HMS Ardent was a 64–gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 9 April 1796 at Northfleet. She had been designed and laid down for the British East India Company who was going to name her Princess Royal, but the Navy purchased her before launching, for service as a warship in the French Revolutionary War.
Ardent off Lowestoft on 16 October 1797
Ardent at the Battle of Copenhagen, 2 April 1801
The Battle of Camperdown was a major naval action fought on 11 October 1797, between the British North Sea Fleet under Admiral Adam Duncan and a Batavian Navy (Dutch) fleet under Vice-Admiral Jan de Winter. The battle, the most significant action between British and Dutch forces during the French Revolutionary Wars, resulted in a complete victory for the British, who captured eleven Dutch ships without losing any of their own.
The Battle of Camperdown, 11 October 1797, Thomas Whitcombe
Adam Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan, Henri-Pierre Danloux, pre-1809, NPG.
The Battle of Camperdown, Thomas Whitcombe, 1798, Tate
The Battle of Camperdown, painted by Philip de Loutherbourg in 1799.