HMS Phoenix (1759)

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Phoenix.
The Phoenix and the Rose engaged by the enemy's fire ships and galleys on Aug. 16, 1776. Engraving by Dominic Serres after a sketch by Sir James Wallace
History
Great Britain
Name: HMS Phoenix
Ordered: 5 January 1758
Builder: John & Robert Batson, Limehouse
Laid down: February 1758
Launched: 25 June 1759
Completed: By 26 July 1759
Fate: Foundered on 4 October 1780
General characteristics
Class and type: 40-gun fifth rate frigate
Tons burthen: 842  67⁄94 bm
Length:
  • 140 ft 9 in (42.90 m) (gundeck)
  • 116 ft 8 in (35.56 m) (keel)
Beam: 36 ft 9.75 in (11.2205 m)
Depth of hold: 15 ft 11.5 in (4.864 m)
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Complement: 280
Armament:
  • 44 guns:
  • Lower gundeck: 20 × 18-pounder guns
  • Upper gundeck: 20 × 9-pounder guns
  • Quarterdeck: 4 × 6-pounder guns

HMS Phoenix was a 44-gun[1][2] fifth rate Ship of the Royal Navy.

She saw service during the American War of Independence under Captain Hyde Parker, Jr.[2] She, along with HMS Rose and three smaller ships launched an attack on New York City on 12 July 1776.[1] During that attack, Phoenix and the other ships easily passed patriot defences and bombarded urban New York for two hours.[3] This action largely confirmed continental fears that British naval superiority would allow the Royal Navy to act with relative impunity when attacking deep-water ports.[3]

HMS Phoenix was also involved in a kind of currency war. During the Revolutionary War, when the Continental Congress authorized the printing of paper currency called continental currency, the monthly inflation rate reached a peak of 47 percent in November 1779 (Bernholz 2003: 48). One cause of the inflation was counterfeiting by the British, who ran a press on HMS Phoenix, moored in New York Harbour. The counterfeits were advertised and sold almost for the price of the paper they were printed on.[4]

The Phoenix was lost on 4 October 1780 in a storm.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 Chernow, Ron (2011). Washington: A Life. Penguin Books. p. 238. ISBN 978-0143119968.
  2. 1 2 Naval Documents of The American Revolution Vol. 5 Part 5 (PDF). U.S. Government Printing Office. 1970. p. 1043.
  3. 1 2 Fischer, David (2004). Washington's Crossing. Oxford. pp. 83–84. ISBN 9780195181593.
  4. ↑ Stealing Lincoln’s Body (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007: pg. 33
  5. ↑ Lettens, Jan. "HMS Phoenix (+1780)". Retrieved 7 September 2013.
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