Laid down 22 September 1757 Construction started 22 September 1757 | Ordered 19 September 1757 Commissioned October 1758 Launched 20 July 1758 | |
Completed 29 January 1759 at Deptford Dockyard | ||
HMS Argo was a 28-gun sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. The ship was one of the Coventry class, designed by Sir Thomas Slade as a development of based on the Lyme, "with such alterations as may tend to the better stowing of men and carrying for guns."
Argo was commissioned into the Royal Navy in October 1758, during Britain's Seven Years' War with France and Spain. After receiving stores, guns and crew she was out to sea in late January 1759 under the command of Captain John Tinker, and was assigned to the British squadron blockading the French-held port of Dunkirk. Tinker departed the vessel in July 1759 and was replaced by a more junior officer, Commander Walter Griffith.
She took part in the expedition against Manila. In a two-hour action on 31 October 1762, the Argo and Edgar Class fourth-rate 60-gun HMS Panther captured the Santisima Trinidad, a Spanish galleon loaded with cargo valued at $1.5 million.