HMS Agamemnon (1781)

Duckworth's Action off San Domingo, 6 February 1806 by Nicholas Pocock. HMS Agamemnon is visible in the background, third from left.
History
Great Britain
Name	HMS Agamemnon
Ordered	8 April 1777
Builder	Henry Adams, Bucklers Hard
Cost	£38,303 15s 4d
Laid down	May 1777
Launched	10 April 1781
Commissioned	28 March 1781
Nickname(s)	Eggs-and-Bacon
Fate	Wrecked in Maldonado Bay Uruguay, 16 June 1809
Notes	Participated in: Battle of Ushant, 1781 Battle of the Saintes, 1782 Battle of Genoa, 1795 Battle of the Hyères Islands, 1795 Battle of Copenhagen, 1801 Battle of Cape Finisterre, 1805 Battle of Trafalgar, 1805 Battle of San Domingo, 1806 Battle of Copenhagen, 1807
General characteristics [1]
Class and type	Ardent-class ship of the line
Tons burthen	1,384 bm
Length	160 ft (49 m) (gundeck)
Beam	44 ft 4 in (13.51 m)
Depth of hold	19 ft (5.8 m)
Propulsion	Sails
Sail plan	Full-rigged ship
Complement	500 officers and men[2]
Armament	64 guns: Gundeck: 26 × 24-pounders Upper gundeck: 26 × 18-pounders Quarterdeck: 10 × 4-pounders Forecastle: 2 × 9-pounders

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

The future Lord Nelson served as Agamemnon's captain from January 1793 for three years and three months, during which time she saw considerable service in the Mediterranean. After Nelson's departure, she was involved in the infamous 1797 mutinies at Spithead and the Nore, and in 1801, she was present at the first Battle of Copenhagen, but she ran aground before being able to enter the action.

Despite Nelson's fondness for the ship, she frequently needed repair and refitting and would likely have been hulked or scrapped in 1802 had the war with France not recommenced. She fought at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805 as part of Nelson's weather column, where she forced the surrender of the Spanish four-decker Santísima Trinidad. Agamemnon's later career was served in South American waters off Brazil.

Her worn-out and poor condition contributed to her being wrecked when, in June 1809, she grounded on an uncharted shoal in the mouth of the River Plate whilst seeking shelter with the rest of her squadron from a storm. All hands and most of the ship's stores were saved, but the condition of the ship's timbers made it impossible to free the ship; her captain was cleared of responsibility for the ship's loss thanks to documents detailing her defects. In 1993, the wreck of Agamemnon was located, and several artefacts have since been recovered, including one of her cannons.