detained the Ragusan ship Nemesis, of 350 tons , four guns and 18 men, Poulovich, master. Nemesis was sailing from Isle de France to Leghorn, Italy, with a cargo of spice, indigo dye, and other goods. Thunderer shared the prize money with ten other British warships.

In 1807, Thunderer served in the Dardanelles Operation as part of a squadron under Admiral Sir John Duckworth and was badly damaged when the squadron withdrew from the area. However, she accompanied Duckworth on the Alexandria expedition of 1807, and in May left Alexandria for Malta, where she was provisioned and repaired over a period of 30 days.

She was decommissioned in November 1808 and broken up in March 1814.

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DD-223, USS McCormick, Battleship HMS Thunderer & Battleship Bretagne.