Name HMS Norwich Builder Castle, Deptford Fate Broken up, 1771 | Ordered 1693 Renamed HMS Enterprise, 1744 Launched 1693 | |
Class and type 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line | ||
HMS Norwich was a 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Deptford in 1693.
She was rebuilt according to the 1706 Establishment at Chatham Dockyard, relaunching on 20 May 1718. In 1744 she was reduced to a fifth rate and renamed HMS Enterprise.
Engagements
HMS Norwich took part in the destruction of the fortress of San Lorenzo el Real Chagres (22-24 March 1740), in Panama, as part of a squadron commanded by Vice-Admiral Edward Vernon during the War of Jenkins' Ear.
At 3 pm on 22 March 1740, the English squadron, composed of the ships Strafford, Norwich, Falmouth and Princess Louisa, the frigate Diamond, the bomb vessels Alderney, Terrible and Cumberland, the fireships Success and Eleanor, and transports Goodly and Pompey, under Vernon's command, began to bombard the Spanish fortress. Given the overwhelming superiority of the English forces, Captain Don Juan Carlos Gutiérrez Cevallos surrendered the fort on 24 March, after resisting for two days.
HMS Enterprise patrolled the Caribbean until the end of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1748, when she was laid up in ordinary.
Enterprise was recommissioned in 1756 at the outbreak of the Seven Years' War, again for service in the West Indies and North America and resumed her duties as Atlantic convoy escort. In 1762 she was present at the siege and capture of Havana, Cuba, an action involving nearly 60 warships and transports enough for more than 16,000 troops.
Enterprise was decommissioned in January 1764 and was broken up in 1771 at Sheerness.