HMS Deal Castle (1756)

HMS Deal Castle was a 20-gun Royal Navy ship built in 1756.

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Deal Castle.

A scene on board the Deal Castle, Captain James Cumming, in a voyage from the West Indies in 1775

Service

Commissioned in 1754 she was built at Blackwall and fitted out in Deptford 1755/56 by Adam Hayes and launched on 20 January 1756.[1] Her first Captain was Edward Hughes. Fitting out was completed in March and she then plied the English Channel and North Sea.[2] Her first action was on 18 July 1760 when she captured the French privateer Le Faucon.[3]

In 1762, she escorted a convoy of troop carriers to Senegal and saw brief action with the French ship Le Signe.[1] She was recommissioned in 1763 under command of Captain Digby Dent and saw three years service in the Mediterranean including a diplomatic trip to Cadiz.[4]

From 1766 to 1768, it was repaired and recommissioned at Chatham Docks. It was relaunched in April 1768 and went to North America. It was refitted again in 1772 and in April 1773 went to the Leeward Islands returning to England in 1775. In 1776, she was recommissioned and refitted at Portsmouth to serve in Newfoundland. This was changed in 1777 and in December she returned to the Leeward Islands again.[3]

The Battle of Martinique, 1780

On 17 April 1780, she took part in the Battle of Martinique under command of Captain William Fooks with Admiral George Rodney. Fooks moved to HMS Greyhound the day after the battle and James Hawkins-Whitshed took command.[5]

The wreck off Puerto Rico, in the hurricane of 1780 with the crew escaping on a raft

The ship was wrecked in the Great Hurricane of 1780 off the coast of Puerto Rico on 11 October 1780 (along with 12 other Royal Navy vessels) but only three of the 160 crew perished. Hawkins-Whitshed took over HMS Ceres. 22,000 persons were killed in the storm.[6]

The wreck of the Deal Castle by John Thomas Serres

References
  1. "HMS Deal Castle (+1780)". Wrecksite.eu. Retrieved 28 May 2022.
  2. "Edward Hughes (1720-1794)". Threedecks.org.
  3. "British Sixth Rate ship 'Deal Castle' (1756)". Threedecks.org.
  4. "Sir Digby Dent". Morethannelson.com.
  5. "Battle of Martinique, 17th April 1780". Threedecks.org.
  6. "Sir James Hawkins-Whitshed (1762-1849)". Threedecks.org.
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