HMS Augusta (1736)

HMS Augusta was a 60-gun fourth-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built to the 1733 proposals of the 1719 Establishment at Deptford Dockyard, and launched on 1 July 1736.[1]

Augusta
History
Great Britain
Name:	HMS Augusta
Ordered:	4 September 1733
Builder:	Deptford Dockyard
Launched:	1 July 1736
Fate:	Broken up, 1765
General characteristics [1]
Class and type:	1733 proposals 60-gun fourth rate ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1067
Length:	144 ft (43.9 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	41 ft 5 in (12.6 m)
Depth of hold:	16 ft 11 in (5.2 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full-rigged ship
Armament:	60 guns: Gundeck: 24 × 24-pounders Upper gundeck: 26 × 9-pounders Quarterdeck: 8 × 6-pounders Forecastle: 2 × 6-pounders

Augusta was active in the Caribbean during the Seven Years' War. Arthur Forrest became the ship's commander in 1757. On 23 December 1757 she sighted an armed 9-ship French convoy off of Haiti, which was disguised under neutral Dutch flags. The convoy, led by the 32-gun Le Mars, wrongly assumed Augusta was a Dutch warship. Forrest fired a broadside at Le Mars that resulted in the ship's surrender, as well was the capitulation of the entire convoy.[2] Forrest and Augusta captured the 400-ton French ship Pallas after a 5-day chase in October 1758. The prize, laden with oil, wine, and other goods, was valued at over two million livres.[3]

Augusta served until 1765, when she was broken up.[1]

This British ship served as the inspiration to Danish shipbuilder Andreas Gerner in designing the 50-gun ship-of-the-line HDMS Fyen. Senior lieutenant A Gerner had been impressed by Augusta's sailing qualities while he was on a study tour of Britain during the 1730s.[4]