Built as a Fifth Rate on the Chatham Drydock by the shipbuilder Joseph Harris, for the Royal Navy.
20 November 1769 ordered.
October 1770 keel laid down.
28 April 1774 launched under the name HMS ROEBUCK.
Tonnage 885 ton (bm), dim. 140 x 37.10 x 16.4ft., draught aft 14ft.
Armament: 20 – 18pdr. lower deck, 22 – 12 pdr. upperdeck, 2 – 6pdr. forecastle deck.
Crew 300.
04 August 1775 completed at Chatham. Building cost £20.660.
July 1775 commissioned.
In September 1776 she took part in the Battle of New York.
December 1776 she thwarted the sailing out of the US RANDOLPH from Philadelphia.
02 April 1777 together with the PERSEUS she captured off Delaware Capes the South Caroline State Navy vessel DEFENCE from Charlestown.
November 1777 she was one of the British ships which forced the evacuation of Fort Mifflin on the Delaware River.
Between February and April 1779 refitted and coppered at Woolwich.
During the Charlestown Campaign she was the flagship of Vice Admiral Marriot Arbuthnot’s squadron.
She arrived off the Charlestown bar on 25 February 1780 and she remained there till 08 June, when she departed as escort of a convoy of 100 ships to New York.
To pass the bar, for a sortie in the harbour of Charlestown, all guns and stores were removed from the ROEBUCK to lightened her, during the springtide on 13 March she passed the bar with other Royal Navy vessels, thereafter her guns were replaced. In addition 6 – 12pdr. guns were installed.
08 April the ships of Arbuthnot’s Squadron set sail from the Five Fathoms Hole for an assault on Charlestown. At 3 p.m. with a favourable wind and tide she approached Fort Moultrie, the ROEBUCK in the van withstanding the heaviest fire of the fort, after two hours the whole fleet had passed the fort with only the loss of the armed transport AEOLUS, and the squadron of 14 ships anchored off Fort Johnson, where she came under long-range fire from the guns in Charlestown but most of the shot fell short.
12 May Charlestown surrendered to the British forces.
April 1783 paid off after wartime service.
From September 1783 till February 1785 under repair at Sheerness.
Fitted out as hospital ship at Chatham and used as so from October 1788 till July 1790 there.
June 1790 recommissioned under Cmdr. George Lindsay.
October 1791 paid off.
September 1793 recommissioned under Capt. Alexander Christie as a troopship. Crew 155.
26 November 1793 sailed for the Leeward Islands (Caribbean).
July 1795 under command of Comdr. David M’Iver, in the West Indies.
6 February 1796 off Barbados under command of Lieut. Alexander Burrowes she took the 12 gun privateer La BATAVE.
19 February 1789 took the 10 gun privateer La PARFAITE off Martinique.
November 1789 ROEBUCK returned to England.
After arrival fitted out as a troopship at Deptford.
04 July 1799 recommissioned under command of Cmdr. John Buchanan.
10 November 1799 she arrived in the Downs from Den Helder, Netherlands, having on board the 2nd Battalion of the 20th Regiment under command of Lt. Col. Brooke. When this regiment went out they were 1600 strong, they returned with less than 500 and they were mostly sick or wounded. The ROEBUCK was twelve days on her passage from Den Helder, the troops under continual apprehension of the vessel being lost. Some of the grenadiers assured “The Times” reporter that they had no change of clothes for 10 weeks.
Till 1802 as troopship in the Mediterranean service.
1802 Under command of Cmdr. James Hawes.
May 1802 paid off in ordinary at Woolwich.
July till September 1803 fitted out as guardship at Woolwich.
July 1803 under command of Capt. George M’Kinley, after fitting out was completed sailed to Leith for use as a guardship.
November 1803 she became flagship of Vice Admiral Richard Bligh till February 1804.
April 1805 flagship of Rear Admiral James Vashon till October 1805.
September 1805 guardship at Great Yarmouth.
November 1805 till 1809 flagship of Rear Admiral Billy Douglas
March 1806 under command of Capt. Richard Curry, in service as receiving ship at Yarmouth.
From 1810 till 1811 flagship of Rear Admiral Lord Gardner.
July 1811 broken up at Sheerness.
Grenadines of Grenada 1976 2c sg178, scott?
Source: British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793-1817 by Winfield. Shipwrecks of the Revolutionary & Napoleonic Eras by Grocott. Charleston’s Maritime Heritage 1670-1865 by P.C. Coker
Historical Sketches of Watercraft on Stamps Volume 4.