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RACEHORSE (8) Bomb Taken in 1757.
Destroyed after capture in 1777.

    She was the French privateer MARQUIS DE VANDREVIL, captured in 1757 and purchased for the Royal Navy on 28 April in the same year.
  • 1759 Cdr. George MILLER in RACEHORSE was left behind after the capture of Quebec to winter there in company with Cdr. John MACARTNEY in PORCUPINE. On 24th. November, after the British fleet had retired, the French merchant ships waiting at Cape Rouge slipped past the garrison, although fired on, all got past except the Elzabeth which grounded on the south side of the river. On the following morning Cdr. MILLER went to board the Elizabeth and accidentally blew her up, the Commander and his Lieutenant were mortally wounded and died a few days later.
  • 1766 Cdr. John MACARTNEY.
  • On 19 April 1773 Capt. Constantine John PHIPPS (later Lord Mulgrave) was appointed to the CARCASS, with orders to proceed as close as possible to the North Pole. Contrary winds and other factors prevented sailing until 2 June.
    On 22 June they made landfall off the coast of Spitsbergen (Svalbard) where they found the weather temperate and the sea free of ice. But on 5 July, they discovered ice laying N. W to E. with no apparent opening to the north.
    On the 19th., in misty weather the ships worked into a roadstead called by the Dutch, Vogel Sang, and anchored in 11 fathoms.
    When the weather cleared on 17th. Capt. PHIPPS was able to climb a hill and could see several leagues to the N. E. where the ice appeared uniform and compact.
    On the 18th. they tried again to penetrate the ice but by the 31st. they were unable to move further and moored themselves to the edge of the field where the ice was over 20 feet thick.
    On the 1 August their latitude was 80.37 and the ice continued to build around them and in some places it was higher than the main-mast.
    On the 3rd. the ship's companies tried to cut a passage to the westward but by the evening the ships had moved less than 300 yards.
    On the 7th. Capt. PHIPPS returned to the ship after hauling the launch over the ice for about two miles, to find that the ice was more open and, by hoisting the sails to take advantage of a little wind, the ships were moved about a mile. By taking every opportunity of forcing the ships through the ice and moving the boats across the ice to the water's edge. As there was thick fog it was difficult to see what progress was being made, but on the 9th. the ships moved through some small openings and they found that they had overtaken the boats.
    The next morning the wind increased and they hoisted all sail to force the ships through the ice with such violence that the shank of RACEHORSE'S best bower anchor was broken at one stroke.
  • Having failed to find any other openings in the ice Capt. PHIPPS quitted Greenland waters on 22 August.
    On 7 September they reached Shetland and had to fight through a succession of gales until they made Orfordness on the 24th.
    RACEHORSE lost three boats and had to heave two guns overboard.
  • As a schooner commanded by Lieut. James JONES she was captured by the American ANDREA DORIA (14) in December 1776 and destroyed by Royal Navy ships in the Delaware in November 1777.


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