HMS Queen Charlotte

1800

Livorno, hay on a match tub, the magazine Location: off Livorno, Tyrrhenian Sea · Coordinates: 43.60°N 10.33°E · Casualties: 673 · Survivors: ~160 · Depth: destroyed · Cause: fire · magazine explosion — Caught fire at anchor off Livorno on the morning of 17 March 1800, reportedly when loose hay ignited on a lit match tub in the cable tier. The crew fought the fire for hours but could not reach the magazine before the flames did. She exploded at eleven. · Fate: destroyed · Type: warship · 100-gun first rate · Tonnage: 2,286 tons · Crew: 850 · Flag: Kingdom of Great Britain · Launched: 1790 Royal Navy first rate, 100 guns, Lord Keith's Mediterranean flagship (her admiral ashore). At anchor off Livorno on the morning of 17 March 1800, loose hay caught on a lit match tub in the cable tier and ignited; the crew could not contain it. She burned four hours before the magazine went up at eleven. 673 dead, nearly every man aboard. The flag captain, Andrew Todd, died with the ship. The Vessel HMS Queen Charlotte was a British first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Chatham Dockyard between 1785 and 1790 and named after Queen Charlotte, the consort of King George III. She was 57 metres long, 2,286 tons displacement, and armed with 100 guns on three full gun decks: thirty 32-pounders on the lower deck, twenty-eight 24-pounders on the middle deck, thirty 12-pounders on the upper deck, and twelve 6-pounder chase guns. She was, at her commissioning in 1790, the newest first-rate in the Royal Navy. Her most celebrated service was as Admiral Lord Howe's flagship at the Battle of the Glorious First of June (1 June 1794), the first major naval battle of the French Revolutionary Wars. At that engagement, Queen Charlotte had led the British line through the French formation in the tactical manoeuvre that destroyed the French fleet's cohesion; Lord Howe's tactical innovation of "breaking the line" was conducted from Queen Charlotte's quarterdeck. The battle produced British casualties of approximately 290 killed and 858 wounded; Queen Charlotte herself had suffered approximately 35 dead and 100 wounded during the engagement. Her subsequent service through 1800 had been continuous through the French Revolutionary Wars. Her master in March 1800 was Rear-Admiral George Keith Elphinstone, Lord Keith, commander-in-chief of the British Mediterranean fleet. Her captain was Andrew Todd, 42, a career officer of long Mediterranean service. Her complement in March 1800 w The Disaster The fire-fighting efforts failed to contain the fire. The specific failure mechanism was the continuous supply of oxygen to the fire from the ship's natural ventilation arrangements, combined with the tarred rope and rigging near the upper deck, which ignited within approximately 15 minutes of the initial fire. By 06:30 on 17 March 1800, Queen Charlotte's upper deck was substantially engulfed in flame. The fire spread rapidly down through the ship's hatches to the middle gun deck and the lower gun deck. By 07:00, the middle deck was in flame; the lower gun deck, where her 32-pounder guns were stationed along with approximately 200 barrels of salted provisions, was compromised. The ship's gunpowder magazine, located below the lower gun deck, was now at imminent risk of igniting. Captain Todd's response was immediate: he ordered the gunpowder magazine flooded with seawater at approximately 07:15, which prevented the magazine detonating but did not arrest the main fire. The ship's boats were launched, and evacuation of the crew commenced; however, the fire had spread so rapidly that substantial portions of the ship's company were trapped below decks by the burning upper deck and the collapsing companion ladders. HMS Queen Charlotte burned for approximately 11 hours before the fire reached her powder magazines despite the flooding attempt. The magazine detonation occurred at approximately 17:00 on 17 March 1800, destroying the forward third of the ship. The remaining aft section