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AMERICA
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(64) |
3rd rate
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Built in 1777, Deptford DY.
Broken up in 1807. |
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- 1778 Capt. Lord LONGFORD. She formed part of Ad. KEPPEL's fleet in action with the French on 27 July 1778. AMERICA had 1 man killed and 17 wounded.
- 1780 Capt. Samuel THOMPSON. She was involved in actions under Vice Ad. ARBUTHNOT, Rear Ad. GRAVES and Sir Samuel HOOD, and in RODNEY's battles of 9 and 12 April 1782. On the latter day AMERICA led the centre division losing 12 killed and 22 wounded.
She returned to England in July 1783. - 1782 Capt. S. THOMPSON, North America.
- 1794 Commodore John RODNEY, with six other warships (GORGON, PEARL, TOPAZE, ST. FIORENZO, MODESTE and ALERT) he escorted a convoy home from Cadiz.
It took 3 weeks to reach Lisbon and the day before they arrived a tremendous hurricane came up and they spent three weeks in the Tagus collecting the convoy. They sailed on the final leg in late September and had a dreadful passage home. (See GORGON, Edition 2, for a personal account of this voyage.) - 1799 Capt. J. SMITH. North Sea.
AMERICA took part in Admiral MITCHELL's expedition to Holland in August. The British ships chased the Dutch through the Mars Diep to the Vlieter Channel. AMERICA and LATONA ran aground, the former losing her rudder. The Dutch ships were informed on the 30th. that they would not be fired into if the hoisted the flag of Orange. They all complied except for the Admiral so Ad. MITCHELL sent an officer on board to hoist the flag himself. - 1800 Capt. Joseph BINGHAM.
As the Flagship of Ad. Sir William PARKER she sailed from Portsmouth on 25 June 1800 with the fleet for Halifax. This included the transports LAUGHTON, RUTLAND, DIAMOND and LAUREL.
From Halifax AMERICA sailed for the West Indies and on 13 December she struck on the Formigas rocks and was badly damaged. She was subsequently converted into a prison ship.
Capt. BINGHAM was cleared of responsibility at a court martial held at Port Royal on the 27th. when it was shown that he was following a course well to the north of the position of the rocks shown in the charts of 1784 and 1787. - 1800 Salvaged after stranding - prison ship. Lent to Transport Board 1804.
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