HMS Culloden was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Deptford Dockyard, England, and launched on 18 May 1776.

[4] All attempts to refloat the vessel were unsuccessful,[citation needed] but all the crew were saved, and Culloden's masts were taken aboard HMS Bedford.

The British conducted salvage operations on the ship throughout March, retrieving all 28 eighteen-pounder guns from the upper deck, and all 18 nine-pounders from the quarterdeck.

The application notes: Finally, the Culloden shipwreck site may provide material insight into the political conditions existent in the British Admiralty during this period.

James [1926:7-18] has written describing the strength and organization of the Royal Navy at the end of the Seven Years' War (1755–1762) and its subsequent dissipation between 1771 and 1778 through mismanagement and corruption under Lord Sandwich's control of the Admiralty.