Bristol (54)
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Origin and History
The ship was initially built by Lock at the Plymouth dockyard and launched on May 8 1711.
In 1742, the ship was rebuilt by John Hollond at the Woolwich dockyard and relaunched on July 9 1746.
During the War of the Austrian Succession, on February 27 1747, the ship was part of Anson's fleet who defeated a French squadron.
During the Seven Years' War, the ship was under the command of:
- from 1758: captain Lachlin Leslie
- from February 1759: captain Peter Parker
The ship was broken up on October 21 1768.
Service during the War
In 1758, the ship was part of commodore's Moore squadron stationed in the West Indies.
At the beginning of January 1759, the ship was among the fleet assembled at Carlisle Bay in Barbados under commodore John Moore for the planned expedition against the Martinique and Guadeloupe islands. On January 13, the whole British force sailed for Martinique Island. On January 15, the fleet lay off the bay of Fort Royal (actual Fort de France). On the morning of January 16, along with the Rippon (60), she silenced and occupied a fort on Negro Point near Fort Royal. On January 18, after an unsuccessful attempt of the land troops to capture Fort Royal, the British fleet proceeded to Saint-Pierre, the second town in Martinique. On January 19, after failing to silence the batteries around Saint-Pierre, commodore Moore decided to redirect his efforts against the island of Guadeloupe. On January 22, the British fleet reached Basse-Terre. On January 23, along with the Roebuck (44), the ship relieved the Rippon (60) who had ran aground while bombarding a 6 guns battery. By the end of the day, Basse-Terre was almost entirely destroyed. On January 24, British troops landed and occupied the town. Until March 11, most of the fleet remained idle in front of Basse-Terre. Moore then transported most of the land forces to Fort Louis before falling back to Prince Rupert's Bay in the Island of Dominica, in order to cover Basse-Terre and the British Leeward Islands from the threat of the newly arrived French squadron. The island of Guadeloupe finally capitulated on May 1.
To do: more details on the campaigns from 1760 to 1762
Characteristics
| Guns | 50
| ||||||||
| Crew | not available | ||||||||
| Length at gundeck | 146 ft (44.5 m) | ||||||||
| Width | 40 ft (12.2 m) | ||||||||
| Depth | 16 ft 10 in (5.1 m) | ||||||||
| Displacement | 1021 long tons (1037.4 t.) |
References
Blasco, Manuel, British 4th Rates, 3 Decks Wiki
Phillips, M., Michael Phillip's Ships of the Old Navy
N.B.: the section Service during the War is derived from our articles depicting the various campaigns, battles and sieges.
