HMS Tartar (1756)

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Tartar.

History
Great Britain
Name:	HMS Tartar
Operator:	Royal Navy
Ordered:	12 June 1755
Builder:	John Randall's yard, Nelson Dock, Rotherhithe
Laid down:	4 July 1755
Launched:	3 April 1756
Completed:	2 May 1756 at Deptford Dockyard
Fate:	Wrecked 1 April 1797
General characteristics
Class & type:	Lowestoffe-class sixth-rate frigate
Tons burthen:	587 ​19⁄94 (bm) (4 tons more than designed)
Length:	117 ft 10 in (35.9 m) (gundeck) 96 ft 11 in (29.5 m) (keel)
Beam:	33 ft 9 in (10.3 m)
Depth of hold:	10 ft 3 in (3.1 m)
Sail plan:	Full-rigged ship
Complement:	200 officers and men
Armament:	Upperdeck: 24 × 9-pounder guns QD: 4 × 3-pounder guns 12 × swivel guns

HMS Tartar was a 28-gun sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. The ship was designed by Sir Thomas Slade and based on the Lyme of 1748, "with such alterations as may tend to the better stowing of men and carrying for guns."

The ship was first commissioned in March 1756 under Captain John Lockhart, and earned a reputation as a fast sailer during service in the English Channel. She made many captures of French ships during the Seven Years' War, including 4 in 1756 and 7 the following year. During the peace that followed, the ship sailed to Barbados carrying a timekeeper built by John Harrison, as a part of a series of experiments used to determine longitude at sea. She also served in the American Revolutionary War, capturing the Spanish Santa Margarita of 28 guns off Cape Finisterre on 11 November 1779.

She went on to see further service during the French Revolutionary War. On 14 December the French frigate Minerve captured off the island of Ivica the collier Hannibal, which was sailing from Liverpool to Naples. However, eleven days later, Tartar recaptured the Hannibal off Toulon and sent her into Corsica.

Fate

HMS Tartar was eventually wrecked off Saint-Domingue on 1 April 1797.

References

• Robert Gardiner, The First Frigates, Conway Maritime Press, London 1992. ISBN 0-85177-601-9.
• David Lyon, The Sailing Navy List, Conway Maritime Press, London 1993. ISBN 0-85177-617-5.
• Rif Winfield, British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1714 to 1792, Seaforth Publishing, London 2007. ISBN 978-1-84415-700-6.