The Hazardous Project

Year	Month	Action
1699	Mar	le Hazardeux keel laid down in L'Orient
	Aug	le Hazardeux launched
1701	Feb	le Hazardeux commissioned into the French Navy as a Third Rate Ship of the Line with 50 guns.
	Feb	Orders given to L'Orient to arm le Hazardeux. Commanding was Francois Joubert de la Bastide, Marquis de Châteaumorand.
	Apr	le Hazardeux joined Jean Bart's Northern Wing in Dunkerque. However, soon after, all major ships were moved to Rochefort.
	May	le Hazardeux given first major commission with le Triton as escort to four ships with 300,000 rations for Vice Admiral the Comte de Châteaurenault's fleet.
	May	The Comte de Coëtlogon sailed with eight ships to Vera Cruz with orders to assist the Spanish return treasure ships.
	Sep	Admiral Benbow sent to Jamaica with ten ships of the line to disrupt return of the Spanish treasure flota.
	Sep	Châteaurenault left Brest for the West Indies with a large fleet of 27 ships of the line to counter Benbow
	Dec	Châteaurenault's fleet arrived in Martinique on 22 December
	Dec	The Comte de Coëtlogon, unable to discharge his orders, sailed for France on 27 December.
1702	Feb	Châteaurenault sent twelve of his weaker warships that he considered were not required, back to France and moved his base to Havana
	Jun	Dysentery, malaria, scurvy and yellow fever killed many of the French sailors and senior officers, including the Commander of le Hazardeux, the Marquis de Châteaumorand, who died in Havana on 9 June.
	July	Châteaurenault eventually managed to pursued the Spanish and assembled his fleet in Havana. The combined French and Spanish fleet left for home
	Aug	Two crewman deaths reported on le Hazardeux in Newfoundland
	Sep	With his destination Port of Cadiz under attack by Admiral Rooke, Châteaurenault reluctantly agreed to divert to Vigo Bay in Galacia arriving 12 September.
	Sep	One crewman death reported on le Hazardeux fighting the Dutch ship Amazon off Finistere.
	Oct	On 12 October, Châteaurenault's fleet in Vigo suffered huge losses when Rooke, having learned of the fleet while returning to England from Cadiz, stormed Vigo Bay.
	Nov	le Hazardeux in Port-Louis
1703	Mar	le Hazardeux loaned to the privateer Beaubriand-Lévesque as a replacement for L'Alcyon.
	June	le Hazardeux sailed from Port Louis under command of Francis De La Rue escorting 33 merchant ships to Plaisance in Newfoundland
	Aug	The arrival of Beaubriand-Lévesque with le Juste and le Hazardeux, discouraged an English fleet under the command of Rear Admiral John Graydon, that was preparing an attack on Plaisance.
	Oct	On 17 October, le Hazardeux and le Juste left Plaisance escorting French merchantmen heading for Port Louis.
	Nov	In the afternoon of 13 November, le Hazardeux was spotted in the Soundings by ships of Sir Cloudesley Shovel's fleet returning from the Mediterranean. After several hours battle, le Hazardeux struck and the following day was towed to Falmouth. The captured crew was sent to Millbay Docks Prison in Plymouth.
	Dec	It was decided le Hazardeux should be refitted for the Navy. le Hazardeux was renamed and Her Majesty's Ship Hazardous was first listed on 8 December with origin shown as 'taken from the French'.
1704	Feb	The Admiralty decided that Hazardous should be refitted at Plymouth. On 20 February, she was surveyed in Falmouth to assess what was required to get her into condition to move to Plymouth.
	Mar	On 18 March, Hazardous was taken to Plymouth docks for refit.
	Mar	On 27 March, the ship was taken into service as Her Majesty's Ship Hazardous, a Fourth Rate with 54 guns under command of Captain Barrow Harris.
	Apr	On 29 April Hazardous came out of dock.
	May	Hazardous sailed from Plymouth on 13 May as part of a squadron under Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell to blockade Brest.
	Jun	Hazardous anchored off Kinsale, Ireland on 3 June
		On 6 June, Hazardous left Kinsale and by 9 June, was back in Plymouth Sound.
		On 24 June Hazardous sailed as escort to merchantmen bound for Madeira and Lisbon
	Aug	Hazardous returned to Plymouth. For the rest of 1704, Hazardous was engaged in escorting merchant ships along the South Coast of England.
1705	Jan	Hazardous returned to Plymouth for maintenance. During 1705, Hazardous was again to be used as escort in Channel waters,
	Oct	A merchant convoy sailed for Virginia with Her Majesty's Ships Woolwich and Advice as escort, arriving 24 December. It was ordered to wait until reinforced from England before returning. Her Majesty's Ships Greenwich and Hazardous were to sail on the first fair wind in January 1706.
	Nov	Captain Harris received orders dated 28 Nov that Hazardous was to be prepared to sail for Virginia to escort merchant ships back to England.
	Dec	Hazardous returned to Plymouth on 9 December
1706	Jan	Captain Harris sets about removing ballast and unwanted stores making ready for docking.
	Feb	On 2 February, Captain Richard Browne wrote to the Admiralty requesting, that as Captain Harris was 'desirous to change with me for the Assistance, the Hazardous being bound for Virginia and I have some business there', they be allowed to change.
		Captain's log of 4 February shows that 'ye Officers of ye Yard' without their orders, would not take the ship into docks.
		Mid February, Plymouth received the order that 'Hazardous be forthwith refitted there for a Voyage to Virginia and Clean'd and Grav'd with all possible dispatch'.
		Captain Harris signed off his log on 19 February and the ship handed over to Captain Browne.
	Mar	On 1 March, Captain Browne stated in a letter to the Admiralty, he was in Plymouth Sound and except for 100 bags of bread, was ready to sail as soon as Greenwich arrived.
	Mar	On 8 March, Captain Browne reported that he had illness on the ship with 21 men sick and that 4 men had died.
	Apr	Greenwich arrived in Plymouth on 20 April. During April, Captain Browne wrote to The Admiralty several times regarding the sickness of his crew, probably typhus. He reported that 10 men had died.
		On 21 April, Captain Browne reported that Hazardous required 36 men to complete the complement and was having some trouble getting them
		Both Greenwich and Hazardous cleared Plymouth on 24 April
		Both ships were forced by bad weather into Falmouth on 27 April.
		On 29 April both ships sailed from Falmouth.
	May	On 1 May, Greenwich was in collision with a ship carrying messages from Admiral Sir Stafford Fairborne and was forced to return to Plymouth for repairs.
	July	Hazardous continued on alone, arriving in Virginia on 29 July
	Aug	Greenwich sailed on 1 June arriving in Virginia on 11 August.
	Sep	On 17 September, the fleet escorted by Greenwich, Woolwich, Advice and Hazardous left for England. The convoy is recorded as the largest to leave Virginia up to that date. The Hazardous Master's log states on leaving Virginia 'the whole fleet now consists of upwards 200 sail'.
	Sep	On 24 September, Hazardous was damaged in a collision with a merchantman and Greenwich provided 4 men to assist repairs.
	Oct	Hazardous Master's log gives the picture of a convoy troubled by inclement weather from the start of the voyage. By 9 October the convoy was into 'hard gales and much rain'.
	Nov	On 9 November as the convoy neared the Soundings, Hazardous and 37 ships left the convoy heading for The Downs.
		At 6 am on 12 November, SSW of the Lizard, Captain Browne commanding Hazardous, died and Lieutenant John Hares took over command.
		On 13 November, after delivering merchantmen to Plymouth, Captain Lowen of Advice found Hazardous, off Start Point, without a Captain, escorting 35 Virginia merchant ships bound for South coast and London ports and two Dutchman from Surinam. Captin Browne was buried at 3 pm that day. Lowen took over responsibility to deliver ships to their destinations.
		About 3 o'clock on 15 November, Capt Lowen signalled the Masters to see what they wanted to do given the slow progress. The majority wanted to go on and try to reach Spithead even though many of them 'starved for want of provisions'. The weather started to deteriorate to 'moderate gales and close weather'.
		The convoy struggled in worsening weather and adverse swinging winds. At noon on 17 November, according to Advice log, the ships were WSW of Dunnose in the Isle of Wight.
		On 18 November with 'hard gales and much rain with dark close weather', winds shifted to the south, swinging SE and SW, the decision was made by Captain Lowen at 5pm to seek shelter in St Helen's Roads. Unknown to Advice, Hazardous had failed to secure anchorage. Throughout the night Hazardous was pushed further towards the shore by a strong SW wind.
		At about 8 o'clock in the morning of 19 November, Lieutenant Hares had no option but to 'cut and run our ship onto shore for the preservation if possible of the ship'. The anchor warps were severed and the vessel was run as far into land as possible.
		On 21 November The Commissioner of Portsmouth Dockyard took over responsibilty for Hazardous and instigated a salvage operation.
		A party of 10, headed by Lieutenant Hares, was listed on Hazardous from 20 November as the only crew members formed to undertake salvage.
	Dec	On 27 December at Spithead a Court Martial was convened to enquire into the loss of Hazardous. Capt John Lowen and the Master of Advice were dismissed the Service.
1707	Jan-Sep	Over this period, using local people and yard personnel, much of Hazardous was salvaged. 21 cannon and a large amount of ships's stores were recovered.
	Oct	The Commissioner reported that Hazardous was breaking up and a large part had been driven ashore.
	Oct	On 17 October the wreck of Hazardous was sold 'by inch of Candle' for £33 at Chichester to John Day, a shipwright from Emsworth.
1715		The Calendar of Treasury Books shows a payment in the financial year 1715/1716 of an unspecified amount to 'Capt John Meric Cole, for salvage from the Hazardous man of war near Chichester'
1977		Although a gun was raised from the vicinity of the site in 1966, the wreck was not located by divers until stumbled upon by members of Sub-Aqua Association (SAA) 308 in 1977.