HMS Rose (1757)

The Phoenix and the Rose engaged by the enemy's fire ships and galleys on Aug. 16, 1776. Engraving by Dominic Serres after a sketch by Sir James Wallace
History
Great Britain
Name:	HMS Rose
Ordered:	13 April 1756
Builder:	Hugh Blaydes, Hull, England
Laid down:	5 June 1756
Launched:	8 March 1757
Fate:	Scuttled on 19 September 1779 in Savannah, Georgia.
General characteristics
Class and type:	20-gun sixth-rate post ship
Tons burthen:	449 bm
Length:	108 ft 11.5 in (33.2 m) (gundeck) 90 ft 10.25 in (27.7 m) (keel)
Beam:	30 ft 6 in (9.3 m)
Draught:	9 ft 7 in (2.9 m)
Sail plan:	Full-rigged ship
Complement:	160
Armament:	20 × 9 pdrs

HMS Rose was a 20-gun sixth-rate post ship of the Royal Navy, built in Hull, England in 1757. Her activities in suppressing smuggling in the colony of Rhode Island provoked the formation of what became the Continental Navy, precursor of the modern United States Navy. She was based at the North American station in the West Indies and then used in the American Revolutionary War. She was scuttled in the harbor of Savannah, Georgia in 1779. A replica was built in 1970, then modified to match HMS Surprise, and used in two films, Master and Commander: Far Side of the World and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

HMS Rose was built in Hull, England in 1757, as a 20 gun sixth-rate post ship for the British Royal Navy. In the Seven Years' War, Rose was in service in the Channel and in the Caribbean. She was briefly considered for service as Captain James Cook's vessel on his first exploration of the Pacific, but was rejected as unable to stow the quantity of provisions required for the planned circumnavigation of the globe. Instead she was sent to the North American station, en route to which she encountered Cook's ultimate choice of vessel, HMS Endeavour on September 12, 1768 when the two ships anchored alongside each other at Funchal in the Madeira Islands.

In 1774, Rose, under the command of Sir James Wallace, was sent to Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island to put an end to the smuggling that had made Newport the fourth wealthiest city in America. Since the Rose was much larger than any American vessel of the time and Wallace was an effective commander, smuggling soon came almost to a standstill. This severely affected the economy of Newport. Rhode Island's merchants petitioned their colonial legislature to create a navy to deal with Wallace. They backed up their petitions with money by fitting out a merchant vessel for naval service. This vessel was commissioned as the sloop of war Providence, which became the first naval command of John Paul Jones. Rhode Island declared its independence from Britain on 4 May 1776, two full months before the rest of the colonies. The petitioning of the Continental Congress to form a naval force to rid Narragansett Bay of the Rose was the impetus for the creation of the Continental Navy.