Spanish ship Princesa (1750)

Princesa was a 70-gun, two deck, ship of the line of the Spanish Navy, one of three ordered in 1748 to the specification laid down by Ciprian Autran and designed and built at Havana by Pedro de Torres. She was laid down on 11 May 1748 and launched on 15 September 1750. She and her sisters Infante and Galicia were commissioned together on 15 August 1751, and left Havana (together with the equally new 80-gun Rayo) on 1 March 1752 as a squadron under the overall command of Jefe de escuadra Francisco Ponce de Leon, arriving at Cadiz on 30 April.[2]

History
Spanish Navy EnsignSpain
NamePrincesa
Ordered1748
BuilderHavana
Laid down11 May 1748
Launched15 September 1750
Commissioned15 August 1751
Captured16 January 1780, by Royal Navy
Royal Navy EnsignGreat Britain
NameHMS Princessa
Acquired16 January 1780
FateBroken up, 1809
General characteristics [1]
Class and type70-gun third rate ship of the line
Tons burthen1966
Length170 ft 2½ in (51.9 m) (gundeck)
Beam51 ft 2 in (15.6 m)
Depth of hold22 ft 1 in (6.7 m)
PropulsionSails
Sail planFull-rigged ship
Armament70 guns of various weights of shot

She fought at the Battle of Cape St Vincent on 16 January 1780, where she was captured by a squadron under the command of Admiral George Rodney of the Royal Navy. She was then recommissioned in England as the third rate HMS Princessa.

On 12 April 1782 she was the flagship of the blue squadron at the Battle of the Saintes with Admiral Francis Samuel Drake on board (but under overall control of Admiral George Rodney of the white squadron).[3]

From 1784 she was employed as a sheer hulk, and she was broken up in 1809.

Notes

  1. Lavery, Ships of the Line vol.1. p182.
  2. Rif Winfield, John Tredrea, Enrique Garcia-Torralba Perez and Manuel Blasco Felip, Spanish Warships in the Age of Sail 1700-1860. Seaforth Publishing, Barnsley, 2023.
  3. Famous Fighters of the Fleet, Edward Fraser, 1904, p.106

References

  • Lavery, Brian (2003) The Ship of the Line – Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650–1850. Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-252-8.


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