Origin and History
The frigate was built by John Barnard at Harwich and launched on June 17 1757.
During the Seven Years' War, the frigate was under the command of:
- in 1758-59: captain Samuel Hood
The frigate was broken up in June 1775.
Service during the War
On February 21 1759, the frigate, along with the Trent (28), spotted the French frigate Bellona (32) in the Channel. They both gave chase but the Vestal (32) engaged the Bellona (32) before the Trent (28) could join her. After an engagement of 4 hours, the Bellona (32) was taken and brought back to Spithead. In this engagement, the French frigate lost about 40 killed and the Vestal (32) had 5 killed and 22 wounded. On July 2 1759, the ship was part of the squadron of rear-admiral George Brydges Rodney who sailed from St. Helen's to destroy the flat-bottomed boats and the supplies which had been collected at Le Havre for the projected invasion of England. On July 4 at sunrise, Rodney began the bombardment of Le Havre and of the flat-bottomed boats. The bombardment lasted for 52 hours until July 6 at 8:00 AM and 1,900 shells and 1,150 carcasses were fired on the town. Le Havre burnt furiously for 6 hours despite the continual efforts of several hundred men to extinguish the fire. This attack totally destroyed any French preparations in this town for the invasion of England. Rodney, with some of his frigates, remained off the port of Le Havre for the rest of the year, and captured numerous prizes.
To do: more details on the campaign from 1760 to 1762
|Length at gundeck||n/a|
Blasco, Manuel, British 5th Rates, 3 Decks Wiki
Phillips, M., Michael Phillip's Ships of the Old Navy
N.B.: the section Service during the War is derived from our articles depicting the various campaigns, battles and sieges.