Tall Ship Art by Geoff Hunt

'HMS Temeraire''' was a 98-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 11 September 1798 at Chatham, which fought at the Battle of Trafalgar. She was named after the French 74-gun ship taken at the Battle of Lagos in 1759, following the British custom of naming new ships after old prizes.

Prior to the signing of the Treaty of Amiens in 1802, a calm had fallen over the fleet with many expecting that after a number of years at sea, they could look forward to shore leave. Temera...

'HMS Agamemnon''' was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She saw service in the American Revolutionary, French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and fought in many of the major naval battles of those conflicts. She is remembered as being Nelsons favourite ship, and was named after the mythical ancient Greek king Agamemnon, being the first ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name.

The future Lord Nelson served as Agamemnons captain from January 1793 for 3 years and 3 months, d...

In the Battle of Cape St Vincent (14 February 1797) a British fleet under John Jervis defeated a larger Spanish fleet under José de Córdoba near Cape St. Vincent, Portugal.

'HMS Indefatigable''' was one of the Ardent class of 64-gun ships of third rates designed by Sir Thomas Slade in 1761 for the Royal Navy. She was ordered on 3 August 1780 (long after Slades death), and her keel was laid down in May 1781 at the Bucklers Hard shipyard in Hampshire owned by Henry Adams. She was launched in early July 1784 and completed from 11 July to 13 September of that year at Portsmouth Dockyard as a 64-gun two-decked third-rate ship of the line for the Royal Navy. She had cost...

The first America was the first ship of the line built for the Continental Navy, but she never saw service there, being given to France after launching.

On 9 November 1776, the Continental Congress authorized the construction of three 74-gun ships of the line. One of these was America, laid down in May 1777 in the shipyard of John Langdon on Rising Castle Island (now Badger's Island) in Kittery, Maine, across the Piscataqua River from Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

However, progress on her constructi...

'HMS Captain''' was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 26 November 1787 at Limehouse.

At the start of the French Revolutionary War, she was part of the Mediterranean fleet which occupied Toulon at the invitation of the Royalists in 1793 before being driven out by Revolutionary troops in an action where Napoleon Bonaparte made his name. In June 1796, Captain Horatio Nelson was transferred from into Captain by Admiral Sir John Jervis. Nelson was appointed as commod...