HMS ''Mediator'' was a 10-gun single-masted

sloop of war In the 18th century and most of the 19th, a sloop-of-war in the Royal Navy was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. The rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above; thus, the term ''sloop-of-war'' enc ...

of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

, in service in American in 1745, during the

War of the Austrian Succession The War of the Austrian Succession () was a European conflict that took place between 1740 and 1748. Fought primarily in Central Europe, the Austrian Netherlands, Italy, the Atlantic and Mediterranean, related conflicts included King George's W ...

. Built in

Chesapeake Bay The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The Bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula (including the parts: the ...

in 1741, she was purchased by the Navy four years later and sailed to Portsmouth for fitting out by

Peirson Lock Peirson Lock (c.1690–1755) was a shipbuilder and designer for the Royal Navy who was Master Shipwright of Plymouth Dockyard from 1726 to 1742, and of Portsmouth Dockyard from 1742 to 1755. History He was born around 1690. In 1716 he was a ...

. She was captured by a French privateer in June 1745, but recaptured the following day.Winfield 2007, p.306 ''Mediator'' sprang a leak and foundered in Ostend harbor on 29 July 1745.

Construction

''Mediator'' was built as a private merchant vessel in early 1741, on the shore of

in the British colony of

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. She was a single-masted

sloop A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...

with

sloop-rigged A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...

sails, a

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...

and a substantial

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

References

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mediator (1758) Sloops of the Royal Navy 1741 ships Maritime incidents in 1745