HMS ''Mermaid'' was a 24-gun

sixth-rate In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a sixth-rate was the designation for small warships mounting between 20 and 28 carriage-mounted guns on a single deck, sometimes with smaller guns on the upper works and ...

post ship of the

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, built in 1748–49, which served in the

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Construction and commissioning

''Mermaid'' was ordered on 4 February 1748, with the contract being awarded to

Henry Adams Henry Brooks Adams (February 16, 1838 – March 27, 1918) was an American historian and a member of the Adams political family, descended from two U.S. Presidents. As a young Harvard graduate, he served as secretary to his father, Charles Fra ...

, of

Bucklers Hard Buckler's Hard is a hamlet on the banks of the Beaulieu River in the English county of Hampshire. With its Georgian cottages running down to the river, Buckler's Hard is part of the Beaulieu Estate. The hamlet is some south of the village of ...

, with the keel being laid on 2 April. She was built to a design by the Surveyor of the Navy Joseph Allin, named ''Mermaid'' on 6 December, launched on 22 May 1749 and completed on 7 August 1749 at

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, having cost £4,211.16.7d to build, and with a further £3,829.3.11d spent on fitting her out.

Career

Her first commander was Captain John Montagu, who commissioned her in June 1749, and sailed her to New York in August 1749. Montagu was succeeded by Captain

Edward Keller Edward is an English given name. It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon name ''Ēadweard'', composed of the elements '' ēad'' "wealth, fortune; prosperous" and '' weard'' "guardian, protector”. History The name Edward was very popular in Anglo-Sax ...

in 1750, then later that year by Captain Elias Bate. On 15 September 1752, she was driven ashore in a

hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

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British America British America comprised the colonial territories of the English Empire, which became the British Empire after the 1707 union of the Kingdom of England with the Kingdom of Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, in the Americas from 16 ...

. In 1753, command was taken by Captain John Hollwall. ''Mermaid'' served this first commission in North American and Caribbean waters, and was decommissioned in July 1753. She refitted and underwent repairs over the next few months, and recommissioned in January 1754 under Captain Washington Shirley, sailing for New England in July 1754. Captain

Alexander Innes Rear-Admiral Alexander Innes (died 1786) was a Royal Navy officer who became Commander-in-Chief of the Jamaica Station. Naval career Promoted to post captain on 25 June 1756, Innes was given command of the sixth-rate HMS ''Mermaid'' in 1756. ...

took command in 1756, and was succeeded by Captain James Hackman in 1758. She bilged on a sandbank off Big Grand Cay in the Bahamas on 4 December 1759 and was abandoned as a wreck on 6 January 1760.

Notes

References

* * Robert Gardiner, ''The First Frigates'', Conway Maritime Press, London 1992. . * David Lyon, ''The Sailing Navy List'', Conway Maritime Press, London 1993. . * Rif Winfield, '' British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1714 to 1792'', Seaforth Publishing, London 2007. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Mermaid (1749), HMS Post ships of the Royal Navy 1749 ships Sixth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy Maritime incidents in 1752 Maritime incidents in 1759 Ships built on the Beaulieu River