HMS Hussar (1763)
| Career (United Kingdom) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS Hussar |
| Ordered: | 30 January 1762 |
| Builder: | Thomas Inwood, Rotherhithe, England |
| Laid down: | 1 April 1762 |
| Launched: | 26 August 1763 |
| Commissioned: | August 1763 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Mermaid-class frigate |
| Displacement: | 627 tons |
| Length: |
124 ft 4 in (37.90 m) (gundeck) 103 ft 8.5 in (31.610 m) (keel) |
| Beam: | 33 ft 10.375 in (10.32193 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sail |
| Range: | Limited by water and provisions |
| Complement: | 200 |
| Armament: | 24 × 9 pounder (4 kg) cannons, 4 × 3 pounder (1.4 kg) cannons, 12 swivels. |
HMS Hussar was a Sixth rate frigate of the Royal Navy, built in England in 1761-63. She was a 28-gun ship of the Mermaid Class, designed by Sir Thomas Slade.
The Hussar was commissioned in August 1763 under Captain James Smith, and sent for her commission cruising in the vicinity of Cape Clear. By 1767 she was commanded by Captain Hyde Parker. She continued to serve off North America between 1768 and 1771, before paying off into Ordinary (reserve) in March 1771. After being repaired and refitted at Woolwich from 1774 to 1777, she recommissioned in July 1777 under Captain Elliott Salter.
In later life, she was part of the British fleet in North America. During the American Revolution, Hussar carried dispatches on the North American station. By mid-1779, the British position in New York was precarious as a French army had joined forces with General George Washington's troops north of the city. When Admiral Sir George Brydges Rodney took his twenty ships of the line south in November, it was decided that the army's payroll be moved to the anchorage at Gardiners Bay on eastern Long Island. On 23 November 1780, against his pilot's better judgment, Hussar's Captain Charles Pole decided to sail from the East River through the treacherous waters of Hell Gate between Manhattan Island and Long Island.
Just before reaching Long Island Sound, Hussar was swept onto Pot Rock and began sinking. Pole was unable to run her aground and she sank in 16 fathoms (29 m) of water. The British immediately denied there was any gold aboard the ship, but despite the difficulty of diving in the waters of Hell Gate, reports of $2 to $4 million in gold were the catalyst that prompted many salvage efforts over the next 150 years. This continued even after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers "blew the worst features of Hell Gate straight back to hell" with 56,000 pounds (25 t) of dynamite in 1876. Hussar's remains, if any survive, are now believed to lie beneath landfill in the Bronx.
References
- David Hepper, British Warship Losses.
- Rattray, Perils of the Port of New York.
- Rif Winfield, British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714-1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing, 2007. ISBN 978-1-84415-700-6.
