The ship Hercules shortly after the Battle of Camperdown.
History
Dutch Navy EnsignDutch Republic
NameHercules
Laid down1781
Launched12 April 1782
Commissioned1782
Decommissioned1795
Batavian Navy EnsignBatavian Republic
NameHercules
Commissioned1795
In service1795
Out of service1797
Captured11 October 1797
FateCaptured
Great Britain
NameHMS Delft
Acquired1797
Commissioned1797
Decommissioned1822
Reclassified
FateSunk as a breakwater in 1822
General characteristics
Class and type68-gun third-rate ship of the line
PropulsionSails
Sail planFull-rigged ship
Armament
  • 68 guns:
  • Lower gundeck: 26 x 24 pdrs
  • Upper gundeck: 26 x 18 pdrs
  • Quarterdeck & Forecastle: 8 x 8 pdrs

Hercules was a Dutch 68-gun third-rate ship of the line of the navy of the Dutch Republic, the Batavian Republic, and the Royal Navy.

The order to construct the ship was given by the Admiralty of the Meuse in 1781.[1]

In 1795, the ship was commissioned in the Batavian Navy.

Hercules on fire at the Battle of Camperdown, by Thomas Whitcombe

On 11 October 1797 Hercules took part in the Battle of Camperdown under Captain G.J. van Rijsoort. Fire broke out on the ship, and she was eventually captured by the British and renamed HMS Delft, in honour of the brave resistance the ship Delft had made in the battle.[2]

In 1799, Delft served as a troop transport ship. She became a prison hulk in 1802, and in 1822 she was sunk to serve as a breakwater close to the town of Harwich.[3]

Hercules in 1797, along with six other Dutch ships, captured and brought back to the Medway following the Battle of Camperdown

References

  1. ↑ J.F. Fischer Fzn. De Delft: De dagjournalen met de complete en authentieke geschiedenis van 's Lands schip van oorlog Delft en de waarheid over de zeeslag bij Camperduin (Franeker: Van Wijnen, 1997), 135.
  2. ↑ J.F. Fischer Fzn. De Delft: De dagjournalen met de complete en authentieke geschiedenis van 's Lands schip van oorlog Delft en de waarheid over de zeeslag bij Camperduin (Franeker: Van Wijnen, 1997), 394.
  3. ↑ J.F. Fischer Fzn. De Delft: De dagjournalen met de complete en authentieke geschiedenis van 's Lands schip van oorlog Delft en de waarheid over de zeeslag bij Camperduin (Franeker: Van Wijnen, 1997), 394.


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