HMS Triton (1773)

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

History
Great Britain
Name	HMS Triton
Ordered	25 December 1770
Builder	Henry Adams, Bucklers Hard
Laid down	February 1771
Launched	1 October 1773
Completed	4 November 1775 at Portsmouth Dockyard
Commissioned	August 1775
Fate	Taken to pieces at Deptford in January 1796
General characteristics
Class and type	Modified Mermaid-class frigate
Tons burthen	620 21⁄94 (bm)
Length	124 ft 1 in (37.82 m) (gundeck) 103 ft 4.625 in (31.51188 m) (keel)
Beam	33 ft 7 in (10.24 m)
Sail plan	Full-rigged ship
Complement	200 officers and men
Armament	28 guns comprising Upper deck: 24 × 9-pounder cannon Quarterdeck 4 × 3-pounder cannon 12 swivels.

HMS Triton was a modified Mermaid-class sixth-rate 28-gun frigate of the Royal Navy. She first served in the American Revolutionary War in operations against the rebels on the St Lawrence River. On 8 January 1780 she was part of a squadron that attacked the Caracas Convoy off the coast of Spain, capturing several Spanish merchant ships. Later that month she played a role at the Battle of Cape St Vincent. During the French Revolutionary Wars Triton served on the Jamaica Station.

Design, construction and armament

HMS Triton was a 28-gun sailing frigate built for the Royal Navy and designed by Thomas Slade; a modified version of his Mermaid class. She was ordered on 25 December during the Falklands Crisis of 1770, a conflict that was resolved the following January, before work on her had begun.

Triton's stern, showing the modified gallery with large round-top window

Slade’s original Mermaid class was designed in 1760 as a diminutive version of the captured French ship, Abénaquise. Three were built, smaller in size and carrying fewer guns, of a smaller calibre than the prize on which they were based. When the design was resurrected for the second batch, it was presented with a slightly longer keel and instead of the more common three equal-sized rectangular windows that comprised the quarter gallery lights, the central section was enlarged and sported a rounded top. Triton and her sister ships, HMS Greyhound and Boreas were also given an increased sheer fore and aft, raising the bowsprit in the process and necessitating other minor alterations to the topside. Slade included a separate framing plan with his design; a new idea at the time.

Triton's keel of 103 ft 4+5⁄8 in (31.512 m) was laid down in February at Bucklers Hard, Beaulieu, Hampshire under the supervision of the master shipwright Henry Adams. As built, her dimensions were 124 ft 1 in (37.82 m) along the gundeck with a beam of 33 ft 7 in (10.24 m) and a depth in hold of 11 ft (3.4 m), making her 620 21⁄94 tons burthen (bm).

Triton was a sixth rate, built to carry a main battery of twenty-four 9-pounder (4.1-kilogram) long guns on her upper deck, four 3 pounders (1.4 kilograms) on the quarterdeck and twelve 1⁄2 pounder (0.23 kilograms) swivel guns. In August 1779, an Admiralty order added six 18-pounder (8.2-kilogram) carronades; four on the quarterdeck and two on the forecastle. A further order in the February following called for the 3-pounder guns to be upgraded to 6 pounders (2.7 kilograms).

The new Mermaid class were not great sailers in general but performed well to windward, making 10 -11 knots when close-hauled in a topgallant gale. The fastest speed recorded was of 12 knots when running before the wind.

Service

Following her launch on 1 October 1773, she was taken to Portsmouth Dockyard for full fitting out, a process that took two years. She was first commissioned in August 1775 under Captain Skeffington Lutwidge, prior to her completion (fitting out) in November 1775. In March 1776, she made her first trans-Atlantic voyage, initially to North America to take part in the American Revolutionary War. From 1777, Triton was stationed in the St Lawrence River where she remained for the next two years, capturing the privateer "Pompey" on 13 June 1778. Some of her crew also took part in operations on Lake Champlain during that time.

From February to April 1779 she was fitted with a copper bottom at Chatham Docks. She was fitted with six extra heavy guns in August. Returning to America she captured the American privateer "Gates" in September 1779.

Triton joined Rear admiral George Rodney's fleet for the Relief of Gibraltar and was present at the action on 8 January 1780 off Cape Finisterre. The British fleet of 24 ships encountered and attacked a Spanish convoy from Caracas comprising 22 ships, including seven men of war; the entire convoy was taken. The vessels that had been carrying naval stores to the Spanish fleet at Cadiz, and baled goods for the Guipuzcoan Company of Caracas were sent to England under escort of HMS America and Pearl, while those loaded with provisions were added to the supplies bound for Gibraltar. Several ships were taken into the Royal Navy including the 64-gun Spanish flagship Guipuzcoano which was renamed after Prince William who was serving in Rodney’s fleet at the time. The four captured frigates were not commissioned but the two brigs, Corbetta San Fermin and San Vicente were.

Eight days later, on 16 January, Triton was at the Battle of Cape St Vincent. The British fleet arrived at Gibraltar on 19 January and shortly after, Triton, along with HMS Invincible, Marlborough and Defence, was dispatched with supplies to Minorca. After spending two days at Port Mahon the squadron left to rejoin Rodney, arriving on 14 February with dispatches from the island’s governor, James Murray, and news that no enemy ships had been encountered on either leg of the journey. Rodney had by this time repaired his ships and having been ordered to the Leeward Islands Station on completion of the Gibraltar mission, set sail with his fleet on 18 February.

After spending some time in the Leeward Islands, Triton returned home in May. By June however, she was back in the West Indies under a new captain, John McLaurin, who took the ship to Tobago in May 1781 and on 12 April 1782 took part in the huge Battle of the Saintes against the French fleet which was a major British victory. Afterwards she was berthed at St Kitts. The ship paid off in October and in March 1783 was taken to Limehouse Docks in London for 'major repairs' which took until August 1784.

Triton was recommissioned in June 1790 under Captain George Murray and refitted at Deptford between May and July that year. She sailed for the Baltic in April 1791 where Murray had been ordered to survey the Great Belt and the waters around Copenhagen. On 6 September 1791, Triton sailed for the Jamaica Station, a Royal Navy command based at Port Royal. She was still serving there when Britain entered the French Revolutionary War in February 1793, part of a squadron under the station's commander, Commodore John Ford, comprising his flagship the fourth-rate Europa, two further sixth-rate frigates Penelope and Proserpine and five smaller craft.

In April 1794 Captain Scory Barker took command and took her on one final trip to Jamaica. She was paid off in November 1795 and broken in Deptford in January 1796.

References

• Clowes, William Laird (1996) [1900]. The Royal Navy, A History from the Earliest Times to 1900, Volume III. London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 1-86176-012-4.
• Davies, David (1996). Fighting Ships. Fulham Palace Road, London.: Constable and Robinson Limited. ISBN 1-84119-469-7.
• Falconer, William; Burney, William (1830). A New and Universal Dictionary of the Marine; being a copious explanation of the technical terms and phrases usually employed in the construction, equipment, machinery, movements, and military, as well as naval operations of ships: with such parts of astronomy and navigation as will be found useful to practical navigators. London: T. Cadell and W. Davies. OCLC 1752876.
• Robert Gardiner, The First Frigates, Conway Maritime Press, London 1992. ISBN 0-85177-601-9.
• Henry, Chris (2004). Napoleonic Naval Armaments 1792-1815. Botley, Oxford.: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84176-635-5.
• David Lyon, The Sailing Navy List, Conway Maritime Press, London 1993. ISBN 0-85177-617-5.
• Rif Winfield, British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1714 to 1792, Seaforth Publishing, London 2007. ISBN 978-1-84415-700-6.
• A Committee of the Council, ed. (2022) [1885]. Quaterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society. Vol. XI. London: Edward Stanfod. ISBN 9780282699567.