HMS Nonsuch (1774)

HMS Nonsuch was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 17 December 1774 at Plymouth. She was broken up in 1802.

Career
Nonsuch was commissioned in August 1775 as a guardship at Plymouth. She was fitted for the in December 1776, but sailed for North America on 23 March 1777.

American War of Independence
On 7 July 1780 Nonsuch, under the command of Sir James Wallace, captured the brig-rigged cutter Hussard of Saint Malo. Hussard was armed with eighteen 6-pounder guns. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Echo (1780).

On 14 July Nonsuch captured the 26-gun frigate Belle Poule off the Loire. The Royal Navy took Belle Poule into service under her existing name.

In April 1781, Nonsuch was part of Admiral George Darby's relief fleet during the Great Siege of Gibraltar. On 14 May 1781, on the homeward voyage, while scouting ahead, Nonsuch chased and brought to action the French 74-gun Actif, hoping to detain her until some others of the fleet came up. However, Actif was able to repulse Nonsuch, causing her to suffer 26 men killed and 64 wounded, and continued on to Brest.

Nonsuch fought at the Battle of the Saintes (9 April—12 April 1782).

Floating battery
Between February and May 1794 Nonsuch was at Chatham, being cut down and fitted as a floating battery. Captain Bill Douglas commissioned her in March. In June she was at Jersey under Captain Philippe d'Auvergne, Prince of Bouillon, and Senior Officer of Gunboats, in charge of a small flotilla of useless gunvessels, including HMS Eagle (1794), HMS Lion (1794), HMS Repulse (1794), HMS Scorpion (1794), and HMS Tiger (1794). (The Navy disposed of most of them within a year or so.) Nonsuch was paid off in December. In February 1795 Captain William Mitchell recommissioned her in the Humber at Hull as a floating battery.

Mitchell's successor, in August, was Captain Henry Blackwood. In April 1796 Captain Robert Dudley Oliver replaced Blackwood, only to be replaced in October 1797 by Captain Isaac Woolley, who commanded her until 1799.

Fate
In 1802 Nonsuch was broken up.