HMS Illustrious was a 74-gun third rate built for the Royal Navy during the 1780s. Completed in 1790, she played a minor role in the French Revolutionary Wars. She participated in the Siege of Toulon in 1793 and the Battle of Genoa two years later. Badly damaged during the battle, she was blown ashore during a storm and subsequently burnt.
The Arrogant-class ship of the line was designed by Sir Thomas Slade, co-Surveyor of the Navy. It was one of the "common" type of 74 with lighter guns than those of the "large" classes. Illustrious was one of the slightly modified second batch of Arrogants. She measured on the gundeck and on the keel. She had a beam of , a depth of hold of and had a tonnage of 1,615 <small></small> tons burthen. The ship's draught was forward and aft at light load; fully loaded, her draught would be significantly deeper. The ships' crew numbered 600 officers and ratings. They were fitted with three masts and were ship-rigged.
The ships were armed with 74 muzzle-loading, smoothbore guns that consisted of twenty-eight 32-pounder guns on their lower gundeck and twenty-eight 18-pounder guns on their upper deck. Their forecastle mounted four 9-pounder guns. On their quarterdeck they carried fourteen 9-pounder guns.
Illustrious was the first ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy. She was ordered on 31 December 1781 and was laid down by Henry Adams at his shipyard in Buckler's Hard in September 1784. The ship was launched on 7 July 1789 and was commissioned by Captain Alexander Edgar in May 1790. Illustrious was completed at Portsmouth Dockyard on 18 June. Captain Charles Pole assumed command in March 1791 and the ship was paid off in September. She was recommissioned by Captain Thomas Frederick in January 1793 and was assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet on 22 April. Beginning in August, Illustrious was involved in the Siege of Toulon.
On 13âÂÂ14 March 1795, she participated in the Battle of Genoa. Illustrious was badly damaged in the engagement with the 80-gun second rates Victoire and Tonnant and the 74-gun Duquesne, losing both her main and mizzenmasts and her rigging wrecked. Twenty men of her crew were killed and seventy more were wounded. After the battle, the frigate was towing Illustrious when she broke free of her tow during a violent storm during the night of 17/18 March. Then the accidental firing of a lower-deck gun destroyed its gun port so that water briefly poured in. She attempted to anchor in Valence Bay (between Spezia and Leghorn) to ride out the bad weather that had descended upon her. On 18 March her anchor cables broke, however, and she struck on rocks and had to be abandoned although all her crew were rescued. Efforts over the next three days to refloat the ship were unsuccessful. The frigate Lowestoffe and the brig took off her stores, and her wreck was set on fire on 28 March.