HMS Captain (1743)

HMS Captain was a 70-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built according to the 1733 proposals of the 1719 Establishment at Woolwich Dockyard, and launched on 14 April 1743.[1]

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Captain and HMS Buffalo.

History
Great Britain
Name: HMS Captain
Ordered: 7 September 1739
Builder: Woolwich Dockyard
Launched: 14 April 1743
Fate: Broken up, 1783
Notes:
General characteristics [1]
Class and type: 1733 proposals 70-gun third rate ship of the line
Tons burthen: 1230 (bm)
Length: 151 ft (46.0 m) (gundeck)
Beam: 43 ft 5 in (13.2 m)
Depth of hold: 17 ft 9 in (5.4 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Armament:
  • Gundeck: 26 × 24-pounder guns
  • Upper gundeck: 26 × 12-pounder guns
  • QD: 14 × 6-pounder guns
  • Fc: 4 × 6-pounder guns

Francis Light, founder of Penang, served for a few months as an apprentice on Captain around 1759.[2]

In 1760, Captain was reduced to a 64-gun ship. Then in 1777 she was converted to serve as a storeship and renamed Buffalo.

Although a storeship, Buffalo shared, with Thetis, and Alarm, in the proceeds from Southampton's capture of the 12-gun French privateer Comte de Maurepas, on 3 August 1780.[3]

In 1781, with 60 guns back on board, although she only had 18-pounders on the lower deck, she participated in the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War at the Battle of Dogger Bank.[4]:46

Buffalo returned to the role of storeship until she was broken up in 1783.[1]

Notes
  1. Lavery, Ships of the Line vol. 1, p. 171.
  2. Clodd, Harold Parker (1948), Malaya's first British pioneer: the life of Francis Light, Luzac, p. 1, ISBN 978-0-375-42750-3, retrieved 26 October 2019
  3. "No. 12325". The London Gazette. 24 August 1782. p. 1.
  4. Ross, Sir John. Memoirs of Admiral de Saumarez Vol 1.

References
  • Lavery, Brian (2003) The Ship of the Line – Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650–1850. Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-252-8.


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