HMS Terrible (1762)

Terrible
History
Royal Navy EnsignGreat Britain
NameHMS Terrible
Ordered8 January 1761
BuilderJohn Barnard, Harwich Dockyard
Launched4 September 1762
FateBurned, 1781
Notes
General characteristics [1]
Class and typeRamillies-class ship of the line
Tons burthen1644
Length168 ft 6 in (51.36 m) (gundeck)
Beam46 ft 11 in (14.30 m)
Depth of hold19 ft 9 in (6.02 m)
PropulsionSails
Sail planFull-rigged ship
Armament
  • 74 guns:
  • Gundeck: 28 × 32 pdrs
  • Upper gundeck: 28 × 18 pdrs
  • Quarterdeck: 14 × 9 pdrs
  • Forecastle: 4 × 9 pdrs

HMS Terrible was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built by John Barnard and launched on 4 September 1762 at King's Yard in Harwich, as a sister ship to HMS Arrogant.[1]

In the English Channel, on 15 April, 1777, under Captain Richard Bickerton, she took an American privateer brig called the Rising States, Capt Thompson.[2][3]

In 1778 she fought at the First Battle of Ushant, and in 1781 Terrible (Capt. Finch) was part of Sir Thomas Graves' fleet at the Battle of the Chesapeake. During the course of the battle, she took heavy damage, and was scuttled, or deliberately sunk, after the battle had ended.[4]

  1. ^ a b Lavery, Ships of the Line vol.1, p177.
  2. ^ Log of Captain Richard Bickerton, HMS Terrible, 15 and 16 April 1777. Primary source transcribed on blog site http://paulinespiratesandprivateers.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/history-aboard-terrible.html accessed 6 Dec 2015
  3. ^ "Naval Documents of The American Revolution Volume 11 AMERICAN THEATRE: Jan. 1, 1778–Mar. 31, 1778 EUROPEAN THEATRE: Jan. 1, 1778–Mar. 31, 1778" (PDF). U.S. Government printing office via Imbiblio. Retrieved 23 August 2023.
  4. ^ Larrabee, Harold A. (1964). Decision at the Chesapeake. New York: Clarkson N. Potter. pp. 220–222. OCLC 426234.