HMS Princess (1740)

The taking of the Princessa a Spanish Man of War, 8 April 1740, by his Majesties Ships the Lenox, Kent and Oxford, an engraving of a work by Peter Monamy
History
Spain
Name:	Princesa
Builder:	Guarnizo, Santander
Launched:	1730–1731
Captured:	8 April 1740, by the Royal Navy
Great Britain
Name:	HMS Princess
Acquired:	8 April 1740
Fate:	Sold for breaking up on 30 December 1784
General characteristics
Class and type:	70-gun third rate ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1,709 3/94 bm
Length:	165 ft 1 in (50.3 m) (overall) 130 ft 3 in (39.7 m) (keel)
Beam:	49 ft 8 in (15.1 m)
Depth of hold:	22 ft 3 in (6.78 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Complement:	480
Armament:	Lower deck: 28 x 32pdrs Upper deck: 28 x 18pdrs Quarterdeck: 12 x 9pdrs Forecastle: 2 x 9pdrs

HMS Princess was a 70-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She had briefly sailed as Princesa for the Spanish Navy, until her capture off Cape Finisterre in 1740 during the War of the Austrian Succession.

After being chased down and captured by three British ships, she was acquired for service by the Royal Navy. Her design and fighting qualities excited considerable interest, and sparked a series of increases in the dimensions of British warships. She went on to serve under a number of commanders in several theatres of the War of the Austrian Succession, including the Mediterranean, where she was at the Battle of Toulon, and in the Caribbean and off the North American coast. She was then laid up and being assessed, was not reactivated for service during the Seven Years' War. She was instead reduced to a hulk at Portsmouth, in which capacity she lasted out both the Seven Years' War and the American War of Independence, being sold for breaking up in 1784, shortly after the end of the latter conflict, after a career in British service lasting 44 years.

Princesa was built between 1730 and 1731, being nominally rated at 70 guns, but carrying 64. On 25 March 1740 news reached the Admiralty that two Spanish ships had sailed from Buenos Aires, and were bound for Spain. Word was sent to Portsmouth and a squadron of three ships, consisting of the 70-gun ships HMS Kent, HMS Lenox and HMS Orford, under the command of Captain Colvill Mayne of Lenox, were prepared to intercept them. The ships, part of Sir John Balchen's fleet were briefly joined by HMS Rippon and HMS St Albans, and the squadron sailed from Portsmouth at 3am on 29 March, passing down the English Channel.Rippon and St Albans fell astern on 5 April, and though Mayne shortened sail, they did not come up. On 8 April Mayne's squadron was patrolling some 300 miles south-west of The Lizard when a ship was sighted to the north.