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HMS ''Ajax'' was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 2 May 1809 at Blackwall Yard.〔 ==Napoleonic Wars== On 11 September 1810, in a ship action off Elba in the Mediterranean, Charles Benyon, Lieutenant in 'Ajax', aged 22, was killed attempting to board a French vessel. 3rd son of Richard Benyon of Englefield House, Berks, where the Benyon family still live.〔Monument, S aisle, East wall St Mark's church, Englefield, W of Reading, Berks. see family tree by ALE,〕 On 13 December 350 sailors and 250 marines from the 74-gun third rates ''Ajax'', and attacked Palamós. (The sloops and covered the landing.) The landing party destroyed six of eight merchant vessels with supplies for the French army at Barcelona, as well as their escorts, a national ketch of 14 guns and 60 men and two xebecs of three guns and thirty men each. The vessels were lying inside the mole under the protection of 250 French troops, a battery of two 24-pounders, and a 13" mortar in a battery on a commanding height. Although the attack was successful, the withdrawal was not. The British lost 33 men killed, 89 wounded, and 86 taken prisoner, plus one seaman who took the opportunity to desert.〔James (1837), Vol. 5, pp.259-60.〕 On 31 March 1811, ''Ajax'' and HMS ''Unite'' encountered a French squadron comprising the frigates ''Adrienne'' and ''Amélie'', and the armed transport French corvette ''Dromadaire''. ''Ajax'' captured ''Dromadaire'', while the frigates managed to escape to Portoferraio. Captain Otway of ''Ajax'' reported that ''Dromadaire'' was frigate-built and sailed remarkably well. Her cargo consisted of 15,000 shot and shells of various sizes and 90 tons of gunpowder. Apparently Napoleon Bonaparte intended them as a present for Hammuda ibn Ali, the Bey of Tunis.〔Marshall (1823), Vol. 1, Part 2, p.700.〕 Admiral Sir Charles Cotton, commander in chief of the British Mediterranean Fleet, decided to buy her and her stores for the Royal Navy.〔 On 17 March 1814, ''Ajax'' captured the French 16-gun brig ''Alcyon'' near the Lizard. ''Alcyon'' was armed with sixteen 24-pounder carronades, and had a crew of 120 men. She was provisioned for a four-month cruise, but was only 24 hours out of Saint-Malo when ''Ajax'' captured her. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「HMS Ajax (1809)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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