HMS Mulgrave was a Middling Type, 74 gun, third rate ship of the line of the Vengeur Class, built under contract for the Royal Navy by John King at his shipyard at Upnor. She was the second of two such ships built at Upnor.


The Vengeur class were a group of 40 ships designed jointly between the Surveyors of the Navy, Henry Peake and Sir William Rule. For that reason, they were also known as the 'Surveyors Class' and they were the most numerous class of ship of the line to be built for the Royal Navy in the age of the sailing wooden warship. Their design was based on that of the Courageux Class 74 gun ships, so-called because they themselves were based on the design of the French 74 gun ship Courageux. This vessel had been captured as far back as 1761 by the Chatham-built 74 gun ship HMS Bellona and her design was so advanced, that it was still being used as the basis for the design of new British ships of the line over forty years later. They were ordered and built in such large numbers because of a realisation by the Admiralty that the average age of the ship of the line in the fleet was increasing and that a large number of ships urgently needed to be replaced. In addition to this, although the French and Spanish fleets had been put out of the war by the string of victories culminating at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, the French in particular were in the thoes of an equally large shipbuilding program which meant that it seemed the time was going to come when the Royal Navy would be facing fresh dangers from the old enemy across the Channel, for which they needed to be ready. In order to win the war, the Royal Navy effectively had to blockade the whole of Europe. Over the course of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, the almost constant shifting of alliances had seen the Royal Navy pitted against the navies of not just France and Spain, but also Holland, Denmark, Russia and Turkey amongst others. At the time the ship was ordered by the Navy Board, tensions with the United States of America were on the increase and it seemed only a matter of time before the country was at war with the USA too. The new designs were intended to fully exploit the advances in production technology and methods made possible by the Industrial Revolution; an example of this is that the frames of the ship, instead of being held together by a combination of mortise and tenon joints and wooden trenails, was assembled using iron plates and nuts and bolts.


Of the 40 Vengeur class ships, 31 were built under contract in private shipyards. This was because the Royal Dockyards were running at full capacity with repairs and there was no spare capacity for large scale construction projects. In order to achieve this, the Admiralty had been forced to be more accommodating on price. Up to 1803, the Admiralty had refused to pay more than £21 per ton for ships and was struggling to get private shipbuilders to take on contracts for large ships. Established private shipyards had declined to tender for the construction of new 74 gun ships on a number of occasions and the Navy Board's invitations to tender for contracts to build the Vengeur Class ships was no exception. In order to get the new ships built, the Navy Board had to accept a number of things. Firstly, that the price of timber had risen and was likely to rise further once the programme got underway and secondly, they would have to accept tenders from shipbuilders who had little or no experience in building ships of this size. The King family already had a long-established reputation, carried on from John King's father Thomas, who had built a large number of smaller vessels for the Royal Navy at the family's previous premises at Beach Street in Dover.


In the end, the prices for Vengeur Class ships averaged out at about £36 per ton across the class. One of the reasons for the higher price was that in addition to the price of timber going up, the new ships were considerably larger the ones they were intended to replace. Owing to the pressure on price, many of the contractors cut corners on construction of the new ships, to the point where there were differences in the ships performances at sea. HMS Vengeur for instance, sailed better than HMS Donegal, her sister ship, which in turn sailed better than HMS Berwick, another Vengeur class ship. Because of the various ways in which the builders sought to extract every penny of profit from the ships they were contracted to build and because of their patchy build quality and performance, the class became known as the forty thieves.


The contract for the construction of HMS Mulgrave was was signed on the 23rd June 1807 and her keel was laid on John King's slipway at Upnor during February of 1808. The ship was launched with all due ceremony into the River Medway on New Year's Day 1812 and was immediately taken to the Royal Dockyard a mile upstream at Chatham, where her build quality was inspected by the Dockyard's shipwrights and once declared to be of acceptable workmanship, the vessel began the process of fitting out.


On completion, HMS Mulgrave was a ship of 1,761 tons. She was 176ft 1in long on her upper gundeck and 47ft 9in wide across the beams. She was armed with 28 32pdr long guns on her lower gundeck, 28 18pdr long guns on her upper gundeck, 10 32pdr carronades and 4 12pdr long guns on her quarterdeck, with 2 32pdr carronades, 2 12pdr long guns on her forecastle and 6 18pdr carronades on her poop deck. Her quarterdeck and forecastle handrails and fighting tops were fitted with about a dozen half-pounder swivel guns. The ship was manned by a crew of 590 officers, men, boys and Royal Marines. Construction at Upnor had cost £58,412 exactly and fitting the ship out at the Chatham Royal Dockyard added a further £29,971 to the bill.


Vengeur Class Plans


Orlop Plan:





Lower Gundeck Plan:





Upper Gundeck Plan:





Quarterdeck and Forecastle Plan:





Inboard Profile and Plan:





Sheer Plan and Lines:





Details of frame fittings:





This painting shows HMS Mulgrave's sister-ship HMS Cornwallis in China. HMS Mulgrave was identical:





A model of HMS Cornwallis:





On 22nd November 1812, HMS Mulgrave was declared complete and commissioned into the Channel Fleet at Chatham under Captain Thomas James Maling. The ship was to be engaged on the never-ending blockade of the French Channel and Atlantic ports.


On the 31st December 1812, HMS Mulgrave and her crew captured the Prussian ship Der Fritz in the English Channel.


HMS Mulgrave wasn't in the Channel Fleet for long. On 22nd April 1813, Captain Maling received orders to take the ship to the Mediterranean as flagship of Rear-Admiral Sir Richard, the 2nd Baronet King. Sir Richard King had been one of the Royal Navy's rising starts and had achieved command at a very young age. The Royal Navy had a reputation at the time for being a meritocracy, with promotions being awarded as rewards for displays of skill or courage. Despite this there was plenty of room for good, old-fashioned nepotism and King exploited this for all it was worth. King was the son of Sir Richard King, 1st Baronet King and had joined the Navy in 1780 aged just 6 as Captains clerk in his father's ship, HMS Exeter (64). He had seen action at the Battles of Sadras and Providien in 1782 and again at the 2nd Battle of Cuddalore in 1783. He was appointed Midshipman in January 1789 aged 14 in HMS Crown (64), Lieutenant in 1791 aged 17 in the 18pdr armed 36 gun frigate HMS Phoenix. He had been appointed Master and Commander in the 20 gun ex-French East Indiaman Bien Amie in 1973 and was promoted Captain of HMS Excellent (74) in May 1794, six months short of his 20th birthday. All of this was helped not just by the influence of his father, but also by his own undoubted skill. He proved this in command of the 18pdr armed 36 gun frigate HMS Sirius. In 1797, he had sat on the Court Martial board for the trial of Richard Parker, the ringleader of the Great Mutiny at the Nore. In the Action of 24th October 1798, Kings command had captured two Dutch frigates and on 28th January 1801 had captured the French frigate Dédaigneuse. In November 1803, he had married the daughter of Vice-Admiral Sir John Duckworth, which only increased his influence. He had commanded HMS Achille (74) at the Battle of Trafalgar and in Hood's Action off Rochefort of 25th September 1806.


Sir Richard King had been appointed into the Mediterranean Fleet, to serve under Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Pellew, Commander-in-Chief and his main task was to deal with the French Toulon Fleet. Pellew flew his command flag in the 120 gun First Rate ship HMS Caledonia. The Toulon Fleet was the only French fleet showing signs of activity, where squadrons of their ships of the line would leave the port and carry out manoeuvres in the coastal waters nearby, closely watched by the British. The fleet as a whole had beeb prevented from putting to sea by the fact than a large number of the French seamen had been pressed into the Army in an attempt by the Emperor to make up for the catastrophic losses sustained during his aborted invasion of Russia. On arrival off Toulon on, Rear-Admiral King transferred his command flag to the ex-Spanish 112 gun First Rate ship HMS San Josef and HMS Mulgrave became part of the Inshore Squadron. The Inshore Squadron off Toulon at this time comprised HMS Mulgrave, her sister-ships HMS Armada and HMS Pembroke with the ex-French 74 gun ship HMS Scipion.


In late October 1813, HMS Mulgrave and the other ships blockading Toulon were blown off their stations by a prolonged and heavy gale which lasted eight days and only regained their stations on 4th November. The rest of Pellew's force stood a little further offshore to the south and this comprised of the First Rate ships HMS Caledonia and HMS Hibernia (both of 120 guns), HMS San Josef (112) and HMS Royal George (100), the Second Rate ships HMS Boyne, HMS Union, HMS Barfleur and HMS Prince of Wales (all of 98 guns) with the 74 gun third rate ship HMS Pompee.


At 09:30 on the 5th November, a French force of 14 ships of the line, with six frigates and an armed schooner departed the naval base at Toulon under a strong east-north-east wind for exercises in the usual spot, while the British looked on, unable to engage due to the unfavourable wind. At about 11:30, the wind suddenly and without warning changed to a noth-westerly. Pellew saw his chance and decided to pounce. He ordered the Inshore Squadron to engage and headed up to support with the rest of his force. While the French were turning and heading back into Toulon, Pellew felt that his ships could at least get stuck into their rear division which consisted of the giant three-decker Wagram of 130 guns, the Agamemnon, Boree, Ulm and Magnanime (all of 74 guns) and the frigates Pauline, Melpomene, Penelope and Galatee (all of 40 guns).


At 12:34, HMS Scipion opened fire with her port side guns, followed by HMS Mulgrave and the rest of the Inshore Squadron. The Inshore Squadron continued their heavy exchange of fire with the enemy. At 13:00, the rest of Pellew's force came within range and HMS Caledonia opened fire on the Wagram, followed by HMS San Josef and HMS Boyne. The French at this point were upwind of the British and were able to get under the cover of the shore batteries covering the approaches to Toulon. Fearful of his ships being further damaged for no good purpose, Pellew ordered a withdrawal and leaving a small squadon which didn't include HMS Mulgrave off Toulon, headed to Minorca and the naval base at Port Mahon.


By early 1814, HMS Mulgrave was part of a squadron commanded by Captain James Brisbane in HMS Pembroke which also comprised the 38 gun ex-French 18pdr armed frigate HMS Alcmene and the 32pdr carronade-armed 18 gun brig-sloop HMS Cephalus. The squadron was engaged in patrols of the western Mediterranean and on 2nd January, the squadron captured the ship San Niccolo. On 18th January, they captured the Rondinella and on 19th February, the xebec Victorieux was taken by the squadron.


On 11th April 1814, the Treaty of Fontainebleu was signed, ending the Napoleonic War and on 2nd September, HMS Mulgrave paid off into the Ordinary at Plymouth. After all her running rigging, sails, boats, guns and store were removed, the ship was secured to a bouy and became the responsibility of the Master Attendant at the Plymouth Royal Dockyard. She was manned by a skeleton crew of senior warrant officers comprising her Boatswain, Carpenter, Cook and Gunner plus 26 Able Seamen. The Boatswain, Carpenter and Gunner were each entitled to receive an allowance for 2 servants each in addition to their wages, with the Cook entitled to one servant. There was also a Purser appointed to the ship, but he was allowed to live ashore within a reasonable distance of the Dockyard, but wasn't entitled to an allowance for servants. All these men were allowed to have their families live aboard with them.


HMS Mulgrave remained in the Plymouth Ordinary until August 1836, when she was taken to the new Royal Dockyard at Pembroke Dock in South Wales and was converted into a Lazaretto Hulk.


This plan is of HMS Triumph (74) after her conversion to a Lazaretto Hulk. HMS Mulgrave would have looked very similar:





Lazarettes or Lazaretto Hulks were principally used for the airing of cargoes of cotton coming from the Levant or the eastern Mediterranean. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Government was concerned with preventing the entry of plague and other diseases into the UK. Ships leaving the Mediterranean were inspected before departure and were given a clean or foul bill of health. If they had a foul bill, they were required to perform quarantine on arrival in the UK. The main quarantine station was at Stangate Creek in the River Medway. Others were established  on the Motherbank off Ryde on the Isle of Wight with smaller ones off or near the major British ports.


In 1805, it had been decided to set up a new quarantine station at Angle Bay off Milford Haven. It as formally established by an Order in Council dated 5th April 1805 and was intended to serve ships going into ports in Cornwall, Devon, the Welsh ports and as far north as Liverpool and the Isle of Man. This was intended to reflect the fact that those ports, particularly Liverpool, had grown in importance to the point where potentially infected cargoes were as likely to to go into Liverpool as they were into London.


Until 1813, ships with foul bills (where the crew themselves were sick) were still required to go to Stangate Creek, but in July, the Milford Haven Station was established as an alternative foul bill station to Stangate Creek. Ships which actually had plague aboard were still required to quarantine at Stangate Creek. The Milford Haven quarantine station reached its peak in 1825 when it had no fewer than nine lazaretto hulks and this is where HMS Mulgrave was taken after her conversion.


HMS Mulgrave continued as a Lazaretto Hulk at Milford Haven until August of 1844, when she was taken back to Pembroke Dock and converted again, this time to a gunpowder hulk, to serve the Royal Dockyard. She continued in this role until December 1854 when she was broken up at Pembroke Dock.