HMS Saltash (1741)

History
Great Britain
Name:	HMS Saltash
Builder:	Henry Bird, Deptford Wet Dock
Laid down:	1741
Launched:	3 September 1741
Completed:	3 November 1741 at builder's shipyard
Commissioned:	1741
Fate:	Burnt off Cadiz on 18 April 1742
General characteristics
Class and type:	sloop
Tons burthen:	220  86⁄94 (bm)
Length:	89 ft 0 in (27.1 m) (gundeck) 71 ft 3.625 in (21.7 m) (keel)
Beam:	24 ft 1.625 in (7.4 m)
Depth of hold:	7 ft 11.5 in (2.4 m)
Sail plan:	Snow
Complement:	90
Armament:	8 × 4-pounder guns; also 12 x ½-pounder swivel guns

HMS Saltash was an 8-gun two-masted sloop of the Royal Navy, built on speculation by Henry Bird at Deptford Wet Dock on the Thames River, England. She was purchased while building by the Navy Board at the end of August 1741 to replace the 1732-built sloop of the same name (which was sold on 24 August). The new sloop was launched on 3 September.

She was commissioned in 1741 under Commander Peter Toms, and sailed for the Straits of Gibraltar. In 1742 she was under Commander Arthur Upton; she grounded in the Gulf of Cadiz on 16 April 1742 while chasing a Spanish polacca and was burnt by her crew two days later to prevent capture by the Spanish.

References

• 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. 
• McLaughlan, Ian. The Sloop of War 1650-1763. Seaforth Publishing, 2014. ISBN 978-1-84832-187-8.
• Rif Winfield (2007). British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1714-1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84415-700-6.