HMS Tartar (1756)

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Tartar.

Tartar (original plan)
History
Great Britain
Name	Tartar
Operator	Royal Navy
Ordered	12 June 1755
Builder	John Randall's yard, Nelson Dock, Rotherhithe
Laid down	4 July 1755
Launched	3 April 1756
Completed	2 May 1756 at Deptford Dockyard
Fate	Wrecked 1 April 1797
General characteristics
Class and type	Lowestoffe-class sixth-rate frigate
Tons burthen	587 19⁄94 (bm) (4 tons more than designed)
Length	117 ft 10 in (35.9 m) (gundeck) 96 ft 11 in (29.5 m) (keel)
Beam	33 ft 9 in (10.3 m)
Depth of hold	10 ft 3 in (3.1 m)
Sail plan	Full-rigged ship
Complement	200 officers and men
Armament	Upperdeck: 24 × 9-pounder guns QD: 4 × 3-pounder guns 12 × swivel guns

HMS Tartar was a 28-gun sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy.

Naval career

Tartar was designed by Sir Thomas Slade and based on Lyme of 1748, "with such alterations as may tend to the better stowing of men and carrying for guns."

The ship was first commissioned in March 1756 under Captain John Lockhart, and earned a reputation as a fast sailer during service in the English Channel. She made many captures of French ships during the Seven Years' War, including 4 in 1756 and 7 the following year.^[1]

Vessels captured or sunk by Tartar during the Seven Years' War

Date	Ship	Home port	Type	Fate	Ref.
August 1756	Le Cerf	Saint-Malo, France	Privateer, 24 guns & 200 crew	Captured, 23 killed	[2][3]
By October 1656	Hero	Saint-Malo, France	Privateer, 14 guns & 162 crew	Captured, 1 killed	[2]
October 1656	Le Grand Gideon	Granville, France	Privateer, 22 guns & 215 crew	Captured, 7 killed	[2][3]
October 1756	Le Montrozier	La Rochelle, France	Privateer, 3 guns & 190 crew	Captured, 58 killed	[2][3]
March 1757	La Victoire	Le Havre, France	Privateer, 24 guns & 275 crew	Captured, 30 killed	[2][3]
April 1757	Le Duc d'Aguillon	Saint-Malo, France	Privateer, 26 guns & 303 crew	Captured, 47 killed	[2][3]
May 1757	La Penelope	Morlaix, France	Privateer, 18 guns & 190 crew	Captured, 14 killed	[2][3][a]
October 1757	La Comtesse de Gramont	Not recorded	Privateer, 18 guns	Captured	[3]
November 1757	La Melpomene	Bayonne, France	Privateer, 26 guns	Captured	[3]

During the peace that followed, the ship sailed to Barbados carrying a timekeeper built by John Harrison, as a part of a series of experiments used to determine longitude at sea.^[4]

Roebuck with Phoenix, Tartar and three smaller vessels passing forts Washington and Lee on the Hudson River, in the run up to the Battle of Fort Washington

American Revolutionary War:On 9 October, 1776 she was in action on the Hudson River, with HMS Roebuck and HMS Phoenix, forced her way upstream, whilst engaging, on either side, the two forts of Washington and Lee.^[5][6] The next day she, HMS Roebuck, and HMS Phoenix captured the abandoned Connecticut Navy galley "Crane" in the Hudson River.^[7] She destroyed an American vessel off New Jersey 1 April 1777.^[8] and capturing the Spanish Santa Margarita of 28 guns off Cape Finisterre on 11 November 1779.

She went on to see further service during the French Revolutionary War. On 14 December the French frigate Minerve captured off the island of Ivica the collier Hannibal, which was sailing from Liverpool to Naples. However, eleven days later, Tartar recaptured Hannibal off Toulon and sent her into Corsica.^[9]

Tartar, showing alterations made in 1790 during repairs at Chatham by Mr Nicholson's Yard. The decks were raised, as shown by the ticked red lines.

Tartar was part of the fleet under Lord Hood that occupied Toulon in August 1793. With HMS Courageux, Meleager, Egmont and Robust, she covered the landing, on 27 August, of 1500 troops sent to remove the republicans occupying the forts guarding the port.^[10][11] Once the forts were secure, the remainder of Hood's fleet, accompanied by 17 Spanish ships-of-the-line which had just arrived, sailed into the harbour.^[12] Tartar was wrecked off Saint-Domingue on 1 April 1797.^[3]

Notes

1. One contemporary newspaper report gives the name of this privateer as Phillip.^[2]

References

1. Royal Navy history http://www.royal-navy.org/lib/index.php?title=C1751_-_1760 Archived 22 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
2. "Ireland". The Oxford Journal. Oxford, United Kingdom: W. Jackson. 6 August 1757. p. 2. Retrieved 10 January 2018 – via The British Newspaper Archive.
3. Winfield 2007, p. 227
4. "Voyage to Barbados on HMS Tartar". Cambridge Digital Library. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
5. Winfield 2007
6. Clowes (Vol.III) p. 386
7. "Naval Documents of The American Revolution Volume 11 AMERICAN THEATRE: Jan. 1, 1778–Mar. 31, 1778 EUROPEAN THEATRE: Jan. 1, 1778–Mar. 31, 1778" (PDF). U.S. Government printing office via Imbiblio. Retrieved 27 January 2024.
8. "Battles and skirmishes in New Jersey of the American Revolution" (PDF). state.nj.us. Retrieved 29 July 2021.
9. Lloyd's Marine List,[1] – Retrieved 1 December 2013.
10. James (Vol.I) pp. 67 - 69
11. "No. 13572". The London Gazette. 16 September 1793. p. 799.
12. James (Vol.I) p. 69

Bibliography

• Robert Gardiner, The First Frigates, Conway Maritime Press, London 1992. ISBN 0-85177-601-9.
• James, William (1837) [1827]. The Naval History of Great Britain, Volume I, 1793–1796. London: Richard Bentley. OCLC 634321885.
• Rif Winfield, British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1714 to 1792, Seaforth Publishing, London 2007. ISBN 978-1-84415-700-6.

External links

• Media related to HMS Tartar (ship, 1756) at Wikimedia Commons