H.M.S. Minden 74, off Gibraltar, moonlight

Named in honour of the great victory over the French army at Minden in 1759, H.M.S. Minden was one of those classic "74's" upon which the sailing navy depended so heavily during its final century. Built of teak in the Bombay dockyard to a Hunt design of 1778, Minden was ordered in July 1801 and finally launched on 19^th June 1810. Measured at 1,656 tons and 169½ feet in length with a 47½ foot beam, she mounted 74 guns of varying calibre and carried a crew of about 550 officers and men. Completed in time to serve in the closing years of the Napoleonic Wars, she first saw action at the successful combined operation to capture Java on 18^th September 1811 for which she received a battle honour. From the East Indies, she went straight to the North American Station where she participated in the Anglo-American 'War of 1812' and, after peace had been concluded, formed part of Admiral Lord Exmouth's fleet which bombarded Algiers on 27^th August 1816, thereby eliminating the scourge of the notorious barbary corsairs who had plagued the Mediterranean for centuries. When no longer fit for sea, Minden became the hospital ship at Hong Kong in April 1842 and was finally sold for scrapping, at Hong Kong, in July 1861.

As a fascinating postscript to her somewhat prosaic service career, it is noteworthy that it was on Minden's deck, during the unsuccessful bombardment of Fort McHenry (U.S.A.) on 14^th September 1814, that the American National Anthem "The Star-spangled Banner" was written to the tune of the old English drinking song "Anacreon in Heaven".