HMS Tremendous

HMS Tremendous was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, designed by Edward Hunt, built to the lines of HMS Ganges (1782) by William Barnard's yard at Deptford Green, and launched on 30 October 1784.

French Revolutionary War service
Throughout May 1794 Tremendous, whilst under the command of Captain James Pigott, participated in the campaign which culminated in the Battle of the Glorious First of June. Pigott had kept his ship too far to windward of the enemy to make best use of his guns in the battle; Tremendous's captain was one of several denied medals afterwards.

While operating in the Indian Ocean, on 25 April 1799 Tremendous, HMS Jupiter (1778), and HMS Adamant (1780) recaptured Chance as she lay at anchor under the guns of the battery at Connonies-Point, Île de France. The French frigate FRENCH FRIGATE Forte had captured Chance, which was carrying a cargo of rice, in Balasore Roads. The squadron also recaptured another ship that a French privateer had captured in the Bay of Bengal. Lastly, after the French had driven the American ship Pacific onshore at River Noir, HMS Adamant (1780), HMS Jupiter (1778), and Tremendous came on the scene and sent in their boats, which removed much of Pacific's cargo of bale goods and sugar. The British then set Pacific on fire. On 11 December 1799, she destroyed the Preneuse at the Battle of Port Louis. On 11 March, 1800 she was at Cape Town.

Napoleonic Wars service
On 21 April 1806, she fought the inconclusive Action of 21 April 1806 against Canonnière.

Early in September 1811, Primus, carrying tar and hemp, Worksam, in ballast, Experiment, carrying iron, Columbus, carrying linseed, Neptunus, carrying timber, and Hector, carrying sundry goods, came into Yarmouth. They were prizes to Tremendous, HMS Ranger (1807), HMS Calypso (1805), HMS Algerine (1810), HMS Musquito (1804), HMS Earnest (1805). and HMS Portia (1810).

On 13 May 1815 she was present at the surrender of Naples during the Neapolitan War. A British squadron, consisting of Tremendous, the frigate Alcmene, the sloop HMS Partridge (1809), and the brig-sloop HMS Grasshopper (1813) blockaded the port and destroyed all the gunboats there. Parliament voted a grant of £150,000 to the officers and men of the squadron for the property captured at the time, with the money being paid in May 1819.

Rebuild
In 1807, Tremendous was placed in ordinary at Chatham, and sometime later was docked in Chatham Dockyard. The Admiralty had permitted Robert Seppings, then Master Shipwright at Chatham, to use Tremendous to demonstrate his innovative diagonal truss system of hull construction. Tremendous was rebuilt in 1810 using this technique, and thus became the first ship to be built using the full diagonal truss system. The key differentiators from the old, traditional system of framing were a network of prominent diagonal timbers laid over the inside of the lower portion of the ship's hull, up to the underside of the main, or lower gundeck. These were bolted through the frames and provided a significant increase in hull stiffness, counter-acting the tendency of the ship's structure to 'work', or move slightly. Timbers were also placed diagonally between gunports on the inside of the hull, in place of simple spriketting of the old system, and the system even extended to the decks, where the planking was laid diagonally instead of longitudinally. The additional strength would also help reduce the amount of hogging experienced by the ship, a development that allowed for significant growth in dimensions of future wooden ships. Additionally, the gaps between the lowest elements of the ship's frames (floor timbers) were filled and caulked, so that the bottom of the ship essentially became a water-tight solid mass, to reduce rot and foul odours. Measurements taken after the newly rebuilt ship was undocked in 1810 showed virtually no deflection in the structure.

After reconstruction, the length on her gundeck had been increased to 170 ft, and her armament was slightly increased and supplemented with the addition of carronades on her quarterdeck and forecastle. She was also given a round bow, eliminating the old beakhead bulkhead at the forward end of the upper gundeck. This was one of the two key weak areas of a ship of the line (the other being the very lightly constructed stern), which exposed the crew to raking fire along the length of the ship. With this change, the bow frames (hawse pieces) were continued all the way up to the forecastle, as had been the case with frigates for several decades.

Later career & Fate
Tremendous was ordered to be broken up at Deptford in 1844, but during inspection prior to the work commencing she was found to be in excellent condition. She was instead transferred to Woolwich Dockyard, where in 1845 she was razéed to a 50-gun fourth rate frigate, and renamed HMS Grampus. During this work, seemingly poorly executed, 5 ft 6 in was added to the aft end of her gundeck, to enable her to carry the intended number of guns.

Commissioned under the command on Captain Henry Byam Martin at Woolwich on 17 November 1845, and finally departing from Plymouth Dockyard 16 February 1846, Grampus was ordered to proceed to the Sandwich Islands via Cape Horn, to receive further orders from Admiral Sir George Seymour. She was subsequently ordered to the waters around the Society Islands, to observe and report on the activities of the French during the Franco-Tahitian War.

Grampus returned to England in late 1847, and became a powder hulk in 1856. She was eventually sold out of the service for breaking-up in 1897.