Name HMS Phoenix Laid down February 1758 Construction started February 1758 | Ordered 5 January 1758 Completed By 26 July 1759 Launched 25 June 1759 | |
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Fate Foundered on 4 October 1780 Class and type 40-gun fifth rate frigate | ||
HMS Phoenix was a 44-gun fifth rate Ship of the Royal Navy.
She saw service during the American War of Independence under Captain Hyde Parker, Jr. She, along with HMS Rose and three smaller ships launched an attack on New York City on 12 July 1776. During that attack, Phoenix and the other ships easily passed patriot defences and bombarded urban New York for two hours. This action largely confirmed continental fears that British naval superiority would allow the Royal Navy to act with relative impunity when attacking deep-water ports.
HMS Phoenix was also involved in a kind of currency war. During the Revolutionary War, when the Continental Congress authorized the printing of paper currency called continental currency, the monthly inflation rate reached a peak of 47 percent in November 1779 (Bernholz 2003: 48). One cause of the inflation was counterfeiting by the British, who ran a press on HMS Phoenix, moored in New York Harbour. The counterfeits were advertised and sold almost for the price of the paper they were printed on.
The Phoenix was lost on 4 October 1780 in a storm.