HMS Deal Castle was a 20-gun post ship of the Royal Navy built in 1756.
Commissioned in 1754 she was built at Blackwall and fitted out in Deptford 1755/56 by Adam Hayes and launched on 20 January 1756. [1] Her first Captain was Edward Hughes. Fitting out was completed in March and she then plied the English Channel and North Sea. [2] Her first action was on 18 July 1760 when she captured the French privateer Le Faucon. [3]
In 1762, she escorted a convoy of troop carriers to Senegal and saw brief action with the French ship Le Signe. [1] She was recommissioned in 1763 under command of Captain Digby Dent and saw three years service in the Mediterranean including a diplomatic trip to Cadiz. [4]
From 1766 to 1768, she was repaired and recommissioned at Chatham Docks. She was relaunched in April 1768 and went to North America. She was refitted again in 1772 and in April 1773 went to the Leeward Islands returning to England in 1775. In 1776, she was recommissioned and refitted at Portsmouth to serve in Newfoundland. This was changed in 1777 and in December she returned to the Leeward Islands again. [3]
On 17 April 1780, she took part in the Battle of Martinique under command of Captain William Fooks with Admiral George Rodney. Fooks moved to HMS Greyhound the day after the battle and James Hawkins-Whitshed took command. [5]
The ship was wrecked in the Great Hurricane of 1780 off the coast of Puerto Rico on 11 October 1780 (along with 12 other Royal Navy vessels) but only three of the 160 crew perished. Hawkins-Whitshed took over HMS Ceres. 22,000 persons were killed in the storm. [6]
HMS Britannia was a 100-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. The vessel was laid down in 1751 and launched in 1762. Nicknamed Old Ironsides, she served in the American Revolutionary War, the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, including at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. One of the largest Royal Navy warships of her era, Britannia was one of only three British first-rates present at the battle, alongside HMS Victory and HMS Royal Sovereign. In 1806, the vessel was laid up and eventually converted into a hulk, before being broken up in 1825.
Royal Naval Dockyard, Halifax was a Royal Navy base in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Established in 1759, the Halifax Yard served as the headquarters for the Royal Navy's North American Station for sixty years, starting with the Seven Years' War. The Royal Navy continued to operate the station until it was closed in 1905. The station was sold to Canada in 1907 becoming His Majesty's Canadian Dockyard, a function it still serves today as part of CFB Halifax.
HMS Dublin was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built by Adam Hayes at Deptford Dockyard and launched on 6 May 1757.
HMS Royal Oak was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built by Israel Pownoll and launched on 13 November 1769 at Plymouth.
The Foudroyant was an 80-gun ship of the line of the French Navy. She was later captured and served in the Royal Navy as the Third Rate HMS Foudroyant.
HMS Modeste was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was previously the 64-gun Modeste, of the French Navy, launched in 1759 and captured later that year.
HMS Carcass was an Infernal-class bomb vessel of the Royal Navy, later refitted as a survey vessel. A young Horatio Nelson served aboard her as a midshipman on an expedition to the Arctic in 1773.
HMS Seahorse was a 24-gun sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, launched in 1748. She is perhaps most famous as the ship on which a young Horatio Nelson served as a midshipman. She also participated in four battles off the coast of India between 1781 and 1783. The Royal Navy sold her in 1784 and she then became the mercantile Ravensworth. She made one voyage for the British East India Company (EIC) between 1786 and 1788. In 1789, she was sold to the French East India Company which had her refitted and renamed her Citoyen. In 1793 the French Navy purchased her and used her as a frigate. She was last listed in 1801.
Admiral of the Fleet Sir James Hawkins-Whitshed, 1st Baronet,, was a Royal Navy officer. He saw action in command of a sloop at the Battle of Martinique during the American Revolutionary War. He went on to serve under Sir John Jervis in the Mediterranean and took part in the battle of Cape St. Vincent during the French Revolutionary Wars.
HMS Romney was a 50-gun fourth rate of the Royal Navy. She served during the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars in a career that spanned forty years. Five ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Romney. The origins of the name are from the town of New Romney, although it may be that the name entered the Royal Navy in honour of Henry Sydney, 1st Earl of Romney.
William Bayne, was an officer of the Royal Navy. He saw service during the Seven Years' War and the American War of Independence, being killed in action in a brief engagement prior to the Battle of the Saintes.
HMS Pallas was one of the three 36-gun Venus-class fifth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1757 and initially served in Sir Edward Hawke's fleet blockading the coast of France where she fought at the Raid on Cherbourg and in the Battle of Bishops Court. She later served for a number of years in the Mediterranean Sea before moving to serve off the coast of Africa between 1774 and 1776 where she protected the isolated British colonies. In 1778 she joined the Newfoundland Station and participated in the attack on Saint Pierre and Miquelon. Pallas returned to the English Channel after this and assisted in destroying a French invasion force intended for the Channel Islands in 1779 before briefly serving on the Jamaica Station. In 1783 she was beached on São Jorge Island after she was found to be heavily leaking; she was burned there on 24 February.
HMS Andromeda was a 32-gun Hermione-class fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was laid down in 1781 and launched in 1784. She was commissioned for the first time in 1788 when Captain Prince William Henry took command of her and sailed for the West Indies. Prince William Henry paid her off in 1789 and she was not commissioned again until 1790 in response to the Spanish Armament. In 1792 Andromeda joined the Royal Navy's Evolution Squadron in the English Channel before sailing for the Leeward Islands where she stayed until the end of 1793 when Captain Lord Northesk brought her home. She was refitted for much of 1794 before in September joining the Downs Station. Captain William Taylor assumed command in 1795, briefly sailing her to Newfoundland before returning to the North Sea Fleet in 1796. She stayed here for 3 years, seizing the 36-gun Batavian frigate Zefir in the Firth of Forth in March 1798 and participating in the Raid on Dunkirk in July 1800. After another period of service in the Leeward Islands Andromeda returned home at the Peace of Amiens and was laid up at Portsmouth Dockyard where she was broken up in September 1811.
Captain Digby Dent was a Royal Navy officer who served as Commander-in-Chief of the Jamaica Station.
Saint Michel was a 64-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, lead ship of her class.
Captain Taylor Penny (1721–1786) was an 18th-century officer of the Royal Navy who came to fame at the Battle of the Saintes.
Rear Admiral Sir Digby Dent (1739–1817) was a Royal Navy commander.
HMS Scarborough was a 20-gun ship built in 1756 which served the Royal Navy until 1780. She had a crew of 160 men.
Thomas Collingwood was a British Royal Navy commander, who served on HMS Fortune, HMS Siren, and HMS Jersey, among others. Collingwood played an important role in the Battle of Grenada and the Battle of Martinique (1780).
John Brisbane (1735–1807) was a Royal Navy commander who rose to be Admiral of the Fleet.