Dutch ship Hercules

Hercules was a Dutch 68-gun third-rate ship of the line of the navy of the Dutch Republic, the Batavian Republic, and the Royal Navy.

The order to construct the ship was given by the Admiralty of the Meuse in 1781.

On 11 October 1797 Hercules took part in the Battle of Camperdown under Captain G.J.

Fire broke out on the ship, and she was eventually captured by the British and renamed HMS Delft, in honour of the brave resistance the ship Delft had made in the battle.

She became a prison hulk in 1802, and in 1822 she was sunk to serve as a breakwater close to the town of Harwich.

Hercules on fire at the Battle of Camperdown, by Thomas Whitcombe
Hercules in 1797, along with six other Dutch ships, captured and brought back to the Medway following the Battle of Camperdown