Origin and History
The ship was built by B. Ollivier in 1745 in Brest (France) and named "Monarque". She was launched in 1747.
The ship was captured from the French by the British Royal Navy on October 25 1747 at the second battle of Cape Finistère. She was then renamed "H.M.S. Monarch".
During the Seven Years' War, the ship was under the command of:
- in February 1758: captain John Montague
The ship was striken off of the Royal Navy and sold in 1760.
Service during the War
In 1755, the ship was part of Boscawen's squadron who left Great Britain on April 27 and sailed to the entrance of the gulf of the Saint-Laurent, near the southern coast of Newfoundland, to intercept the French Fleet carrying reinforcements to Canada.
On March 14 1757, admiral Byng, who had been repulsed by the French while attempting to relieve the island of Minorca, was executed at Portsmouth by firing squad aboard this ship.
At the beginning of 1758, a British squadron of 11 ships of the line and 9 frigates operated in the Mediterranean under the command of admiral Henry Osborn. This squadron intercepted a smaller French squadron which had sailed from Toulon for North America, forcing it to take refuge in the harbour of Cartagena. In February, the French sent a relief squadron (only 5 ships of the line and a frigate) under M. Duquesne. On February 28, Osborn off Cape de Gata, Osborn sighted 4 of these sail near his fleet and ordered them to be chased while the main part of the British squadron continued off Carthagena to watch the French ships there. The Monarch and the Montagu (60) chased the Oriflamme (56) and drove her ashore under the castle of Aiglos. The Oriflamme was not destroyed by reason of neutrality of the coast of Spain.
To do: campaigns from 1759 to 1760
|Length||165 feet (50.29 m)|
|Width||43 feet (13.11 m)|
|Depth||20 feet (6.10 m)|
|Displacement||1500 tons (1361 metric tons)|
Anonymous, A Complete History of the Present War, from its Commencement in 1756, to the End of the Campaign, 1760, London, 1761
Deschênes, Ronald, Répertoire des vaisseaux de ligne français 1682-1780
Wikipedia - "HMS Monarch"
N.B.: the section Service during the War is mostly derived from our articles depicting the various campaigns, battles and sieges.