HMS Solebay (1742)
Solebay in a painting by Samuel Scott | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Great Britain | |
| Name | Solebay |
| Namesake | Battle of Solebay |
| Ordered | 30 June 1740 |
| Builder | Digory Veale, Plymouth Dockyard |
| Cost | £7,269 |
| Laid down | 11 July 1740 |
| Launched | 20 July 1742 |
| Completed | 19 August 1742 |
| Commissioned | 3 July 1742 |
| Captured | 6 August 1744 |
| France | |
| Name | Solebay |
| Acquired | 6 August 1744 |
| Captured | 20 April 1746 |
| Great Britain | |
| Name | Solebay |
| Acquired | 20 April 1746 |
| Commissioned | August 1746 |
| Fate | Sold into merchant service, 1763 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | 1733 Establishment sixth-rate frigate |
| Tons burthen | 42929⁄94 (bm) |
| Length |
|
| Beam | 30 ft 5+1⁄2 in (9.3 m) |
| Draught |
|
| Depth of hold | 9 ft 5 in (2.9 m) |
| Propulsion | Sails |
| Complement |
|
| Armament | |
HMS Solebay was a 24-gun frigate of the Royal Navy. Commissioned in 1742 for the War of Jenkins' Ear, she served off Gibraltar and in the Mediterranean Sea until she was captured by a French squadron off Cape St Vincent two years later. Commissioned into the French Navy under the same name, Solebay served off the coast of France until she was recaptured by a British privateer in 1746. Decommissioned when the war ended in 1748, the ship was put back into service for the Seven Years' War.
Operating off the east coast of Scotland from 1756, Solebay hunted privateers and deterred smugglers. On 26 May 1758 she fought an inconclusive action in the Firth of Forth against the French frigate Maréchal de Belleisle, during which Solebay's captain was shot in the throat. Solebay saw further service on the Downs Station and off Calais before being paid off at the end of the war in 1763. The frigate was then put up for sale and bought to be converted into a merchant ship. She was last recorded as serving as an Indiaman in 1765.