HMS Fox (1740)

HMS Fox's sister ship Experiment (L) takes the French ship Telemaque (R)
History
Great Britain
NameHMS Fox
NamesakeFox
Ordered13 August 1739
BuilderJohn Buxton Sr, Rotherhithe
Cost£3,771.5
Laid down16 September 1739
Launched1 May 1740
Completed27 June 1740
CommissionedApril 1740
FateLost in a gale, 1745
General characteristics [1]
Class and typeSixth-rate frigate
Tons burthen4401894 (bm)
Length
  • 106 ft 8 in (32.5 m) (gundeck)
  • 87 ft 11+18 in (26.8 m) (keel)
Beam30 ft 8+18 in (9.4 m)
Depth of hold9 ft 6 in (2.9 m)
PropulsionSails
Complement140
ArmamentGundeck: 20 × 9-pounder guns

HMS Fox was a 20-gun sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was constructed at Rotherhithe by John Buxton senior, and launched in 1740. Fox was part of the 1733 Establishment built in response to the upcoming War of the Austrian Succession and spent the majority of her career patrolling for privateers and smaller hostile craft, and protecting convoys. She was active during the Jacobite rising of 1745, contributing troops at the Battle of Prestonpans and protecting the advancing army and supplies of John Cope, before succumbing to a storm off Dunbar on 14 November 1745.

  1. ^ Winfield (2007), p. 1171.