HMS Kingfisher (1770)

	Painting by Joseph Marshall (1773–1775) of Kingfisher hull model
History
Great Britain
Name	HMS Kingfisher
Ordered	18 January 1766
Builder	Chatham Dockyard; Master shipwright: Joseph Harris;
Laid down	January 1769
Launched	13 July 1770
Completed	21 November 1770
Commissioned	September 1770
Fate	Burnt to avoid capture at Newport, Rhode Island, 7 August 1778
General characteristics
Class and type	Swan-class ship sloop
Tons burthen	302 8⁄94 bm
Length	96 ft 8+1⁄2 in (29.5 m) (gundeck); 78 ft 10+1⁄2 in (24.0 m) (keel);
Beam	26 ft 10 in (8.2 m)
Depth of hold	12 ft 10 in (3.91 m)
Complement	125
Armament	14 × 6-pounder guns

HMS Kingfisher (also spelled King's Fisher or Kingsfisher) was the second ship in the 14-gun Swan class of ship sloops, to which design 25 vessels were built in the 1760s and 1770s. She was launched on 13 July 1770 at Chatham Dockyard, and completed there on 21 November 1770. She took part in the American Revolutionary War, enforcing the blockade of the Delaware Bay, and served in the Battle of Turtle Gut Inlet, near Cape May, New Jersey. While under the temporary command of Lieutenant Hugh Christian, she was burnt by her own crew to avoid capture on 7 August 1778 in Narragansett Bay during the Battle of Rhode Island.^[1]