HMS ''Salisbury'' was a 50-gun

fourth rate In 1603 all English warships with a compliment of fewer than 160 men were known as 'small ships'. In 1625/26 to establish pay rates for officers a six tier naval ship rating system was introduced.Winfield 2009 These small ships were divided i ...

ship of the line 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 ...

, built by Richard and James Herring at Baileys Hard (near

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 ...

) on the

Beaulieu River The Beaulieu River ( ), formerly known as the River Exe, is a small river draining much of the central New Forest in Hampshire, southern England. The river has many small upper branches and its farthest source is from its -long tidal estuary. ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and launched on 18 April 1698. ''Salisbury'' was commissioned in 1699 under her first commander, Captain Richard Lestock. The following year she joined Admiral

George Rooke Admiral of the Fleet Sir George Rooke (1650 – 24 January 1709) was an English naval officer. As a junior officer he saw action at the Battle of Solebay and again at the Battle of Schooneveld during the Third Anglo-Dutch War. As a captain, ...

's fleet in the Baltic, and remained with Rooke off Dunkirk in 1701. Lestock was succeeded by Captain Richard Cotton, but while off

Orford Ness Orford Ness is a cuspate foreland shingle spit on the Suffolk coast in Great Britain, linked to the mainland at Aldeburgh and stretching along the coast to Orford and down to North Weir Point, opposite Shingle Street. It is divided from the m ...

on 10 April 1703 she encountered and was attacked by a squadron consisting of four French warships, including the ''Adroit'', and three

privateer A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...

s. After an engagement which left 17 killed and 34 wounded, ''Salisbury'' was taken by the French. She served with the French under the name ''Salisbury'', and for a time was part of

Claude de Forbin Claude, chevalier, then count de Forbin-Gardanne (6 August 1656 – 4 March 1733) was a French naval commander. In 1685–1688 he was on a diplomatic mission to Siam. He became governor of Bangkok and a general in the Siamese army, and left Siam ...

's squadron. Attaque d'une Escadre Angloise dans la Manche

On 1 May 1707, ''Salisbury'' very nearly fell back into English hands. ''Salisbury'' was part of the Dunkirk Squadron that attacked the English convoy commanded by Baron Wylde, during the action of 2 May 1707. Captain George Clements lost his life in defence of HMS ''Hampton Court'', but not before his crew so disabled ''Salisbury'' that she was left for a wreck, later recovered by the French who could not fit her out in time for their next warring exploit. She was finally recaptured off Scotland on 15 March 1708 by and other ships of Sir George Byng's squadron. She was renamed HMS ''Salisbury Prize'', as a new had already been built. She was renamed HMS ''Preston'' on 2 January 1716. On 8 May 1739 ''Preston'' was ordered to be taken to pieces and rebuilt at Plymouth according to the 1733 proposals of the

1719 Establishment The 1719 Establishment was a set of mandatory requirements governing the construction of all Royal Navy warships capable of carrying more than 20 naval long guns. It was designed to bring economies of scale through uniform vessel design, and en ...

, and was relaunched on 18 September 1742. From 1745 she was assigned to the Royal Navy's East Indies squadron which was based in the Dutch-held port of

Trincomalee Trincomalee (; ta, திருகோணமலை, translit=Tirukōṇamalai; si, ත්‍රිකුණාමළය, translit= Trikuṇāmaḷaya), also known as Gokanna and Gokarna, is the administrative headquarters of the Trincomalee Dis ...

, Ceylon. In September 1748 she was declared unseaworthy and converted into a hulk. Over the following year she served as a storehouse for naval supplies and a support for the

careening Careening (also known as "heaving down") is a method of gaining access to the hull of a sailing vessel without the use of a dry dock. It is used for cleaning or repairing the hull. Before ship's hulls were protected from marine growth by fasteni ...

of other vessels, and was broken up in November 1749.Baugh 1965, p. 346

Notes

References

* * *Lavery, Brian (2003) ''The Ship of the Line - Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850''. Conway Maritime Press. . * {{DEFAULTSORT:Salisbury (1698) Ships of the line of the Royal Navy 1690s ships Captured ships Ships built on the Beaulieu River

See also

Notes

References