Fourth Rate 50 gun ships of the Royal Navy.

[Bligh]

HMS Salisbury (1769)




HMS Salisbury was a Thomas Slade designed 50 gun fourth rate ship of the line approved on the 2nd of April 1766. She was built by M/shipwright Joseph Harris at Chatham Dockyard. Ordered on the 18th of January 1766, and laid down on the 19th of August in that year, she was launched on the 2nd of October 1769 and completed between that date and the 5th of July, 1770 at a total cost of £22,567.13.3d.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Salisbury
Ordered:	18 Jan 1766
Builder:	Harris Chatham
Launched:	2 Oct 1769
Fate:	Wrecked 13 May 1796
General characteristics
Class and type:	50 gun fourth rate ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1051(bm)
Length:	146 ft 0in (gundeck)
Beam:	40ft 6¼ in
Depth of hold:	17 ft 4in
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	Gundeck: 22 × 24-pounder guns Upper gundeck: 22 × 12-pounder guns QD: 4 × 6-pounder guns FC: 2 × 6-pounder guns

Service.

HMS Salisbury was commissioned under Captain Andrew Barkley in the May of 1770 for service in North America. On return to England she was paid off in the March of 1772 and underwent a small repair and refit at Chatham for £6,524.12.9d. between the June and October of 1773.

Recommissioned under the command of Sir E Hughes in the September of that year she departed for service in the East Indies until 1777.

After returning to England she was not recommissioned until the August of the following year for service in the West Indies under Captain Charles Inglis. This cruise lasted until 1780 when she returned to Plymouth for a large refit and coppering. This took from the September of 1780 until the December of 1782 and cost £23,736.14.5d. which was more than her original build cost. She was recommissioned in the April of 1783 under Captain James Campbell for service on the Newfoundland station. At some period whilst there her captain was James Bradby.

Salisbury was paid off in the December of 1785, but further commissions followed under Captain J Elliot from 1786 to 1788, and then Captain Mark Milbanke from 1789 to 1791. She then paid off and went into Ordinary until fitted at Portsmouth between the May and August of 1795 at a cost of £10,377. During her refit she was commissioned under Captain William Mitchell, and under him sailed for West Africa and thence to Jamaica in the November of that year.

Fate.

On the 13th of May in that year she was wrecked on the Ile de Vache near to San Domingo.


One of Salisbury's cannon found at the wreck site.