HMS Terrible (1747)

The Terrible was a 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy. Captured on 14 October 1747, she was taken into Royal Navy service as the third rate HMS Terrible.

French career and capture
Terrible was laid down at Toulon in November 1736 to a design by François Coulomb the Younger. Launched on 19 December 1739, she was completed the following year. She served with the French fleet at the Second Battle of Cape Finisterre, on 25 October 1747, and was one of the French ships captured by the British fleet, under Admiral Sir Edward Hawke.

British career
Terrible was brought into Portsmouth and surveyed there in June 1748. The Navy Board authorised her purchase on 30 September 1748, paying a total of £11,211.11.0d, once a sum had been abated for repairs. A small repair was carried out at Portsmouth for £7,024.18.6d between April and August 1750, and she was fitted out for service in 1753. She was commissioned in May that year as the Portsmouth guardship, under the command of Captain Robert Pett. She passed to Captain Philip Durell in March 1755, and later was under Captain William Holborne, while serving as the flagship of Rear-Admiral Francis Holburne. Terrible was sent as a reinforcement for Vice-Admiral Edward Boscawen in May 1755, and was despatched again in April 1756, this time to reinforce Vice-Admiral Edward Hawke. Captain Richard Collins took command of her later in 1756, and in the summer of that year Terrible went out to join Boscawen's fleet.

She went out to North America in April 1757, and was present at the Siege of Louisbourg in 1758. She returned to North America in early 1759, being at the assault on Quebec in 1759. She returned to Britain after this, and was surveyed on 1 April 1760. An admiralty order was issued on 31 December 1762, instructing her to be broken up. She was broken up at Chatham, a process completed by 16 February 1763.