Name HMS Liverpool Laid down 1 October 1756 Construction started 1 October 1756 | Ordered 3 September 1756 Commissioned February 1758 Launched 10 February 1758 | |
Builder John Gorill & William Pownall, Liverpool Class and type Coventry-class sixth-rate frigate | ||
Hms liverpool 1758
HMS Liverpool was a 28-gun Coventry-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Launched in 1758, she saw active service in the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War. She was wrecked in Jamaica Bay, near New York, in 1778.
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Construction
Liverpool was an oak-built 28-gun sixth-rate, one of 18 vessels forming part of the Coventry class of frigates. As with others in her class she was loosely modeled on the design and external dimensions of HMS Tartar, launched in 1756 and responsible for capturing five French privateers in her first twelve months at sea. The Admiralty Order to build the Coventry-class vessels was made after the outbreak of the Seven Years' War, and at a time in which the Royal Dockyards were fully engaged in constructing or fitting-out the Navy's ships of the line. Consequently, despite Navy Board misgivings about reliability and cost, contracts for all but one of Coventry-class vessels were issued to private shipyards with an emphasis on rapid completion of the task.
Contracts for Liverpool's construction were issued on 3 September 1756 to shipwrights John Gorill and William Pownall. As Gorill and Pownall's shipyard was in the city of Liverpool, Admiralty determined that this would also be the name of the vessel herself. It was stipulated that work should be completed within eleven months for a 28-gun vessel measuring approximately 590 tons burthen. Subject to satisfactory completion, Gorill and Pownall would receive a modest fee of £8.7s per ton – the lowest for any Coventry-class vessel – to be paid through periodic imprests drawn against the Navy Board. Private shipyards were not subject to rigorous naval oversight, and the Admiralty therefore granted authority for "such alterations withinboard as shall be judged necessary" in order to cater for the preferences or ability of individual shipwrights, and for experimentation with internal design.
Liverpool's keel was laid down on 1 October 1756, but work proceeded slowly and the completed vessel was not ready for launch until 10 February 1758, a full six months behind schedule. As built, Liverpool was slightly longer and narrower than her sister ships in the Coventry-class, being 118 ft 4 in (36.1 m) long with a 97 ft 7 in (29.7 m) keel, a beam of 33 ft 8 in (10.26 m) and with a hold depth of 10 ft 6 in (3.2 m). Her tons burthen were measured at 589 85⁄94 tons.
Navy frigates were routinely fitted out and armed at Royal Dockyards, but Liverpool received her guns while still at the builder's yard. These comprised 24 nine-pounder cannons to be located along her gun deck, supported by four three-pounder cannons on the quarterdeck and twelve 1⁄2-pounder swivel guns ranged along her sides.
Her designated complement was 200, comprising two commissioned officers – a captain and a lieutenant – overseeing 40 warrant and petty officers, 91 naval ratings, 38 Marines and 29 servants and other ranks. Among these other ranks were four positions reserved for widow's men – fictitious crew members whose pay was intended to be reallocated to the families of sailors who died at sea.
Seven Years' War
Liverpool was commissioned 1758, under the command of Captain Richard Knight. She took on her armament and crew while still at the builder's yard in Liverpool, and was then assigned to the Royal Navy squadron patrolling the English Channel near Dunkirk. On 11 May 1759 she captured L'Emerillon, an 8-gun French privateer. Two further victories followed, with the capture of La Nouvelle Hirondelle on 7 July and Le Glaneur on 20 November.
In March 1760 she was reassigned to convoy protection and patrol in the East Indies, returning to European waters in 1762. The Royal Navy was then in loose blockade of the port of Brest, and Liverpool was responsible for carrying messages between the blockading ships, and watching for French attempts to leave the port. On 25 April 1762, while still engaged in blockade duties off Brest, the frigate encountered and overwhelmed Le Grand Admiral, a privateer from Bayonne. This was Richard Knight's last engagement as captain of Liverpool; in June 1762 he surrendered his command and returned to England. In Knight's absence, Liverpool secured her fifth victory at sea with the capture of French privateer Le Jacques.
Liverpool's captaincy was filled in September with the appointment of Edward Clark, formerly the first lieutenant of the 14-gun sloop HMS Fortune. War with France was drawing to a close, and by January 1763 negotiations were well advanced for the peace settlement that would be finalised in the Treaty of Paris. On 20 January 1763 Clark was ordered to sail for the East Indies with news of imminent peace. The voyage was uneventful, until Captain Clark committed suicide in March 1764 as the frigate was returning to England. Liverpool was subsequently declared surplus to the Navy's peacetime requirements, and taken to Woolwich Dockyard for decommissioning and repair.
Inter-war period
Liverpool underwent a "great repair" between March 1766 and April 1767, and was re-commissioned in March 1767. She was subsequently ordered to Newfoundland. After two years service there, she journeyed to the Mediterranean, remaining there until her eventual return for paying off in Chatham, England in March 1772. On 15 July 1775, Liverpool was re-commissioned for the final time.
American Revolutionary War
She served in the Mediterranean once more, then after a while joined the Fleet in North America under Viscount Howe in 1777, during the American Revolution, but it turned into a fateful deployment for the ship. On 11 February 1778, she was wrecked in Jamaica Bay, Long Island.