Built as a sixth rate wooden oak hulled frigate by Richard Chitty in Milford for the Royal Navy.
19 September 1757 ordered.
November 1757 keel laid down.
30 July 1759 named HMS MILFORD.
20 September 1759 launched.
Tonnage 588 ton (bm), dim.36.06 x 10.33 x 3.23m., length of keel 24.23m.
Armament: upper deck 24 – 9pdrs., quarter deck 4 – 3pdrs., 12 - ½pdrs swivels.
Crew 200.
28 December 1759 completed.
June 1759 commissioned under command of Captain Robert Mann, and after completing used for patrol against privateers in the English Channel.
09 April 1761 took the French privateer FIDELE from Bayonne with 4 guns and 17 swivel guns, crew 45 men.
25 April 1761 captured the French privateer L’ADMIRAL (12-guns) of Dunkirk.
December he also recaptured a valuable British vessel the LOYNE, which had been taken by a French privateer while on a passage from Cork to Barbados.
08 March 1762captured the letter-of-marque La GLORIA (16 – 6pdrs., and 10 swivels, crew 94) of Bordeaux. On 7 March in the Bay of Biscay she was sighted and a long chase commenced, late in the evening of that day Captain Mann brought her to close action. Captain Mann was shot through the right thigh by a 6 pound ball early in the battle and died the next day; command was taken over by the first lieutenant Mr. Day, who fought the ship with great bravery until half past eleven, when he received a wound in the forehead from a musket ball, which proved mortal. Command was taken over by the second lieutenant, Mr. Nash and the next day at half past two in the morning the privateer struck her flag. The privateer was bound for St. Domingo. The privateer during the battle lost her main and mizzen masts, her rigging and her sails and hull were cut to pieces, she lost 6 men during the battle and had 18 men wounded. The MILFORD lost 4 men and had 13 wounded.
Also a Spanish letter-of-marque was taken that month.
March 1762 under command of John Reynolds, took privateer Le CONTENT.
22 September 1762 paid off.
April 1763 recommissioned under command of Captain Thomas Knowler.
24 September 1763 sailed for the West Indies.
1765 Under command of Captain Benjamin Caldwell.
October 1766 decommissioned.
Underwent repair on the yard of Taylor & Co., Rotherhithe from November 1770 till October 1772.
June 1775 recommissioned under command of Captain Richard Braithwaite., but soon thereafter decommissioned.
October 1775 recommissioned under command of Captain John Burr, sailed for North America 20 January 1776.
In June 1776 under command of Commander Henry Mowatt, took US privateers YANKEE HERO on 06 June 1776, RETRIEVE on 19 October 1776, and the 16 gun CABOTT off Nova Scotia on 26 March 1777.
04 October 1777 captured the DOLPHIN.
In 1778 under command of Captain Sir William Burnaby at the Battle of Ushant on 27 July 1778.
1779 A unit in Hardy’s fleet.
15 March 1779 together with HMS APOLLO took the French privateer Le TAPAGEUR.
September 1779 for relief of Guernsey.
10 May 1780 took 28 gun Le DUC DE COIGNY.
November 1780 paid off.
17 May 1785 after survey sold at Woolwich for £260.
Paraguay 1975 0.35 Gs sg?, scott1621. (the other vessel in the YANKEE HERO.)
Source: British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714-1792 by Rif Winfield. http://www.ageofnelson.org/MichaelPhill ... p?ref=5611