HMS Port Royal

At least four ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Port Royal, after the British naval base Port Royal in Jamaica:

• HMS Port Royal (1757) was an 18-gun sloop that was purchased locally, i.e., in Jamaica, in 1757. She was paid off and sold in 1763.
• HMS Port Royal (1778) was an 18-gun sloop, formerly the French armed merchant vessel Comte de Maurepas, which the British captured in 1778. They purchased her, armed her with eighteen 6-pounder guns, and gave her the name Port Royal; she was under the command of Commander Timothy Kelly when the Spanish captured her at Pensacola in 1781.
• HMS Port Royal (1782) was the 14-gun French privateer ship-sloop Comte d'Estaing, which HMS Fortune captured on 29 March 1782. She was commissioned under Lieutenant George Hart but paid off on 31 March 1783 and sold thereafter.[Note 1]
• HMS Port Royal (1796) was a 10-gun schooner purchased in 1796. The French captured her on 30 March 1797 and renamed her Perle. Pelican recaptured her on 18 October.[2] The Royal Navy renamed her HMS Recovery. She was sold in 1801.

Notes, citations, and references

Notes

1. A Comte d'Estaing was apparently launched in 1780 but grounded at Glénans that same year. She was either refloated or there may have been a successor vessel of the same name.[1]

Citations

1. Demerliac (196), p.197, #1980.
2. Hepper (1994), p.83.

References

• Demerliac, Alain (1996) La Marine De Louis XVI: Nomenclature Des Navires Français De 1774 À 1792. (Nice: Éditions OMEGA).
• Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650-1859. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot. ISBN 0-948864-30-3.