HMS Thunderer (1760)

HMS Thunderer was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 19 March 1760 at Woolwich.[1] She earned a battle honour in a single-ship action off Cadiz with the French ship Achille (64 guns) in 1761, during the Seven Years' War.

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

Model of a 74-gun ship, 3rd rate, circa 1760. Thought to be either HMS Hercules or HMS Thunderer from 1760.
History
Great Britain
Name: Thunderer
Ordered: 15 July 1756
Builder: Woolwich Dockyard
Launched: 19 March 1760
Fate: Wrecked, 1780
General characteristics [1]
Class and type: Hercules-class ship of the line
Tons burthen: 1609​33⁄94 (bm)
Length: 166 ft 6 in (50.75 m) (gundeck)
Beam: 46 ft 6 in (14.17 m)
Depth of hold: 19 ft 9 in (6.02 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Armament:
  • 74 guns:
  • Lower gundeck: 28 × 32 pdrs
  • Upper gundeck: 28 × 18 pdrs
  • Quarter deck: 14 × 9 pdrs
  • Forecastle: 4 × 9 pdrs
One of two cannons attributed to HMS Thunderer, displayed at a rum cake factory on Grand Cayman Island
Descriptive plaque at a cannon attributed to Thunderer

She foundered in the Great Hurricane of 1780 in the West Indies,[1] reportedly 90 miles east of Jamaica on the Formigas Banks with the loss of all 617 on board.[2] Among the lost sailors were the Captain, Robert Boyle-Walsingham (1736–1780), and Midshipman Nathaniel Cook (1764–1780), the second child of Captain James Cook.

Two cannons attributed to the ship are displayed at a rum cake factory on Grand Cayman Island. A plaque states that they were recovered in 1984 by the research vessel Beacon.[2]

Media related to HMS Thunderer (ship, 1760) at Wikimedia Commons

Notes
  1. Lavery, Ships of the Line vol.1, p176.
  2. Tippin, pp. 45–50

References
  • Lavery, Brian (2003). The Ship of the Line – Volume 1: The Development of the Battlefleet 1650–1850. Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-252-8.
  • Tippin, G. Lee; Humphreys, Jr., Herbert (1989). In search of the Golden Madonna: the treasure finders of the RV Beacon. Daring Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-93893-686-2.


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