HMS Fowey (1744)
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom
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| Name: | HMS Fowey |
| Builder: | Blaydes, Kingston upon Hull |
| Launched: | 14 August 1744 |
| Fate: | Wrecked, 26 June 1748 off the coast of Florida |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Fifth rate warship |
| Tons burthen: | 709 tons |
| Length: | 127 ft (39 m) |
| Beam: | 36 ft (11 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sails |
| Armament: | 20 guns, rearmed to 44 guns in 1745 |
HMS Fowey was a fifth rate warship of the Royal Navy, launched on 14 August 1744 in Hull, England. She spent only four years in commission before she struck a reef and sank in what is known today as Legare Anchorage in Biscayne National Park, off the coast of Florida. She was armed with six, nine, and eighteen pounder guns and crewed with over 200 men.
She was initially built to carry 20 guns, and was commanded from her commissioning until 1747 by Captain Policarpus Taylor, who would later rise to the rank of Rear Admiral. Fowey was first active in the English Channel and the waters off Gibraltar. Her first engagement was with the French ship Mentor, whilst escorting merchants from Jamaica to Great Britain. She captured the Mentor and took her as a prize. In 1745, she was rearmed to carry 44 guns, and later that year engaged the French ship Griffon, which was wrecked in the ensuing battle.
Later, in 1746 Fowey escorted troop transports to the recently captured Fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton in Nova Scotia. For most of her career Fowey was assigned to a split duty station cruising the coast of North America from South Carolina to Boston during the summer and operating out of Port Antonio, Jamaica and the Caribbean in the winter. On 2 November 1747 Policarpus Taylor was reassigned to HMS Warwick, and was replaced by Captain Francis William Drake.
In June 1748, Fowey captured a Spanish ship, the St. Juan y Tadicos. While escorting this prize and two British colonial merchant vessels to her summer duty station off Virginia, Fowey ran onto a reef and sank on 26 June. The English crew crowded onto the merchant vessels and navigated the hostile waters of Spanish Florida to Charleston. The crew of the St. Juan were given their parole and sailed for Havana.
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Wikipedia