POWERFUL (74)

  Was built in Blackwall in 1783.

  By 1789 POWERFUL was in the Mediterreanean. On 28 Februry escorted by SANTA TERESA and PROSERPINE, she entered the port of Mahon in Menorca with 600 prisoners aboard, which had been captured by ARGO and LEVIATHAN off the coast of Mallorca. The prisoners were then taken aboard one of the ships of the East India Company, mored in Port Mahon.

  By 1799 she was in Lisbon under orders of Captain O'Bryen Drury.

  POWERFUL was send back to England to be re-fitted in Chatham in 1800.

  On 15 January in 1801, after an inspection of the ships in Chatham Dockyard by the Navy board, all ships including the POWERFUL, were ordered to be made ready for sea. She was commissioned by Capt. Sir P. Laforey, for service and the fleet was assembled for the Baltic.

  1805 Capt. Robert Plampin, Nore.

  By the end of 1805, POWERFUL was with Sir John Duckworth’s squadron which had been detached by Lord Collingwood, in search of a French squadron known to be in the area. By the time they got to the Cape verde Islands they had lost the French but sailed on for the Leeward Is in search of them. With still no news of the French, Collingwood despatched Powerful to the East Indies having received news that the French were at sea. By February, the French squadron had been destroyed off San Domingo

  On the 4 June in 1806, POWERFUL was in Madras. Rear Admiral Pellew, ordered Capt. Plampin to set sail in pursuit of a privateer. By the time he had arrived at Trincomalee on the morning of the 11th. he received news that privateer had been seen in vicinity of Batecato.

  He set sail that same afternoon and by daybreak on the 13th. discovered a ship on the lee quarter. He gave chase which lasted 10 hours, after which the ship fired her stern-chasers over POWERFUL. She was brought to and struck her colours. She was the HENRIETTE, who had sailed from Ile de France on the 7th April, with 124 on board, mounting four 12-pounder carronades, two 9-pounders and fourteen 6-pounders, four of the 6 pounders were hove overboard during the chase.

  Captian Pamlin returned to Trincomalee. On the 9 July he received information that the notorious privateer Bellone had returned to her cruising ground off Dondra Head. Ordering Rattlesnake to follow, he put to sea. After a fight that lasted nearly two hours they forced the privateer to strike. Powerful lost 2 men and 11 were wounded.

  On 26 November Rear Ad. Sir Edward Pellow in Culloden led a squadron consisting of POWERFUL, RUSSEL, BELLIQUEUX, SIR FRANCIS DRAKE, TERPSICHORE and SEA FLOWER through the Sunda Straits to Batavia where they destroyed Dutch warships and merchantmen.

  1808 Capt. Charles James Johnston joined the ship at Madras on 18 February after returning from a 12 month cruise to South America in Cornwallis.

  POWERFUL was by now in very in very poor condition; the carpenter reported among other faults that the frame, where it could be seen, was rotten, five of the lower deck beams were rotten right through and others very decayed, the sides were decayed and she needed caulking inside and out, the step of the fore-mast was so rotten that the mast was unsafe, the copper was off the bottom, the ship was in an extremely weak state.

  Before returning to England she weathered two heavy gales off the Lagullas bank while searching for two French frigates. She was then sent back to England, but, instead of paying off immediately, she was pressed into service one last time for the expedition to Walcheren. She paid off in October 1809 and then remained out of commission at Chatham until being broken up.  And broken up in 1812.

With information from Michael Philip