HMS Impregnable was a Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 98-gun second rate. This ship of the line

Ship of the line

A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed from the 17th through the mid-19th century to take part in the naval tactic known as the line of battle, in which two columns of opposing warships would manoeuvre to bring the greatest weight of broadside guns to bear...

 was launched on 15 April 1786 at Deptford Dockyard. She was wrecked in 1799 off Spithead.

Service

In 1794, Impregnable served as Rear Admiral Caldwell's flagship at the Glorious First of June

Glorious First of June

The Glorious First of June [Note A] of 1794 was the first and largest fleet action of the naval conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the First French Republic during the French Revolutionary Wars...

.

Fate

She was lost off Chichester

Chichester

Chichester is a cathedral city in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, South-East England. It has a long history as a settlement; its Roman past and its subsequent importance in Anglo-Saxon times are only its beginnings...

 on 18 October 1799. She had escorted a convoy of 12 merchantmen from Lisbon to the Isle of Wight

Isle of Wight

The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...

 and her master, Michael Jenkins, was anxious to get into Spithead that night. The result was that she ended up on the Chichester Shoals. She anchored overnight and cut away her masts. At dawn her crew discovered that she had beaten a mile and a half over the shoals and lay near the entrance to Langstone Harbour

Langstone Harbour

Langstone Harbour is an inlet of the English Channel in Hampshire, sandwiched between Portsea Island to the south and west, Hayling Island to the south and east, and Langstone to the north. Geographically it is a ria....

. The following day she was found to have bilged. After was stripped of her guns and anything else that could be retrieved, the Admiralty sold Impregnable's remains to a Portsmouth merchant, A. Lindenegren. The court martial on 30 October dismissed Master Jenkins from the service.