San Juan Nepomuceno

Type

Ship of the Line

Period

18th Century

Nation

Spain

Overview: San Juan Nepomuceno was a 74-gun Spanish ship of the line, lead ship of her six-vessel class, best remembered for her defiant last stand at the Battle of Trafalgar under Brigadier Cosme Damián Churruca. She is one of the most celebrated Spanish warships of the age of sail and a popular subject for scale modelers of the Trafalgar fleet. Specifications: Launched in 1765/1766 from the royal shipyard at Guarnizo, Cantabria, she was a third-rate ship of the line roughly 181 ft (55 m) long with a 47 ft 4 in beam. She carried 74 guns (24-pounders, 18-pounders, 12-pounders and 8-pounders across her decks) and a complement of around 530-640 officers and men, with stores for 60 days of food and 80 days of water. Her design, by French naval engineer Francisco Gautier, introduced the so-called "French system" of hull construction to Spanish shipyards, marking a departure from the earlier English-influenced ("Jorge Juan") building method. Service History: Before Trafalgar she served in Caribbean campaigns during the 1780s Anglo-Spanish hostilities, including support for Bernardo de Gálvez's campaigns against Mobile and Pensacola, and took part in the Anglo-Spanish occupation of Toulon in 1793. At Trafalgar on 21 October 1805 she was one of the last ships still fighting after most of the Franco-Spanish line had surrendered; dismasted by concentrated British fire, she struck her colors to HMS Dreadnought only after Churruca was mortally wounded. Taken into the Royal Navy, she was briefly renamed HMS Berwick and then HMS San Juan, serving as a hulk and later a prison ship at Gibraltar before being sold out of service in 1816. Notable Facts: Churruca reportedly ordered the ship's flag nailed to the mast so it could not be struck while he lived, and British sailors are said to have honored his memory with a plaque on his former cabin. Her sister ships were San Pascual, San Francisco de Asís, San Lorenzo, Santo Domingo and San Agustín, all built to a similar French-influenced ("Gautier system") design. The featured image is a period watercolor-based illustration by Spanish naval officer and painter Alejo Berlinguero (1746-1805), a contemporary of the ship who documented Spanish naval vessels of his era.