HMS Venerable was launched at Perry’s yard in Blackwall on 19th April 1784. It took approximately 4000 mature oak trees to build her over a two year period at a cost of approximately £3800. She was 170 ft long with a beam of 47 ft and weighed over 1650 tons. Many other ships were produced at the same yard including HMS Crocodile, a 24 gun sixth rate, who met her death not far away from HMS Venerable in 1784. Also not far away in South Devon, lies the wreck of another older ship, ‘HMS Ramillies’.
HMS Venerable was designed by Sir Thomas Slade, who was the ‘Surveyor to the Navy’ at the time. He had based his design on Spanish and French ships captured in the 1740’s.
