thumb|Elephant (first from right) passing the [[Øresund on 30 March 1801]]
HMS Elephant was a 74-gun third rate built for the Royal Navy during the 1780s. Completed in 1786, she served during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, sometimes as a flagship. The ship participated in the First Battle of Copenhagen in 1801 and the Blockade of Saint-Domingue two years later. Elephant played a minor role in the Atlantic campaign of 1806 and captured an American privateer during the War of 1812. The ship was paid off into reserve in 1814.
She was razeed into a 58-gun fourth-rate frigate in 1817–1818, but was never recommissioned. The ship was broken up in 1830.
Description
The Arrogant-class ship of the line was designed by Sir Thomas Slade, co-Surveyor of the Navy. It was one of the "common" type of 74 with lighter guns than those of the "large" classes. Elephant was one of the slightly modified second batch of Arrogants. She measured on the gundeck and on the keel. She had a beam of , a depth of hold of and had a tonnage of 1,616 <small></small> tons burthen. The ship's draught was forward and aft at light load; fully loaded, her draught would be significantly deeper. The ships' crew numbered 600 officers and ratings. They were fitted with three masts and were ship-rigged.
The ships were armed with 74 muzzle-loading, smoothbore guns that consisted of twenty-eight 32-pounder guns on their lower gundeck and twenty-eight 18-pounder guns on their upper deck. Their forecastle mounted four 9-pounder guns. On their quarterdeck they carried fourteen 9-pounder guns.
Elephants armament as a 58-gun frigate consisted of twenty-eight 32-pounders on the lower deck and twenty-eight 42-pounder carronades and a pair of 12-pounder guns on the upper deck. Her crew now numbered 495 men.
Construction and career
Elephant was the third ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy. She was ordered on 27 December 1781 and was laid down by George Parsons at his shipyard in Bursledon, Hampshire, in February 1782. The ship was launched on 24 August 1786, completed at Portsmouth Dockyard on 7 November 1786 and was immediately placed in ordinary. Elephant was commissioned by Captain Charles Thompson in June 1790. Captain George Dundas assumed command in June and the ship sailed to Jamaica in October. The Royal Navy took both into service. The ship participated in the blockade of Saint-Domingue in the same year, patrolling off Cap-François. On 24 July the squadron, made up of Elephant, Bellerophon, Vanguard, and the third rate , came across two French 74-gun ships, Duquesne and Duguay-Trouin, and the frigate Guerrière, attempting to escape from Cap-François. The squadron gave chase, and on 25 July overhauled and captured Duquesne after a few shots were fired, while Duguay-Trouin and Guerrière managed to evade their pursuers and escape to France. Elephant remained blockading Cap-François through November. To prevent the garrison escaping, launches from Elephant and Bellerophon went into the Caracol Passage where they cut out the French schooner on 22–23 November. The French commander of the garrison there, General Rochambeau, was forced to surrender on 30 November.
The ship began a refit at Chatham Dockyard in November 1804 and was paid off in January 1805. Dundas recommissioned her in May for service in the North Sea and her refit was completed in July. The ship set sail for the Leeward Islands on 4 May 1806, Over the following week the rest of Jean-Baptiste Philibert Willaumez's squadron joined Vétéran, despite Cochrane's unsuccessful efforts intercept his ships.
Commander George Morris temporarily relieved Dundas as captain of Elephant in 1807 and the ship returned home by September. She was refitted from April 1809 to September 1811 at Portsmouth Dockyard. Elephant was recommissioned by Captain Francis Austen in July of that year. The ship was paid off on 7 May 1814.
Elephant was cut down to a 58-gun fourth rate from February 1817 to March 1818 at Portsmouth Dockyard, and broken up in 1830.