HMS Shark (1776)
| History | |
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 UK
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| Name: | HMS Shark |
| Builder: | Randall, Rotherhithe |
| Launched: | March 1776 |
| Acquired: | 1775 by purchase on the stocks |
| Renamed: | HMS Salamander |
| Fate: | Sold August 1783 |
 England
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| Name: | Salamander |
| Owner: |
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| Acquired: | By purchase c.1783 |
| Fate: | No longer listed in 1812 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tons burthen: | 303, or 309, or 313, or 319, or 320, or 342 (bm) |
| Length: | 96 ft 3 in (29.3 m) (overall); 78 ft 4 in (23.88 m) (keel) |
| Beam: | 27 ft 5 in (8.4 m) |
| Draught: | 9 ft 0 in (2.7 m) |
| Sail plan: |
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| Complement: |
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| Armament: |
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The British Royal Navy purchased HMS Shark on the stocks in 1775. She was launched in 1776, and converted to a fireship and renamed HMS Salamander in 1778. The Navy sold her in 1783. She then became the mercantile Salamander. In the 1780s she was in the Greenland whale fisheries. In 1791 she transported convicts to Australia. She then became a whaling ship in the South Seas whale fisheries for a number of years, before becoming a general transport and then a slave ship. In 1804 the French captured her, but the Royal Navy recaptured her. She is last listed in 1811.
The Navy purchased Shark on the stocks in November 1775 and launched her on 9 March 1776. She was commissioned under Commander John Chapman. She sailed to the Leeward Island on 26 May 1776. On 27 July 1776 Shark had a sharp but inconclusive encounter with the USS Reprisal. Vice-admiral James Young sent her back to England in April 1777, together with Comet, as escorts to a convoy that also included Yarmouth, which Young was sending back for repairs following her engagement with the American privateer Randolph.
She returned to the Leeward Islands, leaving Britain on 27 July 1777. The Navy converted Shark to a fireship and renamed her Salamander on 23 July 1778.
Commander James Kinneer commissioned Salamander in November 1778 for Admiral Hardy's fleet. In September 1779 Commander the Hon. Seymour Finch replaced Kinneer. On 28 May 1780 Finch Salamander sailed for the Leeward Islands. In February 1781 Commander R. H. Hichens replaced Finch. In a case that went all the way to the Lords of Appeal, Salamander was among the vessels entitled to share in the prize money for the capture of the island of Saint Eustatius in February 1781.
At some point Commander the Honourable H.E. Stanhope replaced Hichens, only to be himself replaced on 5 September 1781 by Commander Edward Bowater. Although she was assigned to Sir George Brydges Rodney's division, she did not participate in the action at the Battle of the Chesapeake. In March 1782 Commander Richard Lucas replaced Bowater on the Leeward Islands stations, but one month later Commander Henry Deacon replaced Lucas on the Jamaica station.Salamander shared with Triton in the proceeds of the French sloop Prince of Orange, captured in March 1782 at Saint Lucia.
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Wikipedia