HMS Lion (1777)

HMS "Lion" was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on September 3 1777 at Portsmouth Dockyard.

She fought at the Battle of Grenada under Captain William Cornwallis on the 6 July 1779, where she was badly damaged and forced to run downwind to Jamaica. She remained on the Jamaica station for the next year.

In March 1780, the "Lion" fought an action in company with two other ships against a larger French force off Monte Christi on San Domingo. A second action took place in June 1780 near Bermuda when Cornwallis in the "Lion" with three other ships of the line and a fifty-gun ship met a larger French squadron carrying the troops of Rochambeau to North America. The French were too strong for Cornwallis's squadron, but were content to continue with their mission instead of attacking the smaller British force.

In 1796, she visited Cape Town.

She was converted to a sheer hulk in September 1816, following the end of the Napoleonic wars, and was sold to be broken up at Chatham on November 30 1837.

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.