HMS Goliath was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line

Ship of the line

A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed from the 17th through the mid-19th century to take part in the naval tactic known as the line of battle, in which two columns of opposing warships would manoeuvre to bring the greatest weight of broadside guns to bear...

 in the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

. She was launched on 19 October 1781 at Deptford Dockyard. She was present at the Battle of Cape St Vincent, Battle of the Nile

Battle of the Nile

The Battle of the Nile was a major naval battle fought between British and French fleets at Aboukir Bay on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt from 1–3 August 1798...

, and Battle of Copenhagen

Battle of Copenhagen (1807)

The Second Battle of Copenhagen was a British preemptive attack on Copenhagen, targeting the civilian population in order to seize the Dano-Norwegian fleet and in turn originate the term to Copenhagenize.-Background:Despite the defeat and loss of many ships in the first Battle of Copenhagen in...

. She was broken up in 1815.

French Revolutionary Wars

She is recorded as entering Portsmouth Harbour

HMNB Portsmouth

Her Majesty's Naval Base Portsmouth is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the British Royal Navy...

 on 24 September 1785. She is also recorded as being at the Tagus

Tagus

The Tagus is the longest river on the Iberian Peninsula. It is long, in Spain, along the border between Portugal and Spain and in Portugal, where it empties into the Atlantic Ocean at Lisbon. It drains an area of . The Tagus is highly utilized for most of its course...

 on 21 December 1796, when the Mediterranean Fleet

Mediterranean Fleet (Royal Navy)

The British Mediterranean Fleet was part of the Royal Navy. The Fleet was one of the most prestigious commands in the navy for the majority of its history, defending the vital sea link between the United Kingdom and the majority of the British Empire in the Eastern Hemisphere...

 arrived, and sailed from there on the following 20 January with a Portuguese

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

 convoy. On 6 February, she was joined off Cape St Vincent by a squadron detached from the Channel Fleet

Channel Fleet

The Channel Fleet was the Royal Navy formation of warships that defended the waters of the English Channel from 1690 to 1909.-History:The Channel Fleet dates back at least to 1690 when its role was to defend England against the French threat under the leadership of Edward Russell, 1st Earl of...

, and was present with it at Jervis

John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent

Admiral of the Fleet John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent GCB, PC was an admiral in the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom...

's action against the Spanish on 14 February 1797. She was commanded during that action by Captain Charles H. Knowles

Sir Charles Knowles, 2nd Baronet

Sir Charles Henry Knowles, 2nd Baronet GCB was an officer of the Royal Navy, who saw service during the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, eventually rising to the rank of Admiral...

, and lost only 8 wounded and none killed. However, Jervis called Knowles 'an imbecile, totally incompetent; the Goliath no use whatever under his command,' and so after the battle Knowles was ordered to exchange ships with Captain Thomas Foley

Sir Thomas Foley

Admiral Sir Thomas Foley GCB was a Royal Navy officer and "Hero of the Battle of the Nile".-Naval career:He was the second son of John Foley of Narberth, Pembrokeshire, a landowner, and the nephew of Captain Thomas Foley, who accompanied George Anson, 1st Baron Anson on his voyage around the...

 of Britannia

HMS Britannia (1762)

HMS Britannia was a 100-gun first rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was ordered on 25 April 1751 from Portsmouth Dockyard to the draught specified in the 1745 Establishment. Her keel was laid down on 1 July 1751 and she was launched on 19 October 1762. The cost of building and fitting...

. Foley restored Goliath to order whilst Britannia slid under Knowles.

She then sailed on 31 March 1797 from Lisbon

Lisbon

Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...

 to blockade (and, on 3 July), bombard Cadiz

Cádiz

Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....

. She sailed away from the Cadiz area on 24 May 1798 with a squadron

Squadron (naval)

A squadron, or naval squadron, is a unit of 3-4 major warships, transport ships, submarines, or sometimes small craft that may be part of a larger task force or a fleet...

 of 10 ships of the line to join Nelson's squadron in the Mediterranean in searching for the French fleet transporting Bonaparte to Egypt, arriving with them on 7 June. She was thus present at the Battle of the Nile on 1 August, at which Foley deduced that there was enough room to sail between the shore and the stationary anchored French ships. Four other ships followed, and it was this move that can be said to have won the battle. After it, on 19 August, she and Zealous

HMS Zealous (1785)

HMS Zealous was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built by Barnard of Deptford and launched on 25 June 1785.She served in a number of battles of the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, notably the Battle of the Nile, where she engaged the French ship Guerrier,...

, Swiftsure

HMS Swiftsure (1787)

HMS Swiftsure was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She spent most of her career serving with the British, except for a brief period when she was captured by the French during the Napoleonic Wars...

, Seahorse, Emerald, , and left Aboukir Bay to cruise off the port of Alexandria

Alexandria

Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...

. There, on 25 August, her boats captured the French armed ketch

Ketch

A ketch is a sailing craft with two masts: a main mast, and a shorter mizzen mast abaft of the main mast, but forward of the rudder post. Both masts are rigged mainly fore-and-aft. From one to three jibs may be carried forward of the main mast when going to windward...

 Torride from under the guns of Aboukir Castle. Goliath then remained stationed off Alexandria

Alexandria

Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...

 until at least the end of 1798.

Napoleonic Wars

On 28 June 1803 she gave sailed inshore off Cape Nicholas Mole, Haiti, to try to find two vessels seen earlier. She encountered and after a few shots captured the ship-corvette

Corvette

A corvette is a small, maneuverable, lightly armed warship, originally smaller than a frigate and larger than a coastal patrol craft or fast attack craft , although many recent designs resemble frigates in size and role...

 Mignonne

French corvette Mignonne (1797)

Mignonne was a 16-gun corvette of the Etna class in the French Navy. She served until 1803 when the British captured her...

, which the British navy took into service under her French name. In Brisbane's words, she was a "remarkable fast sailing Ship Corvette,". She carried sixteen long 18-pounder guns, six of which she had landed. Her crew of only 80 men was under the command of Monsieur J. P. Bargeaud, Capitaine de Fregate, and she was two days out of Les Cayes, sailing to France via the Cape. The day before, Goliath sent out a boat that captured a small French schooner that had been on her way from Santiago de Cuba

Santiago de Cuba

Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city of Cuba and capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province in the south-eastern area of the island, some south-east of the Cuban capital of Havana....

 to Port-au-Prince

Port-au-Prince

Port-au-Prince is the capital and largest city of the Caribbean nation of Haiti. The city's population was 704,776 as of the 2003 census, and was officially estimated to have reached 897,859 in 2009....

, with a cargo of sugar and $3,476 in cash. The schooner was armed with three carriage guns and some swivel gunss.

In May 1805 Goliath was in the Channel Fleet

Channel Fleet

The Channel Fleet was the Royal Navy formation of warships that defended the waters of the English Channel from 1690 to 1909.-History:The Channel Fleet dates back at least to 1690 when its role was to defend England against the French threat under the leadership of Edward Russell, 1st Earl of...

. On 15 August Goliath spotted three French sail, the 44-gun frigate Topaze

French frigate Topaze (1805)

The Topaze was a 44-gun frigate of the French Navy. The British captured her in 1809 and she the served with the Royal Navy under the name Alcmene until she was broken up in 1816.-French service:...

, the French brig-corvette Faune, and the ship-corvette Torche. Goliath joined Camilla

HMS Camilla (1776)

HMS Camilla was a Royal Navy 20-gun Sphinx-class post ship. Camilla was built in Chatham Dockyard to a design by John Williams and launched in 1776...

 in her pursuit of Faune, and helped Camilla to capture her. On the same day Raisonnable

HMS Raisonnable (1768)

HMS Raisonnable was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, named after the ship of the same name captured from the French in 1758. She was built at Chatham Dockyard, launched on 10 December 1768 and commissioned on 17 November 1770 under the command of Captain Maurice Suckling,...

 joined Goliath in chasing Topaze and Torche. Goliath subsequently captured Torche, which was under the command of M. Dehen, carried 18 guns and a crew of 196 men. She also had on board as prisoners 52 men from Blanche. The French flotilla had captured Blanche on 19 July, some 150 miles north of Puerto Rico.

On 26 July 1807 Goliath sailed as a part of a fleet of 38 vessels for Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

 and was present from 15 August to 20 October that year for the siege and bombardment of Copenhagen

Battle of Copenhagen (1807)

The Second Battle of Copenhagen was a British preemptive attack on Copenhagen, targeting the civilian population in order to seize the Dano-Norwegian fleet and in turn originate the term to Copenhagenize.-Background:Despite the defeat and loss of many ships in the first Battle of Copenhagen in...

 and the capture of the Danish Fleet by Admiral Gambier

James Gambier, 1st Baron Gambier

Admiral of the Fleet James Gambier, 1st Baron Gambier GCB was an admiral of the Royal Navy, who served as Governor of Newfoundland, and as a Lord of the Admiralty, but who gained notoriety for his actions at the Battle of the Basque Roads.-Early career:Gambier was born in New Providence, The...

. She was present from May to Oct 1808 in the Baltic

Baltic Sea

The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...

 with a fleet under Vice-admiral Sir J Saumarez

James Saumarez, 1st Baron de Saumarez

Admiral James Saumarez, 1st Baron de Saumarez , GCB was an admiral of the British Royal Navy, notable for his victory at the Battle of Algeciras.-Early life:...

, being chased on 19 August by the Russian fleet in Hango

Hanko Peninsula

The Hanko Peninsula , also spelled Hango, is the southernmost point of mainland Finland. The soil is a sandy moraine, the last tip of the Salpausselkä ridge, and vegetation consists mainly of pine and low shrubs...

 Bay. On 30 August she joined the Centaur

HMS Centaur (1797)

HMS Centaur was a 74-gun third rate of the Royal Navy, launched on 14 March 1797 at Woolwich. She served as Sir Samuel Hood's flagship in the Leeward Islands and the Channel. During her 22-year career Centaur saw action in the Mediterranean, the Channel, the West Indies, and the Baltic, fighting...

, Implacable

HMS Implacable (1805)

HMS Implacable was a 74-gun third rate of the Royal Navy. She was originally the French Navy's Téméraire-class ship of the line Duguay-Trouin, launched in 1800....

 and the Swedish fleet blockading the Russians in the port of Rogerswick.

Fate

She finally sailed for home, heading for The Downs

The Downs

The Downs are a roadstead or area of sea in the southern North Sea near the English Channel off the east Kent coast, between the North and the South Foreland in southern England. In 1639 the Battle of the Downs took place here, when the Dutch navy destroyed a Spanish fleet which had sought refuge...

, arriving in Portsmouth on 25 July 1813 and then departing only 15 days later with the West Indies convoy

Convoy

A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support, though it may also be used in a non-military sense, for example when driving through remote areas.-Age of Sail:Naval...

. Calling at Falmouth

Falmouth, Cornwall

Falmouth is a town, civil parish and port on the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It has a total resident population of 21,635.Falmouth is the terminus of the A39, which begins some 200 miles away in Bath, Somerset....

 on 15 August, and Cork

Cork (city)

Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster. Cork has a population of 119,418, while the addition of the suburban...

, she escorted the convoy across the Irish Sea and then headed back to Portsmouth, arriving on 14 August 1814, The Downs a day later, and then the naval base at Chatham

Chatham Dockyard

Chatham Dockyard, located on the River Medway and of which two-thirds is in Gillingham and one third in Chatham, Kent, England, came into existence at the time when, following the Reformation, relations with the Catholic countries of Europe had worsened, leading to a requirement for additional...

, where on 3 October 1814, she was paid off. She was broken up the following year.