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VICTORY
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(100) |
1st rate
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Built in 1737, Portsmouth.
Wrecked in 1744. |
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- 1740 On Monday 14th. July Sir John NORRIS sailed from St. Helens with his squadron of 20 Men of War. On Thursday 17th. they were back, having the night before met with disaster off Portland by the LYON Man of War running foul of the VICTORY, and carrying away her Head, and doing other damage; the LYON lost her bowsprit and 28 men who were thrown over by the shock. The sea poured into VICTORY until Sir John gave orders to stop it. The Admiral moved his flag to BOYNE on the 23rd. and sailed again with his fleet.
- 1744 Capt. Samuel FAULKNER, flagship of Adm. Sir John BALCHEN, who was taken from his post as Governor of Greenwich Hospital to command a reinforced Channel fleet of 14 ships of the line which was being sent to relieve an important convoy of storeships for Adm. MATTHEWS in the Mediterranean, but which had been blockaded in the Tagus since July by a powerful French squadron. On board VICTORY were more than 1000 officers and men, including 100 young midshipmen, from Britain's noblest families who were being sent to sea for the first time.
He sailed from Spithead in the first week in August, accompanied by a Dutch squadron of nine men of war, drove off the French Admiral de Rochambeau and saw the convoy well on its way to the Straits. On 1st. October, when the fleet returned to the mouth of the Channel, they were hit by a series of heavy gales driving up from the South West. All the ships but VICTORY made it back to Portsmouth, most in a terribly shattered condition, but of VICTORY there was no trace. On the 19th. October the FALKLAND. Capt. GRENVILLE, and the FLY sloop, Capt. LLOYD, which had been sent to cruise round Guernsey and Alderney to gain intelligence, found several pieces of a wreck and part of a carved-work stern. They were told by the people of Alderney of the firing of near 100 guns between the 4th. and the 5th.
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