Threedecks Forum

Hello everyone,

I'm a long time reader and first time poster, and am very thankful for this site as it has been so helpful for reference during my dissertation research. I am doing my dissertation research on colonial naval defenses in Anglo-American colonies, c. 1689-1763. There are a LOT of ships that American colonial governments created that were essentially operated as colonial-navy vessels, but somehow still got an HMS designation. For instance, look at New England's 'Province Galley,' which I found the paybook for in the ADM files in London at the National Archives, and which you can read a sort of dated book about here: https://archive.org/stream/provincegall ... 4/mode/2up. In every letter or council journal, colonial officials referred to them as "His or Her Majesty's Ship ______" even though these guard vessels were not officially commissioned by the Royal Navy, and were essentially early attempts at Anglo-American provincial fleets. Thought it might be worth bringing up as an interesting future category for ships on here, if anyone is interested

Thank you,

Ben S.

I am currently completing a book on naval operations in the Wars of Jenkins's Ear and the Austrian Succession. I can't get into anti-privateering operations (I do cover a few actions between British ships and French navy warships fitted out for commerce raiding at the expense of private groups, in part to dispel the idea that these were battles against French warships on government missions). There are two other cases I know of involving colonial vs. Royal Britannic Navy vessels: the attack on St. Augustine in 1742 and the attack on Louisbourg in1745. If you would be willing to share information on colonial vessels involved in these operations, please contact m at navclio (at) cox (dot) net. I haven't been able to do systematic primary-source research in unpublished documets, but might have found something in secondary or printed primary source that you have missed so far.

Albert Parker