HMS Winchelsea (1740)
| History | |
|---|---|
 Great Britain
|
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| Name: | HMS Winchelsea |
| Ordered: | 13 August 1739 |
| Builder: | Robert Carter, Limehouse |
| Laid down: | 22 September 1739 |
| Launched: | 3 May 1740 |
| Commissioned: | June 1740 |
| In service: | 1740 |
| Out of service: | 1761 |
| Fate: | Broken up, Portsmouth Dockyard, 1761 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | 20-gun sixth-rate |
| Tons burthen: | 440 79⁄94 bm |
| Length: |
|
| Beam: | 30 ft 9 in (9.4 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 9 ft 7 in (2.9 m) |
| Sail plan: | Full-rigged ship |
| Complement: | 140 |
| Armament: | 20 × 9-pounder guns |
HMS Winchelsea was a 20-gun sixth-rate launched in 1740 and in service during the War of the Austrian Succession in Mediterranean, Atlantic and home waters. She was captured by the French in 1758, but was retaken two weeks later. She was broken up in 1761.
In 1741 Winchelsea, commanded by Capt. Holcombe, sailed with Commodore 's squadron to join Admiral Haddock's Mediterranean fleet. At that time she was listed as having 20 guns and a complement of 150 men. While on station, pretending to be a merchant ship, she lured two Spanish privateers to chase her; when they realised their mistake they took off in opposite directions, but Winchelsea captured one of them, a small brig with a crew of 46, which she carried to Gibraltar. She returned to Britain from the Mediterranean at the end of 1742, taking eight days to make the passage.
The ship's barge attempted to press gang sailors from the merchant ship Tarleton on the River Mersey off of Liverpool in 1744. The crew of Tarleton exchanged shots with Winchelsea and evaded capture by docking the ship and dispersing into the town.
The ship was recommissioned at the oubreak of the War of the Austrian Succession in 1745. Winchelsea took the 26-gun French warship Subtile on 19 November 1746.
In 1747 Winchelsea was listed as having 16 guns and, under the command of Captain Dyves, was sailing with Admiral Byng in convoy for Gibraltar.
In March 1756, Winchelsea transported South Carolina's governor Henry William Littleton across the Atlantic from Portsmouth to his colony. The ship finally arrived at Charleston on 1 June. Two years later, on 10 October, the ship was sailing off of Ireland when it was captured by the 60-gun French ship Bizarre and the 28-gun Mignonne. The ship was renamed Le Winchelsea under the French but was soon retaken on 27 October by the British privateer Duke of Cornwall.
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Wikipedia