HMS Tartar (1756)

HMS Tartar was a 28-gun sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy.

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Tartar.

Tartar (original plan)
History
Great Britain
Name: Tartar
Operator: Royal Navy
Ordered: 12 June 1755
Builder: John Randall's yard, Nelson Dock, Rotherhithe
Laid down: 4 July 1755
Launched: 3 April 1756
Completed: 2 May 1756 at Deptford Dockyard
Fate: Wrecked 1 April 1797
General characteristics
Class and type: Lowestoffe-class sixth-rate frigate
Tons burthen: 587 ​19⁄94 (bm) (4 tons more than designed)
Length:
  • 117 ft 10 in (35.9 m) (gundeck)
  • 96 ft 11 in (29.5 m) (keel)
Beam: 33 ft 9 in (10.3 m)
Depth of hold: 10 ft 3 in (3.1 m)
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Complement: 200 officers and men
Armament:
  • Upperdeck: 24 × 9-pounder guns
  • QD: 4 × 3-pounder guns
  • 12 × swivel guns

Tartar was designed by Sir Thomas Slade and based on Lyme of 1748, "with such alterations as may tend to the better stowing of men and carrying for guns."

The ship was first commissioned in March 1756 under Captain John Lockhart, and earned a reputation as a fast sailer during service in the English Channel. She made many captures of French ships during the Seven Years' War, including 4 in 1756 and 7 the following year.[1]

Vessels captured or sunk by Tartar during the Seven Years' War
DateShipHome portTypeFateRef.
August 1756 Le Cerf Saint-Malo, France Privateer, 24 guns & 200 crew Captured, 23 killed [2][3]
By October 1656 Hero Saint-Malo, France Privateer, 14 guns & 162 crew Captured, 1 killed [2]
October 1656 Le Grand Gideon Granville, France Privateer, 22 guns & 215 crew Captured, 7 killed [2][3]
October 1756 Le Montrozier La Rochelle, France Privateer, 3 guns & 190 crew Captured, 58 killed [2][3]
March 1757 La Victoire Le Havre, France Privateer, 24 guns & 275 crew Captured, 30 killed [2][3]
April 1757 Le Duc d'Aguillon Saint-Malo, France Privateer, 26 guns & 303 crew Captured, 47 killed [2][3]
May 1757 La Penelope Morlaix, France Privateer, 18 guns & 190 crew Captured, 14 killed [2][3][lower-alpha 1]
October 1757 La Comtesse de Gramont Not recorded Privateer, 18 guns Captured [3]
November 1757 La Melpomene Bayonne, France Privateer, 26 guns Captured [3]

During the peace that followed, the ship sailed to Barbados carrying a timekeeper built by John Harrison, as a part of a series of experiments used to determine longitude at sea.[4]

Roebuck with Phoenix, Tartar and three smaller vessels passing forts Washington and Lee on the Hudson River, in the run up to the Battle of Fort Washington

She also served in the American Revolutionary War, capturing the Spanish Santa Margarita of 28 guns off Cape Finisterre on 11 November 1779.

She went on to see further service during the French Revolutionary War. On 14 December the French frigate Minerve captured off the island of Ivica the collier Hannibal, which was sailing from Liverpool to Naples. However, eleven days later, Tartar recaptured Hannibal off Toulon and sent her into Corsica.[5]

Tartar, showing alterations made in 1990 during repairs at Chatham by Mr Nicholson's Yard. The decks were raised, as shown by the ticked red lines.

Tartar was part of the fleet under Lord Hood that occupied Toulon in August 1793. With HMS Courageux, Meleager, Egmont and Robust, she covered the landing, on 27 August, of 1500 troops sent to remove the republicans occupying the forts guarding the port.[6][7] Once the forts were secure, the remainder of Hood's fleet, accompanied by 17 Spanish ships-of-the-line which had just arrived, sailed into the harbour.[8] Tartar was wrecked off Saint-Domingue on 1 April 1797.[3]

Notes
  1. One contemporary newspaper report gives the name of this privateer as Phillip.[2]
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References
  1. Royal Navy history http://www.royal-navy.org/lib/index.php?title=C1751_-_1760 Archived 22 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  2. "Ireland". The Oxford Journal. Oxford, United Kingdom: W. Jackson. 6 August 1757. p. 2. Retrieved 10 January 2018 – via The British Newspaper Archive.
  3. Winfield 2007, p. 227
  4. "Voyage to Barbados on HMS Tartar". Cambridge Digital Library. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
  5. Lloyd's Marine List, – accessed 1 December 2013.
  6. James (Vol.I) pp. 67 - 69
  7. "No. 13572". The London Gazette. 16 September 1793. p. 799.
  8. James (Vol.I) p. 69

Bibliography
  • Robert Gardiner, The First Frigates, Conway Maritime Press, London 1992. ISBN 0-85177-601-9.
  • James, William (1837) [1827]. The Naval History of Great Britain, Volume I, 1793–1796. London: Richard Bentley. OCLC 634321885.
  • Rif Winfield, British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1714 to 1792, Seaforth Publishing, London 2007. ISBN 978-1-84415-700-6.
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