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AMBUSCADE
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(40) |
5th rate
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Built in 1745, in Le Havre as L'EMBUSCADE.
Captured from the French by DEFIANCE (69) on 21 April 1746.
Sold out of RN in 1762. |
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- 132 ft. 6 ins x 36 ft x 10 ft 6 ins. Guns 26 x 12-pounders on upper deck, 10 x 6-pounders on quarter deck, 4 x 6-pounders on forecastle. Crew 250.
- 1747 Capt. John MONTAGU. AMBUSCADE was with a squadron under Vice Ad. ANSON which intercepted a French convoy, part bound for Cape Breton and part for India, escorted by M.de la Jonquiè re and Capt. Grou de St. Georges, 24 leagues north-west of Cape Finisterre on 3 May. After a running fight lasting three hours those French ships which had not fled, surrendered. One of these was the DARTMOUTH, a valuable French East India ship, formerly a British privateer and because of the help Commander Richard GWYN of the FALCON sloop gave in her capture, he was promoted to be captain of AMBUSCADE on 27 May.
- AMBUSCADE was laid up during the ensuing peace. but at the beginning of 1755 she was re-commissioned by Capt. Joshua ROWLEY in consequence of a possible rupture with France. Capt. GWYN was reappointed to her in 1756 when she was employed as a cruiser. About the end of August, in company with ROCHESTER, Capt. DUFF, he captured five large Dutch ships, part of a big convoy laden with contraband naval stores bound for French ports. Immediately he returned to port he was ordered to the Mediterranean with other captains sent to take command of the ships whose commanders were ordered home to give evidence in the trial of Ad. BYNG. They all sailed as passengers in AMBUSCADE early in September.
- 1759 Capt. Christopher BASSET. In the spring of 1759 AMBUSCADE was attached to Ad. BOSCAWEN's fleet watching the French at Toulon. On 4 August the Admiral returned to Gibraltar for provisions and on the 17th. the French fleet was sighted close under the North African shore. BOSCAWEN gave chase and two French ships were burnt, 3 taken and 10 escaped, 8 of them entering Cadiz where they were blockaded by Vice Ad. BRODERICK.
- Capt. BASSET returned to England with a convoy in December 1760. He continued to command AMBUSCADE until 1762 when she was put out of commission.
- In February 1762 AMBUSCADE was sold out of the Royal Navy to a company of British merchants, together with KINGSTON (50), for a private attack on Spanish possessions in South America. Under the command of a Capt. Macnamara of the East India Co. these two warships with two Portuguese ships carrying troops, and some transports, sailed from Rio de Janeiro to attack the province of Buenos Ayres.The Spaniards were prepared. KINGSTON, renamed LORD CLIVE, was burnt and two thirds of her complement killed during a second attempt in early January 1763. AMBUSCADE managed to stagger back to Rio. Presumably the wreck was abandoned there.
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