HMS Arrogant (1761)

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Arrogant.

Arrogant
History
Great Britain
Name	HMS Arrogant
Ordered	13 December 1758
Builder	John Barnard & John Turner, Harwich Dockyard
Laid down	March 1759
Launched	22 January 1761
Commissioned	January 1761
Fate	Sold out of service, 1810
General characteristics
Class and type	Arrogant-class ship of the line
Tons burthen	1,64454⁄94 bm
Length	168 ft 3 in (51.28 m) (gundeck) 138 ft 0 in (42.06 m) (keel)
Beam	47 ft 4 in (14.43 m)
Depth of hold	19 ft 9 in (6.02 m)
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 Arrogant was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built of Suffolk oak[1] by John Barnard and launched on 22 January 1761 at King's Yard Harwich. She was the first of the Arrogant-class ships of the line, designed by Sir Thomas Slade.[2]

Service

Her first captain was John Amherst.[3]

Francis Light, founder of Penang, was a midshipman on Arrogant in 1761.[4]

In 1770 she was a guard ship at Portsmouth.[5]

Captain Taylor Penny took command in January 1779.[6]

On 12 April 1782 she was recently re-equipped and was second in line in the main wave of attack on the French fleet at the Battle of the Saintes under captaincy of Samuel Cornish and under the overall command of Admiral George Rodney.[7]

Arrogant was at Plymouth on 20 January 1795 and so shared in the proceeds of the detention of the Dutch naval vessels, East Indiamen, and other merchant vessels that were in port on the outbreak of war between Britain and the Netherlands.[8]

Later in 1795 Arrogant was posted to the East Indies.[9]

She took part in the action of 8 September 1796 and in January 1799 was with the British squadron at the defence of Macau during the Macau Incident.

On 7 May, 1800 she was anchored in the Sunda Strait.[10]

On 4 August, 1800, under command of Capt. Osborne, she captured privateer "L'Uni" and recaptured her prize American ship "Friendship" off Masulipatam.[11]

By 1804 she had been downgraded to a hulk ship (masts and rigging removed) at Bombay where she served as a receiving ship, sheer hulk, and floating battery. In 1810 she was condemned as unfit for further service.[12] She was sold out of service at Bombay in 1810.[2] It is unclear if she was then broken or re-used as an Indian ship.

References

1. Famous Fighters of the Fleet, Edward Fraser, 1904, p.104
2. Winfield 2007, pp. 63–64
3. "John Amherst (1718-1778)".
4. Steuart, Archibald Francis) (1901), A short sketch of the lives of Francis and William Light: the founders of Penang and Adelaide, with extracts from their journals, Sampson Low, Marston & Co, retrieved 26 October 2019 (Trove catalogue entry here)
5. "VII. The Venus: Letters." The Barrington Papers, Vol. 77. Ed. D Bonner-Smith. London: Navy Record Society, 1937. 391-411. British History Online Retrieved 30 December 2022.
6. "Taylor Penny (C.1722-1786)".
7. Famous Fighters of the Fleet, Edward Fraser, 1904, p.106
8. "No. 15407". The London Gazette. 15 September 1801. p. 1145.
9. "British Third Rate ship of the line 'Arrogant' (1761)".
10. "Naval Documents related to the Quasi-War Between the United States and France Volume Part 3 of 4 Naval Operations January to May, 1800, April 1800-May 1800 Pg. 486" (PDF). U.S. Government printing office via Imbiblio. Retrieved 16 July 2024.
11. Naval Documents related to the Quasi-War Between the United States and France (PDF). Vol. VI Part 2 of 4: Naval Operations June to November 1800, July-August 1800. U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 249–250. Retrieved 22 August 2024 – via Ibiblio.
12. Parkinson (1954), p.356.

Bibliography

• 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.
• Parkinson, Cyril Northcote (1954) War in the Eastern Seas, 1793–1815. (George Allen & Unwin).
• Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 978-1-86176-246-7.