HMS Powerful was an 84-gun second 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...

 of 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...

, launched on 21 June 1826 at Chatham Dockyard

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...

.

From 1 January 1839 to the end of 1840 she was commanded by Captain Charles Napier, mainly in the Mediterranean and for much of the time as lead ship of a detached squadron under Napier's orders. On the evening of 29 May 1839 she was anchored in the Cove of Cork, Ireland when Napier received urgent orders from the Admiralty to proceed at once to Malta

Malta

Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

 in view of the imminent probability of war with Egypt. He was also informed that the ships-of-the-line HMS Ganges

HMS Ganges (1821)

HMS Ganges was an 84-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 10 November 1821 at Bombay Dockyard, constructed from teak...

 and HMS 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....

 had already started from England. Wishing to overtake them, Napier set sail at 2 a.m. on the 30th for Gibraltar. Powerful arrived at Gibraltar on 12 June to hear the other two ships were three days ahead of her, but by superior seamanship Napier overtook them in the Mediterranean and Powerful entered the harbour of La Valletta, Malta on the evening of 24 June, with band playing and under every stitch of canvas, twelve hours ahead of her rivals. After a year in the Mediterranean while the political situation changed, the ship took a prominent part in the Syrian War

Syrian War

The Syrian War is the name generally given to the war of 1839-40 fought in the Middle East, also known as the Second Syrian War, mainly on territory that is now Lebanon, between the Allied Powers of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Austrian Empire, the Russian Empire and the...

 against the expansionist designs of Mehmet Ali

Mehmet Ali

Mehmet Ali or Mehemet Ali is a Turkish given name for males. People with the name include:* Memet Ali Alabora, Turkish actor* Mehmet Ali Ağca, Turkish assassin* Mehmet Ali Aybar, Turkish sprinter* Mehmet Ali Birand, Turkish journalist...

, notably at the bombardment of Acre

Acre

The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...

, 3 November 1840, where she sustained damage but no casualties. Powerful was then flagship of the squadron that blockaded 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...

 from 25 November. In 1841 Napier was succeeded as her captain by George Mansel, and then Sir Michael Seymour, who commanded her from 1841 until she paid off at Portsmouth in 1843. She was recommissioned in 1848 under the command of Sir Richard Saunders Dundas

Richard Saunders Dundas

Vice Admiral The Hon. Sir Richard Saunders Dundas, KCB was a British naval officer and was the British First Sea Lord from 1857 to 1858 and again from 1859 until his death in 1861.-Early life:...

under whom she again served in the Mediterranean.

She was used as a target in 1860, and was broken up in 1864.