HMS Agamemnon

Nelson’s favourite ship Agamemnon’s keel was laid down in 1778 and launched in 1781 in the largest of the 5 slipways. She was a 64 gun Ardent class ship, a ship of the line, designed by Sir Thomas Slade, Master Shipwright and Surveyor to the Navy Survey. He was also famously the designer of HMS Victory. Henry Adams also built another 64 Ardent class the Indefatigable, launched in 1784.

• Keel length 131 ft /40 metres, beam 44ft /13.5m, gundeck 160ft/49m
• The build took 2000 loads of timber from 40 acres of woods
• Upper deck plan 26 Guns x 18 pounders
• Gun deck 26 x 24 pounders
• Quarter deck 10 x 4 pounders
• Focecastle 2 x 9 pounder carronades
• RN Commisioned her into service 28th March 1781
• Launched 10th April 1781
• 23rd April hauled into dry dock in Portsmouth for coppering.

She was an outstandingly fast ship – from the ships log:

‘Very good Roader (ie rides at her anchor well); 10 ½ knots before the wind and rolls deep; Steers easy, more dependant in Staying than in Wearing; In a gale, easily brought to her bearings and sails 7 knots; Best sailing draft of water when vitualled afore 20ft and abaft 22ft

Horatio Nelson

Agamemnon was Nelsons first command of a warship and served on her for over 3 years in 1793 to 1796 and he frequently wrote of her as his favourite ship:

“Very fast for her size…. without exception one of the finest 64’s in the service, with the character of sailing remarkably well.”

He wrote of her after 12 days of storms:

“Gales and lumping seas… but in the Agamemnon we mind them not: she is the finest ship I ever sailed in, and were she a 74, nothing should induce me to leave her while the Wars lasts.”

“Agamemnon sails admirably, we think better than any ship in the fleet. Handled like a frigate, swift and manouverable.“

Service History

HMS Agamemnon’s wreck is near to the town of Punta del Este, in Uruguay, at the western end of the River Plate. It is in only 8 metres of water, but the visibility is poor and has quite strong tidal currents. It is located in area full of wrecks which can make it difficult to establish provenance of items that may have moved on the sea bed. Under UK law and the principle of ‘Soverign Immunity’ the ship is owned by the Royal Navy.

But – it is in the territorial waters of a nation very far away so hard to enforce and Uruguay have passed a law to claim all wrecks within their territorial water limits to be theirs. So we work in partnership on any investigations and all data and information is shared between nations.

Agamemnon was found again in 1993 by Archaeologist Mensun Bound. He led an expedition to find the wreck and removed a quite lot of surface artefacts, splitting them with the Uruguayan navy and local divers. Amongst them was a cannon, which was restored and is now in the Naval Museum in Montevideo.

In 2024 Mary Montagu-Scott was part of an international team of Maritime Archaeologists led by University of Southampton who dived on the wreck to survey and record her condition. So far we have found the starboard side, laid flat on the seabed from the keel to the top rail with the planking with copper bolts exposed, a section of the keel, cannon shot, rigging, ballast blocks and lots of copper plating.

The shipwreck is decaying, ship worm is eating into the remaining wood and she is vulnerable to treasure hunters. The Maritime Archaeology trust did a full photogrammetric survey to record the condition and from which we can learn and monitor future decay or changes in the environment.

There is a plan to return to continue the survey and research work in later 2025 if permissions and funding allow. We have been very fortunate to have the support of the British Embassy in Montevideo, the Yacht Club Punta Del Este, and many other partners.

There is a free film and exhibition about this project at the Shipwrights Workshop at Buckler’s Hard open every day, 10 – 5pm

HMS Agamemnon – the submarine

Buckler’s Hard is an affiliate partner of the newest Royal Navy Astute class submarine, which was commissioned by His Majesty the King in Barrow-in- Furness in September 2025. Oak from the woods on the Beaulieu estate was given to make the battle honours board for the submarine. We will work with the ships company in support of the submarine families and honour its name and the shared history of the ship.

‘One hull of a ship’ project

This is a long term project to build a full size ‘sculpture’ of a wooden ship based on HMS Agamemnon. We have chosen this ship as it is the most famous of all the ships built at Buckler’s Hard, the one that we have the wreck to get data from, we have access to the original ships plans, the original contract with build specification, the original slipway intact and access to timber from the same woods as she was built from.

We are scoping this idea and working up the concepts, starting with the digitisation of the ships lines plans. From these we can work up parallel projects for the digital ship and the physical ‘sculpture’.

We have an advisory board and welcome ideas and assistance at this early stage of development.