HMS Captain (1743)

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Captain and HMS Buffalo.

History
Royal Navy EnsignGreat Britain
NameHMS Captain
Ordered7 September 1739
BuilderWoolwich Dockyard
Launched14 April 1743
FateBroken up, 1783
Notes
General characteristics [1]
Class and type1733 proposals 70-gun third rate ship of the line
Tons burthen1230 (bm)
Length151 ft (46.0 m) (gundeck)
Beam43 ft 5 in (13.2 m)
Depth of hold17 ft 9 in (5.4 m)
PropulsionSails
Sail planFull-rigged ship
Armament
  • Gundeck: 26 × 24-pounder guns
  • Upper gundeck: 26 × 12-pounder guns
  • QD: 14 × 6-pounder guns
  • Fc: 4 × 6-pounder guns

HMS Captain was a 70-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built according to the 1733 proposals of the 1719 Establishment at Woolwich Dockyard, and launched on 14 April 1743.[1]

Francis Light, founder of Penang, served for a few months as an apprentice on Captain around 1759.[2]

In 1760, the Captain was reduced to a 64-gun ship.[citation needed]

On 12 August 1771, the Captain entered Boston Harbor with John Montagu, Rear-Admiral of the Blue Squadron and newly appointed Commander-in-Chief of the North American Station. She served as Montagu's flagship while he oversaw the Royal Navy's support of customs enforcement under the Townshend Acts.[3]

The Captain was present in Boston Harbor—along with the Active and Kingfisher—on 16 December 1773, when the Boston Tea Party took place.[4] The ships were readied for action,[5] and "it was expected that the men of war would have interfered"[6] to prevent the destruction of the tea, but according to Admiral Montagu the civil leadership never called for his assistance. He claimed that if they had, he could have easily prevented the tea's destruction, "but must have endangered the Lives of many innocent people by firing upon the town", presumably with the guns of the Captain.[7]

In 1777 the Captain was converted to serve as a storeship and renamed Buffalo.

In March, 1778 she was under command of Commander Hugh Bromage.[8]

Although a storeship, Buffalo shared, with Thetis, and Alarm, in the proceeds from Southampton's capture of the 12-gun French privateer Comte de Maurepas, on 3 August 1780.[9]

In 1781, with 60 guns back on board, although she only had 18-pounders on the lower deck, she participated in the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War at the Battle of Dogger Bank.[10]: 46 

Buffalo returned to the role of storeship until she was broken up in 1783.[1]

  1. ^ a b c Lavery, Ships of the Line vol. 1, p. 171.
  2. ^ Clodd, Harold Parker (1948), Malaya's first British pioneer: the life of Francis Light, Luzac, p. 1, ISBN 978-0-375-42750-3, retrieved 26 October 2019
  3. ^ "Boston, August 19". The Boston-Gazette, and Country Journal. 19 August 1771. p. 3. Retrieved 28 November 2022.
  4. ^ Carp, Benjamin L. (2010). Defiance of the Patriots: The Boston Tea Party & The Making of America. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. p. 97. ISBN 978-0-300-11705-9.
  5. ^ Carp, Benjamin L. (2010). Defiance of the Patriots: The Boston Tea Party & The Making of America. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. pp. 124–125. ISBN 978-0-300-11705-9.
  6. ^ "Boston, December 16". The New-York Gazette; and the Weekly Mercury. 27 December 1773. p. 3. Retrieved 28 November 2022.
  7. ^ "Minto, Gilbert Elliot, 3rd bart., 1722-1777. Gilbert Elliot Minto tea party papers, 1773-1774. Montagu, John, 1719-1795. Ms.: Copy of a letter from rear adml Montagu to Philip Stephens ... Secry to the Admiralty dated 17th Decr 1773. [London, 1774]. MS Am 1501 (29). Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass". Colonial North America at Harvard Library. Retrieved 28 November 2022.
  8. ^ "Naval Documents of The American Revolution Volume 11 AMERICAN THEATRE: Jan. 1, 1778–Mar. 31, 1778 EUROPEAN THEATRE: Jan. 1, 1778 – Mar. 31, 1778" (PDF). U.S. Government printing office via Imbiblio. Retrieved 31 August 2023.
  9. ^ "No. 12325". The London Gazette. 24 August 1782. p. 1.
  10. ^ Ross, Sir John. Memoirs of Admiral de Saumarez Vol 1.