HMS Cerberus (1758)
 The tender of the HMS Cerberus destroyed by Bushnell's mine | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Great Britain | |
| Name: | HMS Cerberus |
| Ordered: | 6 May 1757 |
| Builder: | Pleasant Fenn, East Cowes |
| Laid down: | 13 June 1757 |
| Launched: | 5 September 1758 |
| Completed: | 11 November 1758 at Portsmouth Dockyard |
| Decommissioned: | May 1858 |
| Fate: | Abandoned and burnt to prevent capture at Rhode Island on 5 August 1778 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | 28-gun Coventry-class sixth-rate frigate |
| Tons burthen: | 593 14/94 bm |
| Length: |
|
| Beam: | 33 ft 10.5 in (10.325 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 10 ft 6 in (3.20 m) |
| Sail plan: | Full-rigged ship |
| Complement: | 200 |
| Armament: |
|
HMS Cerberus was a 28 gun sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy.
She was ordered on 6 May 1757 from the yards of Pleasant Fenn, East Cowes and was laid down on 13 June 1757. She was launched just over a year later on 5 September 1758.[1][2]
The Cerberus saw action in the American Revolutionary War. One of its first duties was to dispatch generals William Howe, Henry Clinton, and John Burgoyne to Boston after the Battles of Lexington and Concord. The American press likened the three generals to the three-headed dog that was the ship's namesake.[3] It provided naval reinforcement at the Battle of Bunker Hill.[3] The ship was the target of an early torpedo attack by David Bushnell's newly developed powder keg torpedoes in 1777. The attack killed four sailors[4] in a small boat, but did not severely damage the ship.
The Cerberus was eventually burnt to prevent being captured by the French on 5 August 1778 during the American War of Independence, in Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island.[1][5] The remains of the Cerberus are now part of a site listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the "Wreck Sites of HMS Cerberus and HMS Lark."
References
- 1 2 Winfield. British Warships of the Age of Sail 1714-1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. p. 230.
- ↑ "Archaeological Sites Under Investigation at AUVfest 2008". Retrieved 19 August 2013.
- 1 2 Kathy Abbass and Rod Mather. "The History of the HMS Cerberus and HMS Lark". Retrieved 2013-11-09.
- ↑ Battle of the Kegs
- ↑ Marx, Robert F. (1987). Shipwrecks in the Americas. Dover Publications. p. 152. ISBN 0-486-25514-X.
- Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475.
- Winfield, Rif (2007). British Warships of the Age of Sail 1714–1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. London: Seaforth. ISBN 1-86176-295-X.
- 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.