HMS Berwick (1775)

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HMS Berwick was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line built at Portsmouth Dockyard in 1775.

As one of the newest ships of the line, she was commissioned immediately on the entry of France into the American War of Independence in 1778, joining the Channel Fleet. In July, she took part in the Battle of Ushant (1778), commanded by Captain the Hon. Keith Stewart. She served with the Channel Fleet throughout 1779.

In 1780 she was sent out to the West Indies as part of a squadron under Commodore Walshingham that was sent out to reinforce the fleet under Sir George Rodney. But Walshingham's ships arrived too late for the battles of that year and she was then sent to Jamaica.

While on the Jamaica station, Berwick was seriously damaged by the October 1780 West Indies hurricane. She was completely dismasted, driven out to sea and forced back across the Atlantic to England.

After repairs, the Berwick was sent to the North Sea where Captain Stewart became commander in chief of the station. The North Sea was becoming an increasingly important convoy route because French and Spanish squadrons cruising in the Western Approaches to the Channel had made that route unsafe for British convoys.

When the British Admiralty received news that the Dutch, who had joined the war at the beginning of 1781, were fitting out a squadron for service in the North Sea, the Berwick was reinforced by a squadron under Vice-Admiral Sir Hyde Parker. In August, while escorting a convoy across the North Sea Parker's squadron met a Dutch squadron, resulting in the Battle of Dogger Bank (1781).

After the war, the Berwick was laid up.

She was commissioned again on the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars and sent out to the Mediterranean to join the fleet under Lord Hood.

In March 1795, she was dismasted while refitting in San Fiorenzo Bay, Corsica. After fitting a jury rig, she sailed to join the British fleet at Leghorn, but ran into the French fleet instead on the morning of 7th March, 1795. At 11 a.m., when close off Cape Corse, the Alceste frigate passed to leeward and opened fire within musket-shot on the Berwicks lee bow. The Minerve and Vestale soon took their stations on the Berwick's quarter. By noon, her rigging was cut to pieces and every sail in ribands. Unable to escape in her disabled state, she struck her colours. Captain Littlejohn was the only man killed. She was then towed back to Toulon as a prize.

For her subsequent career in the French Navy, see French ship Berwick. She was eventually retaken at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 only to be wrecked in the storm that followed.