HMS Robust

History
UK
Name: HMS Robust
Ordered: 16 December 1761
Builder: Barnard, Harwich
Launched: 25 October 1764
Fate: Broken up, 1817
Notes: Harbour service from 1812
General characteristics [1]
Class and type: Ramillies-class ship of the line
Tons burthen: 1624 bm
Length: 168 ft 6 in (51.36 m) (gundeck)
Beam: 46 ft 11 in (14.30 m)
Depth of hold: 19 ft 9 in (6.02 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Armament:
  • Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
  • Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
  • QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
  • Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

HMS Robust was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 25 October 1764 at Harwich.[1] She was the first vessel of the Royal Navy to bear the name. According to J.J. College's Ships of the Royal Navy, Vol 1, 1987, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland there was also a screw 2nd rate laid down on 10 Oct 1859, but work was suspended 10 Oct 1861 and the ship cancelled 1872. In volume 2 of this book is described another vessel named HMS Robust: A fleet tug of Oct 1971.

On 21 July 1801, the boats of Robust, Beaulieu, Uranie and Doris succeeded in boarding and cutting out the French naval corvette Chevrette, which was armed with 20 guns and had 350 men on board (crew and troops placed on board in expectation of the attack). Also, Chevrette was under the batteries of Bay of Cameret. The hired armed cutter Telemachus placed herself in the Goulet and thereby prevented the French from bringing reinforcements by boat to Chevrette.[2]

The action was a sanguinary one. The British lost 11 men killed, 57 wounded, and one missing; Chevrette lost 92 officers, seamen and troops killed, including her first captain, and 62 seamen and troops wounded.[2] In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "21 JULY BOAT SERVICE 1801" to surviving claimants from the action.[3]

Fate

Robust was employed on harbour service from 1812, and was broken up in 1817.[1]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Lavery, Ships of the Line vol.1, p177.
  2. 1 2 "No. 15390". The London Gazette. 25 July 1801. pp. 918–919.
  3. ↑ "No. 20939". The London Gazette. 26 Jan 1849. p. 246.

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.


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