HMS RAINBOW built as a wooden 5th Rate ship-of-the-line by Rober Carter at Limehouse for the Royal Navy.
04 March 1746 ordered.
March 1746 keel laid down.
30 April 1747 named HMS RAINBOW.
30 May 1747 launched.
Tonnage 830 ton (bm), dim. 133.3 x 37.19 x 16ft,
Armament: Lower deck 20 – 18 pdr. upper deck 22 – 9pdr., forecastle 2 – 6 pdr. guns.
Crew 280.
24 June 1747 completed in Deptford.
May 1747 commissioned under command of Captain Patrick Baird.
23 January 1748 the RAINBOW with the HMS ROMMEY and AMAZON took the French 16 gun privateer Le COMTE DE NOAILLES from Granville.
1749 Under command of Captain George Rodney in Newfoundland waters.
April 1753 paid off and small repairs took place at Woolwich between August 1755 and July 1756.
May 1756 commissioned again under command of Captain Joseph Knight.
23 October 1756 took privateer Le CONTENT in the North Sea.
19 September 1757 sailed from the UK to the Mediterranean.
1760 Took with the HMS THETIS the 24 gun French privateer Le VICTOR from Malouine.
December 1760 paid off.
1761/1762 Under repair at Portsmouth.
1762 Recommissioned under command Captain Mark Robinson, but she paid already off the same year.
April 1763 recommissioned and sailed for North America 28 June 1763.
October 1766 paid off again. Under repair from July 1769 till October 1770 at Woolwich.
August 1770 recommissioned and on 06 January 1771 sailed for Africa.
September 1774 paid off.
She was fitted out and repaired at Sheerness between 1775 and 1776 and recommissioned in December 1775 as a troop ship.
06 May 1776 sailed for North America and was used for the New York operations.
07 July 1777 retook the 28 gun FOX and took the American frigate HANCOCK on 08 July 1777.
22 March 1778 took the American privateer HAMMOND and GENERAL GATES on 13 November 1778.
May 1779 in Hampton Roads.
Was used in 1780 in the Savannah operations between February and May.
1781 Paid off.
1782 Refitted at Chatham and armament altered to all-carronade.
March 1782 recommissioned.
04 September 1782 off Ile de Bas took the French 40 gun ship L’HEBE.
March 1783 paid off.
From October 1783 till June 1784 fitted out as a receiving ship at Woolwich, and in ordinary there in 1783 till 1802.
February 1802 sold at Wolwich.
http://www.shipstamps.co.uk/forum/viewt ... nbow#p8100
Jersey 1975 11p sg162, scott162.
British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714 – 1792 by Rif Winfield. http://www.ageofnelson.org/MichaelPhill ... p?ref=1838