HMS Assistance (1781)
| History | |
|---|---|
 UK
|
|
| Name: | HMS Assistance |
| Ordered: | 11 February 1778 |
| Builder: | Peter Baker, Liverpool |
| Laid down: | 4 July 1778 |
| Launched: | 12 March 1781 |
| Completed: | By 31 December 1781 |
| Fate: | Wrecked on 29 March 1802 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | 50-gun Portland-class fourth rate |
| Tons burthen: | 1,053 37/94 bm |
| Length: |
|
| Beam: | 40 ft 8 in (12.4 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 17 ft 6 in (5.33 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sails |
| Sail plan: | Full rigged ship |
| Complement: | 350 |
| Armament: |
|
HMS Assistance was a 50-gun Portland-class fourth rate of the Royal Navy. She was launched during the American War of Independence and spent most of her career serving in American waters, particularly off Halifax and Newfoundland. Assistance was the flagship of several of the commanders of the station. She was in service At the beginning of the French Revolutionary Wars, but was wrecked off Dunkirk in 1801.
Assistance was ordered from the Liverpool yard of Peter Baker on 11 February 1778, laid down there on 4 July that year, and launched on 12 March 1781. She was completed by 31 December 1781, having cost £10,908.3.3d. to build, and entered service in the English Channel under her first commander, Captain James Worth.
She escorted a convoy to North America in May 1782, returning to Britain to be paid off in early 1783. Assistance was then refitted at Plymouth and returned to North America in October 1783 under the command of Captain William Bentinck and flying the broad pendant of Captain Sir Charles Douglas. Serving on Assistance at this time was Lieutenant Hamilton Douglas Halyburton, the son of Sholto Douglas, 15th Earl of Morton. He and a party of men were sent out in Assistance's barge to chase deserters, but, landing in the dark and in a snowstorm, they became trapped in mud. When the snowstorm cleared two days later, all thirteen of the party were found to have died from exposure. "Had they landed fifty yards on either side from the place they became stranded, the company would have escaped." A memorial was later erected by Lt Halyburton's mother, Katherine, Countess of Morton. Captain Nicholas Sawyer took command in January 1784, flying the broad pendant of Captain Herbert Sawyer.
...
Wikipedia