HMS “Tremendous” - British ship of the line (1784)

[Anatol]

HMS Tremendous (His Majesty's Ship Tremendous) is a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line . The only Royal Navy ship named HMS Tremendous . Third ship of the Ganges class . Laid down in August 1782 . Launched on 30 October 1784 at Barnard's private shipyard in Deptford . It belonged to the so-called “regular 74-gun ships” and carried 18-pound cannons on the upper gun deck .
In the spring of 1794, Tremendous , under the command of Captain James Pigott, joined the Channel Fleet, which was commanded by Lord Howe . On May 2, 1794, Leviathan put to sea with the Channel Fleet to intercept an important French grain convoy from North America. Finding the French fleet still at Brest on 5 May , the squadron turned to the Atlantic, with the intention of interposing itself between the convoy and its future escort. On May 28, Lord Howe's frigates discovered the French fleet, but they were to windward, making it difficult for the British to force them into battle.
On May 29, Howe tried to break through the French line from leeward. A dozen British ships engaged in a serious firefight, and although some were damaged, none required the help of the shipyard, all remained in service. The situation was different for the French: several had to return to Brest, but they were replaced by 5 ships of Neuilly, which were lucky to find their fleet the next day.
On June 1, both fleets formed a line 6 miles apart. Tremendous was the ninth ship in the British column. When Howe raised the signal to cut through the enemy line, Tremendous and several other ships failed to execute the required maneuver in time, ending up too far to windward of the enemy so that they took little part in the battle. In the battle, Tremendous lost 3 people killed and 8 wounded .
On 17 August 1796, Tremendous , under the command of Captain John Aylmer, was present at the surrender of Rear Admiral Lucas's Dutch squadron at Saldanha Bay . Lucas's squadron of 3 ships of the line, 4 frigates and a sloop was sent to the Cape of Good Hope to regain control of the Cape Colony , which had been captured by the British a year earlier. Due to severe storms, the squadron was forced to anchor in Saldanha Bay, where they were discovered by superior forces of the British fleet. Since Lucas understood that he had practically no chance of winning, he decided to give up. After the surrender, all the ships of the Dutch squadron went to the British.
On 11 December 1799, Tremendous , under the command of Captain John Osborne, together with the 50-gun Adamant (Captain William Hotham) encountered near Port Louis , Ile-de-France , the cruising 44-gun French frigate Preneuse , under the command of Captain L'Hermite . They chased him and, after a short firefight, forced him to beach three miles from Port Louis, under the cover of French coastal batteries. Hotham brought the Adamant closer and attempted to reach the grounded frigate, while coming under heavy fire from shore batteries. After exchanging salvoes, Adamant forced the French frigate to lower her flag, and in the evening three boats from Adamant and Tremendous approached with orders to destroy the French ship [4] . Despite coming under heavy fire from the battery, they boarded the frigate, captured the remainder of the French crew, including Captain L'Hermitte, and removed as much of their captives' property as they could. They then set fire to Preneuse and returned to their ships without losing a single man.
On 20 April 1806, Tremendous , under the command of the same Captain John Osborne, was escorting a merchant convoy of 11 ships when the French 40-gun frigate Canonnière was sighted . Tremendous gave chase and after 7 hours caught up with the enemy, after which the ships exchanged several broadsides. Although Tremendous was significantly superior in firepower to the frigate, it was more maneuverable and therefore managed to avoid serious damage, while itself causing damage to the battleship's rigging. After which Canonnière set all sails and eventually managed to break away from the pursuit. During the short battle, the French frigate lost 7 people killed and 25 wounded, Tremendous suffered no losses .
On 13 May 1815, Tremendous was present at the surrender of Naples during the Neapolitan War . A British squadron consisting of Tremendous , the frigate Alcmene , the sloop Partridge and the brig-sloop Grasshopper blockaded the port and destroyed all the gunboats in the harbour. The British Parliament decided to allocate the sum of £150,000 as a bonus for the sailors and officers of the squadron, which was paid in May 1819.
In 1845, Tremendous was downgraded to a 50-gun ship and renamed HMS Grampus . In 1856 Grampus was converted into a gunpowder warehouse in Portsmouth . It remained in this capacity until 1897, when it was sold for scrap .
The image of the stamp was created from a fragment of a painting by the artist Julien Pierre Gilbert: “Battle between HMS Tremendous and Connoniere, April 21, 1806.”
Fight of the British Third Rate 74-gun ship-of-the-line HMS Tremendous (in the centre) and HMS Hindostan (first from right) against the French frigate Cannonière (first from left), 21 April 1806.
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Source: https://ru.ruwiki.ru/wiki/HMS_Tremendous.