Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. HMS Victorious was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Blackwall Yard, London on 27 April 1785. She was the first ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name. Victorious participated in the capture of the Dutch colony of Cape Town, in which an invasion had been caused due to fears of France''s expansion across the world. Britain seized the strategic Cape Town and thus secured the nation its routes to the East. The rest of her career was spent in the warm climates of the East Indies, patrolling the vast waters in that region.