HMS ''Augusta'' was a 60-gun
fourth-rate
In 1603 all English warships with a complement of fewer than 160 men were known as 'small ships'. In 1625/26 to establish pay rates for officers, a six-tier naval ship rating system was introduced.Winfield 2009 These small ships were divided ...
ship of the line
A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactics in the Age of Sail, naval tactic known as the line of battl ...
of the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
, built to the
1733 proposals of the
1719 Establishment
The 1719 Establishment was a set of mandatory requirements governing the construction of all Royal Navy warships capable of carrying more than 20 naval long guns. It was designed to bring economies of scale through uniform vessel design, and e ...
at
Deptford Dockyard
Deptford Dockyard was an important Royal Navy Dockyard, naval dockyard and base at Deptford on the River Thames, operated by the Royal Navy from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. It built and maintained warships for 350 years, and man ...
, and launched on 1 July 1736.
''Augusta'' was active in the
Caribbean
The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...
during the
Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War, 1756 to 1763, was a Great Power conflict fought primarily in Europe, with significant subsidiary campaigns in North America and South Asia. The protagonists were Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of Prus ...
.
Arthur Forrest became the ship's commander in 1757. On 23 December 1757 she sighted an armed 9-ship French convoy off of
Haiti
Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...
, which was disguised under neutral Dutch flags. The convoy, led by the 32-gun ''Le Mars'', wrongly assumed ''Augusta'' was a Dutch warship. Forrest fired a broadside at ''Le Mars'' that resulted in the ship's surrender, as well was the capitulation of the entire convoy. Forrest and ''Augusta'' captured the 400-ton French ship ''Pallas'' after a 5-day chase in October 1758. The prize, laden with oil, wine, and other goods, was valued at over two million
livres
Livre may refer to:
Currency
* French livre, one of a number of obsolete units of currency of France
* Livre tournois, one particular obsolete unit of currency of France
* Livre parisis, another particular obsolete unit of currency of France
* F ...
.
''Augusta'' served until 1765, when she was broken up.
This British ship served as the inspiration to Danish shipbuilder
Andreas Gerner
Andreas Gerner was a Danish naval officer who was also employed in the building of ships for the Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy.
Personal
Gerner was the grandson of Henrik Gerner, the bishop of Viborg and the father of Henrik Gerner, the ''fabrikmester ...
in designing the 50-gun ship-of-the-line . Senior lieutenant A Gerner had been impressed by ''Augusta''s sailing qualities while he was on a study tour of Britain during the 1730s.
[Royal Danish Naval Museu]
database - Fyen
(click ''vis'' for plans and notes)
Notes
References
* Lavery, Brian (1983) ''The Ship of the Line – Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850.'' Conway Maritime Press. .
Ships of the line of the Royal Navy
1730s ships
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