Final Years
Dilkes resumed command of Neptune on 2 March 1810, while Wood was exchanged into HMS Pompee. Dilkes had apparently been suffering poor health, and Captain N Ballard took command in an acting capacity on 22 July. Neptune returned to Plymouth on 26 October and entered the dock on 9 November to be fitted for the ordinary. The process cost £713, and after undocking on 8 December she was laid up in the Hamoaze until late autumn 1813. Her hull appears to have quickly deteriorated, and after a survey she was deemed unfit for further service at sea. The Navy Board proposed that she be converted into a prison ship, a recommendation the Admiralty accepted, and she was taken in hand for fitting out on 22 November. On the completion of the work in December she was commissioned under Lieutenant George Lawrence. Neptune spent three years in this role, and was finally taken to pieces in October 1818.
Read more about this topic: HMS Neptune (1797)
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