HMS Winchelsea (1740)

History
Great Britain
Name: HMS Winchelsea
Builder: Limehouse
Commissioned: June 1740
In service: 1740
Out of service: 1761
General characteristics
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Complement: 150
Armament: 16, 20 or 24 guns

HMS Winchelsea was a 24-gun sixth-rate launched in 1740 and served in the Mediterranean, Atlantic and home waters. She was captured by the French in 1758, but was retaken two weeks later. She was broken up in 1761.

Career

In 1741 Winchelsea, commanded by Capt. Holcombe, sailed with Commodore Richard Lestock's squadron to join Admiral Haddock's Mediterranean fleet. At that time she was listed as having 20 guns and a complement of 150 men.[1] While on station, pretending to be a merchant ship, she lured two Spanish privateers to chase her; when they realised their mistake they took off in opposite directions, but Winchelsea captured one of them, a small brig with a crew of 46, which she carried to Gibraltar.[2][3] She returned to Britain from the Mediterranean at the end of 1742, taking eight days to make the passage.[4]

The ship's barge attempted to impress sailors from the merchant ship Tarleton on the River Mersey off of Liverpool in 1744. The crew of the Tarleton exchanged shots with the Windchelsea press gang and successfully evaded them by docking the ship and dispersing into the town.[5]

The ship was recommissioned at the oubreak of the War of the Austrian Succession in 1745. The Windchelsea took the 26-gun French warship Subtile on 19 November 1746.[6]

In 1747 Winchelsea was listed as having 16 guns and, under the command of Captain Dyves, was sailing with Admiral Byng in convoy for Gibraltar.[7]

In March 1756, the Winchelsea transported South Carolina's governor Henry William Littleton across the Atlantic from Portsmouth to his colony. The ship finally arrived at Charleston on 1 June.[8][9] Two years later, on 10 October, the ship was sailing off of Ireland when it was captured by the 60-gun French ship Bizarre and the 28-gun Mignonne. The ship was renamed Winchelsea under the French[10] but was soon retaken on 27 October by the British privateer Duke of Cornwall.[11]

References

  1. ↑ "List of ships comprising Commodore Lestock's squadron". Derby Mercury. British Newspaper Archive. 11 February 1741. Retrieved 5 June 2017. (Subscription required (help)).
  2. ↑ "From the Gazette". The Scots Magazine. British Newspaper Archive. 2 October 1741. Retrieved 5 June 2017. (Subscription required (help)).
  3. ↑ "HMS Winchelsea". Newcastle Courant. British Newspaper Archive. 10 October 1741. Retrieved 5 June 2017. (Subscription required (help)).
  4. ↑ "HMS Winchelsea". Derby Mercury. British Newspaper Archive. 23 December 1742. Retrieved 5 June 2017. (Subscription required (help)).
  5. ↑ Rogers, Nicholas (2008). The Press Gang: Naval Impressment and its Oponents in Georgian Britain. London: Continuum. p. 60. ISBN 0826423736.
  6. ↑ Winfield, Rif (2007). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714-1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. p. 251. ISBN 1783469250.
  7. ↑ "A General List of His Majesty's Royal Navy". The Scots Magazine. British Newspaper Archive. 6 February 1747. p. 94. Retrieved 6 June 2017. (Subscription required (help)).
  8. ↑ Sirmans, M. Eugene (2012). Colonial South Carolina: A Political History, 1663-1763. UNC Press Books. p. 308. ISBN 0807838489.
  9. ↑ "Extract of a Letter from Portsmouth, March 10". The New-York Mercury. 10 May 1756.
  10. ↑ Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours 1 1671 - 1870. p. 476. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922.
  11. ↑ Winflield. British Warships in the Age of Sail. p. 251.
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