HMS Diamond (1774)


The fourth HMS Diamond was a modified fifth-rate frigate ordered in 1770, launched in 1774, but did not begin service until 1776. Diamond served off the eastern North American coast and shared in the capture at least one brig during the American Revolutionary War. The frigate was paid off in 1779, but returned to service the same year after being coppered. Diamond sailed to the West Indies in 1780, was paid off a final time in 1783 and sold in 1784.

Construction and service

Diamond was ordered on 25 December 1770 as one of five fifth-rate frigates of 32 guns each contained in the emergency frigate-building programme inaugurated when the likelihood of war with Spain arose over the ownership of the Falkland Islands. Sir Thomas Slade's design for the Lowestoffes was approved, but was revised to produce a more rounded midships section; the amended design was approved on 3 January 1771 by Hawke's outgoing Admiralty Board, just before it was replaced. The contract to build Diamond was awarded to Hodgson & Co at Hull, the keel being laid in May 1771, and the frigate was launched on 28 May 1774, at a cost of £11,506.9.1d. She sailed from Hull on 13 June 1774 for Chatham Dockyard, where she remained for nearly two years before she was completed and fitted out to the Navy Board's needs in February to May 1776.
Diamond was first commissioned in February 1776 under Captain Charles Fielding. On completion, she sailed for North America on 20 July 1776.
On 21 October 1778, Diamond and the brig stopped the brig Recovery at. Recovery was sailing from Portsmouth to Charles Town with a cargo of lumber, and her captors sent her into New York.

Fate

Diamond was paid off into ordinary in 1779, but after being coppered she was recommissioned in November 1779 under Captain William Forster, and sailed for Jamaica on 13 April 1780. Diamond was finally paid off in August 1783 and was sold at Plymouth on 30 December 1784.

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