Ship Modelers Database
HMS Portland (1770)
Sold out of naval service in 1817; no longer extant (broken up/dismantled thereafter).
HMS Portland was a 50-gun fourth-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, lead ship of the ten-vessel Portland class. HMS Portland was a 50-gun fourth-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, designed by Sir John Williams, and was first launched on 11 April 1770. She was built at Harwich and first commissioned later that year.
Kits of this ship
+ Add a kitNo image | HMS Portland 1770 (Full Project) | Portland Scale Ship Co. | 1:48 (1/4 in=1 ft, O) | Plank-on-Bulkhead | Available |
No image | HMS Portland 1770 | Portland Scale Model Company | 1:48 (1/4 in=1 ft, O) | Plank-on-Bulkhead | Available |
No image | HMS Portland Chapters 1 & 2 | Portland Scale Model Company | 1:48 (1/4 in=1 ft, O) | Plank-on-Bulkhead | Available |
No image | HMS Portland Chapter 3 | Portland Scale Model Company | — | Plank-on-Bulkhead | Available |
No image | HMS Portland 1770 Chapters 1 & 2 | Portland Scale Ship Co. | 1:48 (1/4 in=1 ft, O) | Plank-on-Bulkhead | Available |
No image | HMS Portland Chapter 3 | Portland Scale Ship Co. | 1:48 (1/4 in=1 ft, O) | Plank-on-Bulkhead | Available |
Plans
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Build logs
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Resources
+ Submit a resourceHistory & specifications
- Three Decks: British Fourth Rate 'Portland' (1770)Website
Detailed dimensions, armament changes over time, commanding officers, and a chronological service history useful for modelers wanting era-specific fit-out details.
- Wikipedia: HMS Portland (1770)Website
Core overview of the ship's design, specifications, armament, and American Revolutionary War service, including the Hammond privateer incident.
- Wikipedia: HMS Portland (disambiguation list)Website
Confirms the ship's fate (storeship conversion 1800, prison ship 1802, sold 1817) in context of the other seven Royal Navy ships named Portland.
- Wikipedia: List of ships of the line of the Royal NavyWebsite
Places Portland within the broader fourth-rate 50-gun ship-of-the-line lineage of the Royal Navy and confirms her 1817 sale date.
History
Specifications
Portland had a gundeck length of 146 feet, a keel length of 119 feet 9 inches, a breadth of 40 feet 6 inches, a depth in hold of 17 feet 6 inches, and a burthen of 1,044 77/94 tons. Her armament comprised 50 guns: 22 x 24-pounders on the gundeck, 22 x 12-pounders on the upper gundeck, 4 x 6-pounders on the quarterdeck, and 2 x 6-pounders on the forecastle. By 1779 she had been coppered and her quarterdeck/forecastle armament supplemented with carronades, a common wartime upgrade for ships of this class.
Service history
The ship joined a convoy of merchant ships and headed for the Americas via Madeira, patrolling waters around the Leeward Islands, the Windward Islands and Jamaica, and spending nearly a month at Port Royal. Cuthbert Collingwood, later a famous admiral, served as midshipman on the ship during 1773. She served during the American Revolutionary War, capturing the sloop Swallow on 13 February 1778 some 108 leagues southwest of Anguilla. Portland was also involved in the 1779 "Affair of Fielding and Bylandt," a diplomatic incident with a Dutch convoy. She was converted to a 10-gun storeship in 1800 and a prison ship in 1802, and was sold in 1817.
Notable facts
During the American Revolution the Portland captured the privateer Hammond, leading to her captain Thomas Dumaresq and Admiral James Young being arrested by the Court of Vice-Admiralty at Antigua over disputed prize paperwork — a case that escalated to involve the First Lord of the Admiralty and King George III before charges were dropped. As name-ship of her class, her design (by Co-Surveyor of the Navy Sir John Williams) was repeated with modifications in nine further 50-gun ships built into the 1780s, including Isis, Renown, Bristol, Hannibal, Adamant, Leander, Leopard, Europa and Assistance.