HMS Flamborough (1707)

HMS Flamborough was a Royal Navy post ship, launched in 1707 with 24 guns and reconstructed as a 20-gun vessel in 1727. She was the first Royal Navy vessel to be stationed in South Carolina, holding that position from 1719 to 1721. After a period in New York she returned to the Carolinas in 1739, patrolling the coast and playing a minor role in the War of Jenkins' Ear. She returned to England in 1745 and was sold out of naval service in 1748.

Construction and early service
Flamborough was laid down in Woolwich Dockyard as a 24-gun post ship in 1707. Her earliest recorded service was in 1711 when she was assigned to escort merchant convoys and intercept French privateers in English waters between Newcastle and Leith. In late 1711 she captured a French privateer in a brief action off Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth; the privateer's Scottish captain was subsequently convicted of high treason and executed in London.

From 5 October 1719 to 14 July 1721 Flamborough was stationed off South Carolina under the command of Captain John Hildesley; the first Royal Navy vessel to be assigned to these waters. In 1727 she was rebuilt at Portsmouth as a 20-gun vessel. Ten years later she was again posted to the Americas, sailing for New York in March 1737 under a Captain Pierce.

War with Spain
By the late 1730s hostilities appeared imminent between Britain and Spain and the British Admiralty had concerns regarding the security of settlements along the Carolina and Georgia coasts. On 11 June 1739 Admiralty orders were issued for a six-vessel squadron, including Flamborough, to "protect the said settlements ... by taking, burning or otherwise destroying the ships, vessels or boats which the Spaniards may employ thereon." Flamborough thereupon left her New York station for the Carolinas, arriving ahead of the declaration of war with Spain in October.

Her first wartime service was in May 1740 when she anchored in the mouth of the St Johns River to protect the disembarkation of British troops assigned to the Siege of St. Augustine. In 1742 she came under the command of Captain Joseph Hamar, with orders to patrol between Georgia and the Bahamas. In June she briefly engaged Spanish vessels near St. Augustine, Florida, but retreated the following month in the face of a large Spanish force off St. Simons Island.

Returning in August she was part of a five-vessel squadron under the overall command of Sir Thomas Frankland, assigned to lure the Spanish into battle off St. Augustine, but was never directly engaged. In October she returned to British waters off the Carolinas, anchoring off Hobcaw alongside HMS Rose (1740). While in Hobcaw she lost three men to desertion, replacing them with seamen impressed from local merchant craft.

Flamborough was out of service for the first half of 1743 after being struck by lightning in the first week of January. An examination showed heavy damage to her fore and main masts and she was put in dock in Charleston, during which fourteen of her crew were transferred to HMS Rye (1740) under the command of Captain Charles Hardy. By mid-year she was fit to return to sea, proving her capacity with the capture of French privateer La Vendre off the South Carolina coast on 14 October.

In late October 1743 she was joined in Charleston by the larger and more heavily armed HMS Looe (1741), whose captain Ashby Utting assumed overall command of the Carolinas naval squadron. Hamar remained aboard Flamborough as commander and the ship stayed in service off South Carolina until 1 June 1745, when she returned to England. Hamar was transferred to the command of her eventual replacement, the 40-gun HMS Adventure (1741) which arrived in Charleston harbour on 10 July 1747.

Decommission
The ageing Flamborough was sold out of naval service on 10 January 1748.