Pictured: a built model of this ship — not the historical vessel.

HMS Winchelsea (1764)

Type

Frigate

Period

18th Century

Nation

Great Britain

Overview: HMS Winchelsea was a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy's Niger class, designed by Sir Thomas Slade (who also designed HMS Victory). She was the sixth Royal Navy ship to carry the name, and one of eleven vessels built to the same 1757 Niger-class design. Specifications: Built at Sheerness Dockyard and launched 31 May 1764 at a cost of £11,515-18s-0d, she measured 125 ft (38 m) on the gun deck with a beam of 35 ft 2 in (10.72 m), a 12 ft depth of hold, and 679.7 tons burthen. Her armament comprised 26 x 12-pounder guns on the upper deck plus 4 x 6-pounders on the quarterdeck, 2 x 6-pounders on the forecastle, and 12 half-pounder swivels, with a complement of 220 men. Service History: Although ordered during the Seven Years' War, she was completed too late for that conflict and was not commissioned until February 1769, under Captain Samuel Goodall, for Mediterranean service. In December 1769 she struck rocks off Cádiz, Spain, was severely damaged, and had to be refloated and repaired at Gibraltar; she went on to serve during the American War of Independence and remained active until being paid off in 1794. She was later fitted as a troop carrier (1799-1800) and served in the Royal Navy's Egyptian campaign of 1801, for which her crew later qualified for the Naval General Service Medal with the "Egypt" clasp. Notable Facts: In her later years she was converted to a convalescent/prison ship at Sheerness (from 1803) before finally being sold to be broken up in November 1814. A contemporary 1:48 scale full-hull dockyard model of the Winchelsea, built in 1772 and now held by the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, was one of several such models commissioned by Lord Sandwich to interest King George III and the Prince of Wales in the navy; that model became the basis for a well-known plank-on-bulkhead scratch-build kit and monograph by Syren Ship Model Company / Chuck Passaro, popular among modelers as an introductory scratch-building project. Notably, the ship was later commanded by Edward Pellew, one of the Royal Navy's most celebrated frigate captains.