She sailed with a complement of 525 men and 64 guns with a draught of 1,380 tons and a gun deck of 159ft 6ins x 42ft. This type of ship was the second biggest class of ships-of-the-line on the navy list with 39 ships in 1793, and 41 in 1812. The 64 was essentially a cut price 74-gun ship; it had neither the gun power nor the sailing qualities of the latter. but more could be produced for the money. It was not a popular class with naval officers.
Captain Richard Onslow took command of St Albans on 31 October 1776. He took a convoy to New York City in April 1777 and joined Lord Howe in time for the repulse of d'Estaing on 22 July 1777 at Sandy Hook. She captured two prizes in December, 1777. On 30 January, 1778 she and HMSOtter in Chesapeake Bay recaptured the Fortune that had previously been captured by a French privateer.[2] On 4 February her boats captured and burned a schooner in the James River.[3][4] On 14 February her boats captured and burned the Virginia State Government owned trading sloop Shore, and the sloop Defiance off Hampton Creek, Virginia.[5] She captured two more prizes in March, the French Jean Andre on 12 March by her tender,[6] plus another. On 21 March her tender, H. M. schooner Dasher, captured the sloop Holt and the schooner Hawke in the area of Hampton Roads, Virginia. Hawke was broken up for firewood on 5 April and Holt on 6 April.[7] Another prize was captured by her tender in April, 1778.[8][9] Onslow sailed for the West Indies on 4 November 1778 with Commodore Hotham, and took part in the capture of Saint Lucia and its defence against d'Estaing that December at the Cul-de-Sac. In August 1779, he brought a convoy from St Kitts to Spithead.[10]
St Albans was with Hood during the Battle of Saint Kitts, when Hood attempted to relieve the island and repulsed several attacks by the Comte de Grasse on 25 and 26 January 1782. Inglis was again in action with the French on 9 April, when Hood's fleet clashed with de Grasse's in the Dominica Channel, and fought at the Battle of the Saintes on 12 April, where the main British fleet under Inglis's old captain, now Admiral Sir George Rodney, decisively defeated de Grasse.[14]St Albans had six men wounded during this engagement.[14]
St Albans sailed to North America in late July 1782 with Rodney's successor, Admiral Hugh Pigot. She was back in the West Indies by November, where Inglis was given command of a squadron of four ships cruising independently there.[12][13] The squadron, consisting of St Albans, the 64-gun Prudent, the 74-gun Magnificent and the sloop Barbados, was sent from Gros Islet Bay on 12 February to investigate reports of a French squadron, consisting of Triton, Amphion and several frigates, having sailed from Martinique.[15]
Admiral Pigot's return from the West Indies on board HMS Formidable in the company of other Royal Naval warships including St. Albans and HM brig Swift, Dominic Serres
On 15 February 1783 the 74-gun Magnificent, under Captain Robert Linzee.[16] was on a cruise in company with Prudent and St Albans. Magnificent sighted a strange sail and gave chase. She was close enough to identify the mysterious ship as a frigate by 18:00, and by 20:00 as darkness fell the quarry opened fire on her pursuer with her stern guns.[16]Magnificentoverhauled the French ship by 21:15, and after fifteen minutes forced her to strike her colours.[16]Magnificent took possession of Concorde, of 36 guns and 300 men under the command of M. le Chevalier du Clesmaur. Shortly after surrendering, Concorde's maintopsail caught fire, forcing the crew to cut away the mainmast to extinguish it.[16]Prudent and St Albans came up two hours later and Magnificent towed Concorde to St. John's, Antigua.[16]
On 26 November 1794 she rescued the crew of HMSActif which had developed leaks and was foundering.[17]
St Albans and Porcupine shared in the capture on 8 November of the brig Molly.[18]
St Albans was recommissioned under the command of Captain Francis Austen in February 1807. The ship sailed to serve in the East Indies and off China on 5 April 1809. By October 1810 Captain Edward Brace had assumed command and St Albans was serving off the coast of Cadiz.[13]
From December 1810 she was at Spithead then on Cadiz station until December 1812 under Brace and captains Charles Grant & John Devonshire.
She was taken out of commission and docked in Chatham for refit December 1812 - October 1813
Fate
By September 1813, St Albans was converted to be used as a floating battery. She was broken up in June 1814.[1]
HMS Antelope was a 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Rotherhithe on 13 March 1703. She was rebuilt once during her career, and served in the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War.
The second USS Revenge was a cutter in the Continental Navy and later a privateer.
Surprise, the first American naval ship of the name, was a sloop that the Continental Navy purchased in 1777. The Royal Navy had purchased a vessel named Hercules in 1776 and renamed her HMS Racehorse. Andrew Doria captured Racehorse in 1776 and the Americans took her into service as Surprise. Her crew destroyed Surprise on 15 December 1777 to prevent the Royal Navy from recapturing her.
HMS Badger was a brig rigged Sloop-of-War in service with the Royal Navy in the late eighteenth century. Badger is notable as being the first Royal Navy ship to be commanded by Horatio Nelson.
HMS Ambuscade was a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, built in the Grove Street shipyard of Adams & Barnard at Deptford in 1773. The French captured her in 1798 but the British recaptured her in 1803. She was broken up in 1810.
HMS Glasgow was a 20-gun sixth-rate post ship of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1757 and took part in the American Revolutionary War. While under command of Capt. William Maltby she ran onto rocks at Cohasset, Massachusetts on 10 December 1774. Refloated and arrived in Boston on the 15th for repairs. Capt. Maltby was relieved of command at a Court Martial and replaced by Tyringham Howe some time between 8–15 January 1775. She is most famous for her encounter with the maiden voyage of the Continental Navy off Block Island on 6 April 1776. In that action, Glasgow engaged a squadron of 6 ships of the Continental Navy, managing to escape intact. Under the command of Tho. Pasley, she captured sloop Juliana on 1 April 1777. She captured sloop Unity on 2 April 1777. She captured the sloop Betsy & Ann on 4 April. She captured sloop Volante on 5 April. She captured the brig Aurora on 10 April. She captured sloop Sally on 16 April. She captured American privateer sloop Henry on 19 April. She captured schooner Providence on 2 May. She captured schooner Nancy, probably in early May. She captured schooner Betsy 27 June. She captured brig Dolphin on unknown date. She captured sloop Rover on 24 July. She captured sloop Antonio on 21 July. She captured sloop Tryall on 25 July. She captured an unknown schooner on an unknown date. She captured schooner Gen. Thompson on an unknown date. She captured sloop Industry at an unknown date. She captured schooner Betsy & Ann on 4 November. She captured brig Sally on 8 December. She captured sloop Defiance and schooner Success on 9 December. She captured brig Minerva on 19 December. She captured schooner Happy Return on 22 December 1777. On 28 February 1778, she captured sloop Abigale 5 leagues east northeast of the Tiburon Peninsula. On 9 March 1778, she captured schooner Nancy 6 leagues off Mayaguana, Bahamas. She captured sloop Lucy on 12 March off the south east end of Mayaguana. She captured a prize in April 1778, but it sprang a leak and sank.
HMS Winchelsea was a 32-gun fifth-rate Niger-class frigate of the Royal Navy, and was the sixth Royal Navy ship to bear this name. She was ordered during the Seven Years' War, but completed too late for that conflict. She cost £11,515-18-0d to build.
HMS Carysfort was a 28-gun Coventry-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She served during the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars in a career that spanned over forty years.
HMS Mermaid was a Mermaid-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was first commissioned in April 1761 under Captain George Watson and built in Blaydes Yard in Kingston-Upon-Hull.
HMS Solebay was a Mermaid-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy which saw active service between 1766 and 1782, during the latter part of the Seven Years' War and throughout the American Revolutionary War. After a successful career in which she captured seven enemy vessels, she was wrecked ashore on the Caribbean Island of Nevis.
HMS Greyhound was a modified Royal Navy Mermaid-class sixth-rate frigate. She was first commissioned in October 1775 under Captain Archibald Dickson.
HMS Milford was a 28-gun Coventry-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was built at Milford by Richard Chitty and launched in 1759. She was sold for breaking at Woolwich on 17 May 1785.
HMS Kingfisher was the second ship in the 14-gun Swan class of ship sloops, to which design 25 vessels were built in the 1760s and 1770s. She was launched on 13 July 1770 at Chatham Dockyard, and completed there on 21 November 1770. She took part in the American Revolutionary War, enforcing the blockade of the Delaware Bay, and served in the Battle of Turtle Gut Inlet, near Cape May, New Jersey. While under the temporary command of Lieutenant Hugh Christian, she was burnt by her own crew to avoid capture on 7 August 1778 in Narragansett Bay during the Battle of Rhode Island.
HMS Ceres was an 18-gun sloop launched in 1777 for the British Royal Navy that the French captured in December 1778 off Saint Lucia. The French Navy took her into service as Cérès. The British recaptured her in 1782 and renamed her HMS Raven, only to have the French recapture her again early in 1783. The French returned her name to Cérès, and she then served in the French Navy until sold at Brest in 1791.
HMS Diligence was a 10-gun Alderney-class sloop of the Royal Navy which saw active service during the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War. Launched in 1756, she was a successful privateer hunter off the coast of France before being reassigned to North American waters in 1763. Fifteen years later she was briefly refitted as a receiving ship for press ganged sailors brought into Sheerness Dockyard, before being re-registered in August 1779 as the fireship Comet.
Experiment was a 50-gun ship of the line of the British Royal Navy. Captured by Sagittaire during the War of American Independence, she was recommissioned in the French Navy, where she served into the 1800s.
HMS Scarborough was a 20-gun ship built in 1756 which served the Royal Navy until 1780. She had a crew of 160 men.
HMS Portland was a 50-gun fourth-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. Designed by Sir John Williams, it was first launched on 11 April 1770.
HMS Glory was a 32-gun fifth-rate Niger-class frigate of the Royal Navy, and was the second Royal Navy ship to bear this name.
HMS Aeolus (1758) was a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. In 1800, she renamed as HMS Guernsey.
References
Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650-1859. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot. ISBN0-948864-30-3.
Lavery, Brian (2003). The Ship of the Line – Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850. Conway Maritime Press. ISBN0-85177-252-8.
Winfield, Rif (2007). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714–1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. London: Pen & Sword. ISBN978-1-84415-700-6.
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