The gunnery training school's second H.M.S. Excellent had been, until she was given this name in 1834, the 98-gun three-decker H.M.S. Boyne. Built at Portsmouth and launched on 3 July 1810, she was 186 feet in length, measured by her builder at 2,155 tons and carried a crew of 738 officers and men. After extensive service against various French squadrons off Toulon in 1813 and 1814, she then assisted at the blockade and capture of Genoa and finally was re-named Excellent on 1 December 1834 and allocated the gunnery school's permanent mooring in Portsmouth harbour which she occupied until being broken up in 1861.