HMS Ajax (1798)
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| Ship data | ||
| Surname: | Ajax | |
| Keel laying : | September 1795 | |
| Launching ( ship christening ): | March 3, 1798 | |
| Builder: | Randall in Rotherhithe | |
| Crew: | 690 men officers and men | |
| Whereabouts: | Burned in 1807 | |
| Technical specifications | ||
| Type | Kent-class ship of the line, third rank | |
| Length on gun deck | 182 feet , 3 inches (= 55.55 m) | |
| Width on frame | 49 feet , 3 inches (= 15.01 m) | |
| Depth in the load | 21 feet , 3 inches (= 8.48 m) | |
| tonnage | 1604 long tons | |
| Armament | ||
| Main battery deck | 28 × 24 pounders | |
| Upper battery deck | 28 × 24 pounders | |
| Foredeck | 4 × 9 pounders | |
| Aft deck | 14 × 9-pounder (later 4 × 9-pounder and 8 × 32-pounder carronade ) | |
The HMS Ajax was a 3rd rank ship of the line equipped with 74 cannons . In 1807 it was destroyed by fire. Her sister ship was the HMS Kent .
Egypt
On March 1, 1801, the English fleet anchored in Abukir Bay to land troops, but this was only possible a week later due to the bad weather conditions.
On March 8, 1801, the 70 ships of the Royal Navy with a total of 320 boats were able to land Sir Ralph Abercromby's army in the Bay of Abukir, so that one day later the entire 16,000 men were disembarked. The fleet squadron provided an additional 1,000 men under the command of Sir Sidney Smith to fight Napoleon with the English Army. After the English victory at the Battle of Alexandria , the Ajax was one of the first ships to enter the port of Alexandria .
In 1802 after the Peace of Amiens the Ajax returned to Plymouth .
Cape Finisterre and Trafalgar (1805)
In April 1802 a ship formation consisting of Ajax , HMS Malta and HMS Terrible was sent to Malta to strengthen the squadron there under Vice Admiral Sir Robert Calder . The reason for this were strong storms, which the squadron had meanwhile reduced to a strength of five ships.
On July 22, 1805, Vice-Admiral Calder was sailing with his ready-to-use squadron near Cape Finisterre when the French-Spanish fleet was sighted. For several hours, both fleets tried to achieve a tactically favorable combat position and sailed in a south-westerly direction. The battle of Cape Finisterre began at around 5:15 p.m. when the captain of the HMS Hero was heading for the enemy battle formation. At 8:25 p.m. Calder signaled to end the fight.
After repairing the damage suffered in the battle in Plymouth , the Ajax and the HMS Thunderer were placed under the command of Admiral Nelson and left Plymouth on September 18 for Cádiz . During the Battle of Trafalgar , the Ajax was the seventh ship in Admiral Nelson's line of battle . During the battle, the Ajax fought against both the 74-gun ship of the line Bucentaure and the Santissima Trinidad . After the battle she helped salvage castaways and then returned to Plymouth.
loss
When the Ajax anchored near the island of Tenedos in the run-up to the British Dardanelles operation on February 14, 1807 , a fire broke out in one of the bread storage rooms due to a light left on. The Ajax burned through the night and drifted towards the island of Tenedos, where it ran aground on the morning of February 15, 1807 and exploded. 250 sailors lost their lives in the fire, 380 were able to save themselves.
literature
- Alexander Allardyce: Memoir of the Honorable George Keith Elphinstone , KB, Viscount Keith, Admiral of the Red . W. Blackwood Press, London 1882.
- Edward P. Brenton: The Naval History of Great Britain from the Year 1783 to 1836, Vol. 2 . Henry Colburn Publisher, London 1837.
- James J. Colledge: Ships of the Royal Navy. The Complete Record of All Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy From the Fifteenth Century to the Present . Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Md. 1987, ISBN 0-87021-652-X .
- William P. Gossett: The lost ships of the Royal Navy, 1793-1900 . Mansell, London 1986, ISBN 0-7201-1816-6 .
- Brian Lavery: The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850 (The Ship of the Line; 1). Conway Maritime Press, London 2003, ISBN 0-85177-252-8 .
- David Lyon: Sailing Navy List . Conway Maritime Press, London 1997, ISBN 0-85177-864-X
- Rif Winfield: British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1793-1817. Design, Construction, Careers and Fates . 2nd ed. Seaforth Publishing, Barnsley 2008, ISBN 978-1-84415-717-4 .