HMS Kent (1798)

HMS Kent was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 17 January 1798 at Blackwall Yard.[2]

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

HMS Kent (1798) image
History
Royal Navy EnsignGreat Britain
NameHMS Kent
Ordered30 April 1795
BuilderJohn Perry and Company Blackwall Yard
Laid downOctober 1795
Launched17 January 1798
Commissioned3 April 1798 at Woolwich Dockyard
In service
  • 1798–1804
  • 1805–1809
  • 1829–1842
  • 1855–1881
Honours and
awards		Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Egypt"[1]
FateBroken up, 1881
General characteristics 1798–1817
Class and typeAjax-class ship of the line
Tons burthen1,96373⁄94 (bm)
Length
  • 182 ft 8 in (55.68 m) (gundeck)
  • 149 ft 11 in (45.69 m) (keel)
Beam49 ft 7.5 in (15.126 m)
Depth of hold21 ft 5 in (6.53 m)
Sail planFull-rigged ship
Complement690
Armament
  • Gundeck: 28 × 32-pdrs
  • Upper deck: 28 × 24-pdrs
  • QD: 14 × 9-pdrs
  • Fc: 4 × 9-pdrs
General characteristics 1820–1881
Class and typeAjax-class ship of the line
Tons burthen2,00962⁄94 (bm)
Length
  • 184 ft 2.5 in (56.147 m) (gundeck)
  • 150 ft 10.5 in (45.987 m) (keel)
Beam50 ft 0 in (15.24 m)
Depth of hold21 ft 10 in (6.65 m)
Sail planFull-rigged ship
Armament
  • Gundeck: 28 × 32-pdrs
  • Upper gundeck: 28 × 24-pdrs
  • QD: 4 × 9-pdrs & 8 x 32-pdr carronades
  • Fc: 4 × 9-pdrs

Career
'View of Mr Perry's Yard, Blackwall, commemorating the launch of HM ship Kent

When Kent was launched on 17 January 1798, she was launched immediately after the East Indiaman Lord Duncan. Kent followed nearly the same course as Lord Duncan had taken with the result that Kent's stern ran into Lord Duncan's bow, doing great damage to both vessels. Both vessels then had to go back into dock to effect repairs.[3]

On 9 May 1801 Kent, Hector and Cruelle unsuccessfully chased the French corvette Heliopolis, which eluded them and slipped into Alexandria.[4] Because Kent served in the Navy's Egyptian campaign (8 March to 8 September 1801), her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal that the Admiralty authorised in 1850 for all surviving claimants.[Note 1]

On 13 December 1809 350 sailors and 250 marines from Kent,and two other 74-gun third rates, Cambrian and Ajax, attacked Palamós. (The sloops Sparrowhawk and Minstrel covered the landing.) The landing party destroyed six of eight merchant vessels with supplies for the French army at Barcelona, as well as the vessels' escorts, a national ketch of 14 guns and 60 men and two xebecs of three guns and thirty men each. The vessels were lying inside the mole under the protection of 250 French troops, a battery of two 24-pounders, and a 13" mortar in a battery on a commanding height. Although the attack was successful, the withdrawal was not. The British lost 33 men killed, 89 wounded, and 86 taken prisoner, plus one seaman who took the opportunity to desert.[6]

Fate

Kent became a sheer hulk in 1856, and was broken up in 1881.[2]

Notes
  1. A first-class share of the prize money awarded in April 1823 was worth £34 2s 4d; a fifth-class share, that of a seaman, was worth 3s 11½d. The amount was small as the total had to be shared between 79 vessels and the entire army contingent.[5]

Citations
  1. "No. 21077". The London Gazette. 15 March 1850. pp. 791–792.
  2. Lavery 2003, p. 184
  3. "LONDON, Jan. 19." 30 January 1798, Aberdeen Journal (Aberdeen, Scotland), issue: 2612.
  4. James (1902), p.75.
  5. "No. 17915". The London Gazette. 3 April 1823. p. 633.
  6. James (1837), Vol. 5, pp.259-60.

References


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