Artemide
50-gun Portland-class ship of the line
About this Ship
Based on lines of HMS Bristol
Launched in 1775, Bristol was a 50-gun fourth-rate ship of the line and one of the Portland class of ships, built at Sheerness Dockyard to a design by John Williams. She was a sizeable vessel for her day, crewed by around 350 men and carrying heavy 6, 12 and 24-pounder guns. Bristol’s career combined frontline action with varied duties across the empire.
She led the British assault on Sullivan’s Island in June of 1776, where she suffered severe damage in the failed attempt to seize Charleston. In the following years she patrolled the West Indies, intercepting privateers off Cuba and securing British shipping. Later, she took part in the Battle of Cuddalore and even rescued the stranded crew of HMS Rattlesnake in 1782 while escorting a convoy.
By the late 1780s Bristol was no longer required for combat and was instead refitted for support functions, first as a church ship, then later assigned as a prison hulk before finally serving as a hospital ship. After three and a half decades of service that spanned pitched battles, convoy escort, and humanitarian work, she was broken up at Sheerness in 1810.
She represents the largest current ship in the Ahoy fleet, and an experiment for how we might approach larger vessels in the future. As those of you who have followed the project for a while will know, we’ve long discussed the size/gun-count cap to new ship additions, and so it might seem like we’ve abandoned those limitations going forward. In fact, that is not the case.
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