HMS Tiger (1747)

Last updated

Proposal for 1745 Establishment 60-gun Fourth Rates. RMG J3473.jpg
Tiger
History
Naval Ensign of Great Britain (1707-1800).svg Great Britain
NameHMS Tiger
Ordered17 March 1746
BuilderStanton and Wells, Rotherhithe
Laid downApril 1746
Launched23 November 1747
CommissionedDecember 1747
In service
  • 1747–1752
  • 1753–1765
Honours and
awards
FateSold out of service, Bombay, 12 May 1765
General characteristics
Class and type 1745 Establishment 60-gun fourth rate ship of the line
Tons burthen1,2181594 bm
Length
  • 150 ft 9 in (45.9 m) (gundeck)
  • 123 ft 3 in (37.6 m)
Beam43 ft 1 in (13.1 m)
Depth of hold18 ft 6 in (5.6 m)
Sail plan Full-rigged ship
Complement420
Armament
  • 60 guns:
  • Gundeck: 24 × 24 pdrs
  • Upper gundeck: 26 × 18 pdrs
  • Quarterdeck: 8 × 6 pdrs
  • Forecastle: 2 × 6 pdrs

HMS Tiger or Tygre was a 60-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Rotherhithe to the draught specified by the 1745 Establishment and launched on 23 November 1747. [1]

Contents

Tiger was commissioned in December 1747 under Captain Charles Saunders, as a reinforcement for the British fleet then in action against France in the War of the Austrian Succession. She was assigned to a squadron under the overall command of Admiral Peter Warren, but saw no active engagement in her first months at sea. The war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in April 1748, and Tiger was returned to Deptford for service as a guard ship. Charles Steevens replaced Saunders as Tiger's captain in 1749, but the vessel remained at Deptford until she was decommissioned in November 1752. [2]

Two months later, in January 1753, Tiger was restored to her duties as a guard ship but relocated to Portsmouth Dockyard. Command was transferred to Captain Samuel Marshall, and then to Captain Thomas Latham in early 1754. In early 1754 the vessel was assigned to the protection of British merchant interests in the East Indies. [2]

A British-Portuguese-Indian naval force attacks the fort of Geriah, 1756 A British-Portuguese-Indian naval force attacks the fort of Geriah, 1756.jpg
A British-Portuguese-Indian naval force attacks the fort of Geriah, 1756

In the British anti-piracy campaign of 1756 HMS Kent, Kingfisher, and Tiger carried 300 Indo-Portuguese Topazes to capture the fortress of Gheriah on 14 February 1756. [3]

Tiger (far right) at the capture of Chandernagore, March 1757 Capture de Chandernagor en 1757 par la Royal Navy.jpg
Tiger (far right) at the capture of Chandernagore, March 1757

In 1756 war broke out between France and Great Britain, and Colonel Robert Clive of the British East India Company and Admiral Charles Watson of the British Navy bombarded and captured Chandannagar on 23 March 1757. [4] In order to take the Fort d'Orleans guarding the town, Tiger and Kent managed to edge up the Hooghly river, although the French had tried to block it with sunken ships, booms and chains. [4] When they were close to the fort, they opened fire with all guns, but took a great punishment from the French in the process.

Fate

Tiger was converted to serve as a hulk in 1760, and in 1765 she was sold out of the Navy. [1]

Notes

  1. 1 2 Lavery 2003, p.173.
  2. 1 2 Winfield 2007, p. 130
  3. Pocock, T., Battle for Empire - The very first world war 1756-63., London 1988
  4. 1 2 Naravane, M.S. (2014). Battles of the Honorourable East India Company. A.P.H. Publishing Corporation. p. 38. ISBN   9788131300343.

Related Research Articles

Charles Saunders (Royal Navy officer)

Admiral Sir Charles Saunders, KB was a Royal Navy officer. He commanded the fourth-rate HMS Gloucester and led her in action at the Second Battle of Cape Finisterre in October 1747 during the War of the Austrian Succession. After serving as Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet, he was appointed Commander-in-Chief, English Channel in charge of the Western Squadron between October 1758 and May 1759). He took command of the fleet tasked with carrying James Wolfe to Quebec in January 1759 and consolidated the dead general's victory after the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in September 1759 by devoting great energy to keeping the British Army, now under the command of Colonel George Townshend, well supplied during the Seven Years' War. He later became Senior Naval Lord and then First Lord of the Admiralty.

HMS <i>Africa</i> (1781) Ship of the line of the Royal Navy

HMS Africa was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched by Barnard at Deptford on 11 April 1781.

HMS Ganges was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched in 1782 at Rotherhithe. She was the first ship of the Navy to bear the name, and was the name ship of her class. She saw active service from 1782 to 1811, in Europe and the West Indies.

HMS <i>Cambridge</i> (1755) Ship of the line of the Royal Navy

HMS Cambridge was an 80-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Deptford Dockyard to the draught specified by the 1745 Establishment as amended in 1750, and launched on 21 October 1755.

HMS <i>Neptune</i> (1683) Ship of the line of the Royal Navy

HMS Neptune was a 90-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was built under the 1677 "Thirty Great Ships" Programme and launched in 1683 at Deptford Dockyard.

HMS Burford was a 70-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Woolwich Dockyard in 1679 as part of the Thirty Ships Programme of 1677. She fought in the War of English Succession, including the Battle of Barfleur, before being rebuilt at Deptford in 1699, remaining as a 70-gun third rate. During the War of Spanish Succession she was mostly in the Mediterranean fleet and fought at the capture of Gibraltar and the Battle of Málaga in 1704 before being extensively repaired between 1710 and 1712 at Portsmouth Dockyard. Burford served in the Baltic in 1715 and 1717 before returning to the Mediterranean to fight the Spanish at the Battle of Cape Passaro in 1718. She was wrecked on the Italian coast in a storm on 14 February 1719.

HMS <i>Swiftsure</i> (1750) Ship of the line of the Royal Navy

HMS Swiftsure was a 70-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched in 1755 and in active service during the Seven Years' War. After a distinguished career at sea she was decommissioned in 1763 and sold into private hands ten years later.

HMS Norwich was a 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Deptford on 24 August 1693.

HMS Kent was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was ordered from Deptford Dockyard on 10 May 1743 to be built to the 1741 proposals of the 1719 Establishment, and was launched on 10 May 1746. Her first commander was Thomas Fox, who had previously commanded HMS Newcastle.

HMS <i>Burford</i> (1722) Ship of the line of the Royal Navy

HMS Burford was a 70-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Deptford Dockyard to the 1719 Establishment, and launched on 19 July 1722. Burford was notably the early posting of both John Forbes and John Byng, both of whom rose to become Admirals.

HMS <i>Warwick</i> (1733) Former fourth-rate ship of the Royal Navy

HMS Warwick was a 60-gun fourth-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built to the 1719 Establishment at Plymouth by P. Lock. The keel was laid down on 1 April 1730, and the ship was launched on 25 October 1733, and completed on 24 August 1734.

HMS Burford was a 70-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Chatham Dockyard to the draught specified by the 1745 Establishment as amended in 1754, and launched in 1757.

HMS <i>Monarch</i> (1747) Ship of the line of the Royal Navy

HMS Monarch was originally the 74-gun ship of the line Monarque of the French Navy launched in March 1747. Captured on 14 October 1747, she was taken into Royal Navy service as the third rate HMS Monarch.

Savage Mostyn

Savage Mostyn was an officer of the Royal Navy who saw service during the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War. He embarked on a political career, and was a Member of Parliament, Comptroller of the Navy, and one of the Lords of the Admiralty.

HMS Siren was a sixth-rate post ship of the British Royal Navy, in commission between 1745 and 1763, seeing action during the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War.

HMS <i>Magnanime</i> (1748) Ship of the line of the Royal Navy

Le Magnanime was originally a 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy launched in 1744 at Rochefort. Captured on 12 January 1748, she was taken into Royal Navy service as the third rate HMS Magnanime. She played a major part in the 1757 Rochefort expedition, helping to silence the batteries on the Isle of Aix, and served at the Battle of Quiberon Bay in 1759 under Lord Howe, where she forced the surrender of the French 74-gun Héros. Following a survey in 1770, she was deemed unseaworthy and was broken up in 1775.

HMS Swift was an 8-gun snow-rigged sloop of the Royal Navy, the last of three Drake class sloops constructed during the Anglo-Spanish War of Jenkins' Ear. Launched in 1741, her principal service was as convoy escort and patrol off North Carolina and in the North Sea. She was lost at sea on 31 October 1756.

HMS Weazel or Weazle was a 16-gun ship-sloop of the Royal Navy, in active service during the War of the Austrian Succession, the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War. Launched in 1745, she remained in British service until 1779 and captured a total of 11 enemy vessels. She was also present, but not actively engaged, at the Second Battle of Cape Finisterre in 1747.

HMS <i>Intrepid</i> (1747) Royal Navy ship

HMS Intrepid was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, originally built in Toulon for the French Navy. She was launched in 1740, as Sérieux and fought at the Battle of Toulon before her capture by the British at the First Battle of Cape Finisterre in 1747. After being renamed and refitted by the Royal Navy, she entered British service in late 1747. Between 1748 and 1752 she was assigned as a guard ship off the coast of Kent in south-east England.

HMS <i>Swallow</i> (1745) Royal Navy sloop

HMS Swallow was a 14-gun Merlin-class sloop of the Royal Navy. Commissioned in 1745, she initially served in home waters as a convoy escort and cruiser before sailing to join the East Indies Station in 1747. There she served in the squadron of Rear-Admiral Edward Boscawen, taking part in an aborted invasion of Mauritius and the Siege of Pondicherry. In 1755 Swallow joined the Downs Station, as part of which she fought at the Raid on St Malo, Raid on Cherbourg, and Battle of Saint Cast in 1758. She was also present when the French fleet broke out of Brest prior to the Battle of Quiberon Bay in 1759. Swallow was converted into an exploration ship in 1766, and she sailed under Philip Carteret as part of an expedition to the Pacific Ocean, where Carteret made discoveries including Pitcairn and New Ireland. The ship returned to England in 1769, and was sold later that year.

References