HMS Prince William (1780)
| History | |
|---|---|
| Spain | |
| Name: | 'Nuestra Señora de la Asunción' |
| Builder: | Guipuzcoana Company's shipyards |
| Launched: | October 1778 |
| Fate: | Captured by United Kingdom on 8 January 1780 |
| History | |
 United Kingdom
|
|
| Name: | HMS Prince William |
| Acquired: | Captured on 8 January 1780 |
| Fate: | Broken up in September 1817 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | 64-gun third-rate ship of the line |
| Tons burthen: | 1,346 61⁄94 tons bm |
| Length: |
|
| Beam: | 44 ft 1 in (13.44 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 19 ft 9.25 in (6.0262 m) |
| Sail plan: | Full-rigged ship |
| Complement: | 500 |
| Armament: |
|
HMS Prince William was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She had previously been the Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, but was better known as Guipuzcoano, an armed merchantmen of the Spanish Basque Guipuzcoan Company of Caracas.
Guipuzcoano was sailing as the flagship of an escort for a merchant convoy of the company, when they ran into a large British fleet under Admiral Sir George Rodney, bound for the relief of Gibraltar. In a short action Rodney captured the entirety of the convoy and all its escorts, including the Guipuscoano, which he manned and named in honour of Prince William, sending her back to Britain with some of the merchants.
The Navy approved her acquisition and after fitting out she was sent to the West Indies, where she took part in most of the battles there during the American War of Independence, including the capture of Sint Eustatius and the battles of Fort Royal, Saint Kitts and the Saintes. She returned to Britain after the end of the wars, was converted to a sheer hulk before the start of the French Revolutionary Wars, was a receiving ship by 1811 and was broken up in 1817, two years after the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
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Wikipedia