HMS NEPTUNE was a 98-gun 2nd Rate Ship of the Line and at Trafalgar she was among the leading ships of the Weather Column, behind the Victory.
Neptune was launched from Deptford in 1797, and moved to the Mediterranean in 1799. After refitting, and spending time on blockades, she joined the Battle of Trafalgar.
Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Francis Fremantle GCB GCH RN (1765 –1819) joined the navy in 1777 aged just 11, aboard the frigate HMS Hussar. Profiting from both family influence, good seamanship and tactical skill, promotion came easily, making lieutenant in 1782 while on duty in Jamaica and being promoted to Commander in 1790. He served at the Siege of Bastia, where Nelson lost an eye, and Fremantle gained a reputation for daring action, taking his ship under the fortress's walls despite heavy fire from overhead, which had already sunk one frigate in the bay.
Captain Fremantle took over the Neptune on 8th May 1805. She had the reputation of being slow, and Fremantle complained that he did not like being in 'a large ship that don't sail and must continually be late in action.' During the battle however, Midshipman William Baddock commented that 'The old Neptune, which never was a good sailor, took it into her head that morning to sail better than I ever remember to have seen her do before.' She engaged the massive Santissima Trinidad with which she endured a savage battle which left Neptune with 44 casualties and the Spanish ship with over 300. Relatively undamaged, Neptune was able to tow the shattered Victory back to Gibraltar and Fremantle profited by taking the chapel silver from the big Spanish ship. She returned to service until 1807, was involved in the Caribbean, was ‘laid up in ordinary’, or as we would now say ‘mothballed’ and in 1813 became a temporary prison ship. She was finally broken up in 1818.
Neptune Farm in Swanbourne, is the site of a public house named for the ship.