HMS Kent (1652)

The Kentish was a 40-gun fourth-rate frigate of the Commonwealth of England Navy, built by contract at Deptford (not in the Dockyard) and launched in November 1652.

Her most famous action was when she attacked a squadron of Tunisian warships lying in Porto Farina, on the Barbary Coast. She defeated both the ships and the on-shore fort to win her third battle honour.

After the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, her name was changed to HMS Kent. She served in both the First and Second Dutch Wars with distinction and was involved in the Battle of Lowestoft, which remains the most crushing naval defeat in Dutch history, and the St. James's Day Battle, a two-day long fight which ended in a closer English victory. She was wrecked in October 1672 off Cromer.