A number of ships have been named Protector:
- Protector (1779 frigate) was a 26-gun sixth-rate of the Massachusetts Navy launched in 1779 at Newburyport, Massachusetts, that HMS Roebuck and HMS Medea captured on 5 May 1781; the British Royal Navy renamed her HMS Hussar, and sold her in 1783.
- Protector was a ship of 580 tons (bm) launched in 1751 for the British East India Company as a fast heavily armed warship to deter pirates and the French Company in Indian waters. In 1761 a monsoon wrecked her while she rode at anchor in Pondicherry Roads. [1]
- Protector (1826 ship) was a ship of 511 tons (bm) launched in 1826 at Chepstow. Between 1826 and 1831 she made two voyages to India for the British East India Company. She was lost in 1838 near Calcutta. [1]
- Protector (1827 ship) was a barque of 380 tons (bm) launched at Lincoln, New Brunswick, Canada, in 1827 that in 1830 transported colonists to the nascent Swan River Colony.
Protector was a frigate of the Massachusetts Navy, launched in 1779. She fought a notable single-ship action against a British privateer General Duff before the British Royal Navy captured her in 1781. The Royal Navy took her into service as the sixth-rate post ship HMS Hussar. Hussar too engaged in a notable action against the French 32-gun frigate Sybille. The Royal Navy sold Hussar in 1783 and a Dutch ship-owner operating from Copenhagen purchased her. She made one voyage to the East Indies for him before he sold her to British owners circa 1786. She leaves Lloyd's Register by 1790.
Newburyport is a small coastal, scenic, and historic city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, 35 miles (56 km) northeast of Boston. The population was 17,416 at the 2010 census. A historic seaport with a vibrant tourism industry, Newburyport includes part of Plum Island. The mooring, winter storage and maintenance of recreational boats, motor and sail, still contribute a large part of the city's income. A Coast Guard station oversees boating activity, especially in the sometimes dangerous tidal currents of the Merrimack River.
HMS Roebuck was a 44-gun, fifth-rate ship of the Royal Navy which served in the American and French Revolutionary Wars. Designed by Sir Thomas Slade in 1769, to operate in the shallower waters of North America, she joined Lord Howe's squadron towards the end of 1775 and took part in operations against New York the following year, engaging the American gun batteries at Red Hook during the Battle of Long Island in August 1776, and forcing a passage up the Hudson River in October. On 25 August 1777, Roebuck escorted troopships to Turkey Point, Maryland, where an army was landed for an assault on Philadelphia. She was again called upon to accompany troopships in December 1779; this time for an attack on Charleston. When the ships-of-the-line, which were too large to enter the harbour, were sent back to New York, Admiral Marriot Arbuthnot made Roebuck his flagship. She was therefore at the front of the attack; leading the British squadron across the bar to engage Fort Moultrie and the American ships beyond.
