Lot Essay
The third rate H.M.S. Swiftsure, 1,612 tons, was built at Deptford in 1787 and was stationed in the Mediterranean in the 1790's, where she served with distinction at various actions including the great victory at the Nile. On 24 June 1801, during the operations culminating in General Abercrombie's landing in Egypt, Swiftsure was surprised and captured by a French squadron of four ships under Admiral Gantaume twenty miles off the Libyan coast. Re-taken at Trafalgar, she was renamed Irresistible and was subsequently put to work as a prison ship, surviving until 1816 when she was broken up at Chatham.