Fourth Rate 50 gun ships of the Royal Navy.

[Bligh]

HMS Preston (1757)

HMS Preston was a Joseph Allin designed 50 gun fourth rate ship of the line, built by M/shipwright Thomas Fellowes to the March of 1753 when he died, then Thomas Slade to the August of 1755, and completed by Adam Hayes at Deptford Dockyard. Ordered on the 25th of April 1751 and laid down in the June of that year she was launched on the 7th of February, 1757, and completed on the 15th of May in that same year at a total cost of £23,703.14.4d. which included fitting.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Preston
Ordered:	25th April 1751
Builder:	Deptford Dockyard
Launched:	7 February 1757
Fate:	Broken up, 1815
Notes:	Participated in: Battle of the Dogger Bank
General characteristics
Class and type:	50 gun fourth rate ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1052 (bm)
Length:	143 ft 3in (45.7 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	41 ft 3in (13.0 m)
Depth of hold: Draught:	17 ft 3in (5.6 m) 9ft 10 x 15ft 6in
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	Gundeck: 22 × 24 pdr guns Upper gundeck: 22 × 12 pdr guns QD: 4 × 6 pdr guns Fc: 2 × 6 pdr guns

Service.

HMS Preston was commissioned under Captain John Evans in the January of 1757 for service in the Levant, off Dunkirk and then in the Med once again. On returning to England she was paid off in 1763.

Between the June of 1764 and the April of 1765 she underwent a small repair at Portsmouth for £4,987.14.5d. Preston was recommissioned under Captain Alan Gardner in the May of 1766 for service in Jamaica and from 1767 to 1769 served as Flagship to Rear Admiral William Parry until on return to England she was paid off once more in the September of 1769. She now underwent a middling to large repair at Portsmouth which took from the January of 1772 until the July of 1773 and cost £20,124.13.7d. plus a further £3,724.1.6d. for fitting which was completed in the April of 1774, having already been recommissioned in the January of that year under Captain John Robinson, and on the 6th of May 1776 she sailed for service in North America now under Captain Samuel Uppleby. In the December of that year she was at Rhode Island in time for its occupation. During the remainder of her time on the American station Preston served from 1776 to 1780 under Commodore William Hotham. Leaving Sandy Hook on the13th of August 1778 and cut off from her squadron by a storm, she encountered the French 74 gun Marseillois, which she fought indecisively. On the 4th of November in that year she sailed to the Leeward Islands and on the 14th of December she was involved in the Battle of St. Lucia.

Having returned to England on the 23rd of October 1780 she was paid off. She then went into Chatham for a small repair and coppering for the sum of £11,282.0.4d. which was completed by the May of 1781.On the 5th of August now commanded by Captain Alexander Grahame Preston took part in the Battle of the Dogger Bank where she was disabled, with her commander, Captain Graeme losing an arm.

Both the British and Dutch claimed a victory, although it was actually a tactical draw given that no ships were lost on either side with the exception of the Holland. Nevertheless, strategically the battle was a British victory as the Dutch fleet retreated to Texel and did not leave harbour again during the war. Preston was then sailed back to the Thames by Lieutenant Saumarez for repairs.


Battle of Dogger Bank

On the 8th of June, 1782 Preston sailed for Jamaica under Captain Patrick Leslie and did not return until the 3rd of April, 1784 when she was again paid off.

Fate.

Between the April 1785 and the October of that year her copper was replaced by wooden sheeting and she was fitted as a sheer hulk at Woolwich, where she was broken up in the January of 1815.