ASSISTANCE ? HMS 1650

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aukepalmhof
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Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

ASSISTANCE ? HMS 1650

Post by aukepalmhof » Fri Jul 24, 2015 9:05 pm

The 30p stamp of St Helena gives the inscription “1673 English Recapture” and shows a British warship on the road most probably Captain Richard Munden‘s ship the HMS ASISSTANCE when he recaptured the island in 1673.
He was a commodore of a small British squadron with an East India convoy on her way to India. Nearing St Helena he was warned that the Dutch had took possession of the island, and he attacked the island with his squadron and recaptured it again on 4 May 1673 for the British crown.
The ASSISTANCE was built by Henry Johnson at Deptford for the Royal Navy.
December 1649 ordered.
1650 Launched as the ASSISTANCE.
When buil: Tonnage 513 ton (bm), dim. 121 x 30.10 x 15.5ft, length of keel 101.6ft.
Armament 40 guns.
Crew 180.
1650 Commissioned under command of Captain John Bourne.
Most of her history is given on the web-site below. Her voyage to St Helena is not mentioned at all there.
07 January 1673 command was taken by Captain Richard Munden.
Under his command was she at the recapture of St Helena from the Dutch in May 1673.
1674 Was she back again in England.
http://www.st-george-squadron.com/sgs/w ... Assistance
Altogether she was four times rebuilt, in 1687, 1699, 1713 and 1725.
The ASSISTANCE was sunk as a breakwater in 1745 at Sheerness.

St Helena 2002 30p sg?, scott? (On the painting she is the vessel in the foreground.)
Sources: Internet and British Warships in the Age of Sail by Rif Winfield.
Attachments
Assistance 1650 anchored at Spithead 1718.jpg
Image (14).jpg

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