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HMS Crescent (1779)

History
Royal Navy EnsignGreat Britain
Name: HMS Crescent
Ordered: 19 July 1777
Builder: James Martin Hillhouse, Bristol
Laid down: 19 August 1777
Launched: March 1779
Completed: 30 June 1779 (at Plymouth Dockyard)
Commissioned: ?September 1779
Fate: Captured by a French frigate 20 June 1781
French Navy EnsignFrance
Name: Crescent
Acquired: 1781 by capture
Fate: Wrecked, January 1786
General characteristics
Class and type: 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate
Displacement: 850 tons (French)
Tons burthen: 611 2994 (bm)
Length:
  • 120 ft 8 in (36.78 m) (overall)
  • 99 ft 5 in (30.30 m) (keel)
Beam: 34 ft 0 in (10.4 m)
Depth of hold: 11 ft (3.4 m)
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Complement:
  • British service: 200 officers and men
  • French service: 130 (peace & 210 (war)
Armament:
  • British service
  • Upper deck: 24 × 9-pounder guns
  • QD: 4 x 6-pounder guns + 4 x 18-pounder carronades
  • Fc: 2 x 18-pounder carronades
  • Also:12 x swivel guns
  • French service
  • Upper deck: 24 x 9-pounder guns
  • Spar deck: 4 x 3-pounder guns; after 1784 2 x 6-pounder guns (French)

HMS Crescent was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Crescent was launched in 1779. The French captured her in 1781. She was wrecked in 1786.

Crescent was first commissioned in about September 1779 under the command of Captain Charles Hope.

On 16 March 1781, Crescent, under the command of Captain Thomas Packenham, was one of over 40 warships in a fleet under the command of Admiral John Darby, in Britannia, that left Portsmouth that day for Gibraltar. One day later, there arrived at Falmouth a French privateer and a brig, her prize, that Crescent had sent in. A prize money notice from 31 December 1781 reported that the vessels in Darby's fleet would share in the prize money for the Duc de Chartres, brig Trois Amis, and the Spanish frigate Leocadia, which the fleet had captured on its way to Gibraltar.

Less than a month after she had left Portsmouth, on 12 April 1781 Crescent and Flora, Captain William Peere Williams, left Gibraltar as escorts to 13 vessels sailing to Minorca. They arrived at "Mahone" on 19 April. On 3 May Flora, and Crescent left Port Mahon, intending to pass the Gut of Gibraltar as quickly as possible.

On the morning of 23 May they saw eight Spanish vessels, a 74-gun ship, four xebecs, an armed ship, and two bomb vessels. The Spanish commodore set his squadron in chase, before sending all but his vessel and two xebecs, each of 36 guns, back to Spain. One of the xebecs caught up with Crescent and a three-hour running fight ensued during which Crescent sustained no casualties. Flora came up and fired some broadsides at the xebec, which fell back to repair damage. Flora had one man killed and one wounded due to poor gun-handling. The Spaniards resumed their chase in the evening but Flora and Crescent were able to elude them in the night. The engagement had driven the British vessels close to Cape Palos so they cruised there for two days in case to ensure that the enemy were not in the vicinity. They then sailed for the North African coast and were off Gibraltar on 29 May.


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