HMS Roebuck was a 44-gun, fifth-rate sailing warship of the Royal Navy which carried a main battery of twenty long guns. Launched on 21 December 1743, she first served in the English Channel during the War of the Austrian Succession, which Britain entered the following March.
In 1744, part of a squadron under Admiral John Norris, Roebuck escorted a large convoy en route to Lisbon but became separated when she went in pursuit of an enemy vessel. She arrived in the Tagus after the convoy to find that Norris’ ships had already left for home. She was subsequently blockaded there by a French fleet until rescued on 9 September, after which, she transferred to the Mediterranean, joining Admiral William Rowley's fleet in operations against Genoa.
When the Seven Years' War began in 1756, Roebuck was sent to the West Indies, where she participated in the attack on Martinique in January 1759 and the capture of Guadeloupe in April. Roebuck paid off for the last time in August 1759. She was briefly hired out as a private warship but when she returned home in 1764, she was surveyed at Portsmouth and on 3 July, sold off.
Construction and armament
Roebuck was one of the 1741 Establishment group of two-deck fifth-rates built for the Royal Navy. Originally ordered 1 December 1742 as a 40-gun ship, she was completed with 44 guns; 20 x guns on her lower deck, 20 x guns on her upper deck and 4 x guns on the quarter deck. Her keel, long, was laid down on 2 January 1743. As built, Roebuck was long at the gundeck, had a beam of , and a depth in the hold of , making her 708 tons burthen.
Service
Having cost the Admiralty £7,266.5.0d, Roebuck was launched on 21 December 1743. She was first commissioned under Captain Thomas Sturton and taken to Portsmouth, where she was finished at a further cost of £4,251.18.5d. Upon finishing, Roebuck joined the Channel Fleet under Admiral John Norris. Norris' fleet had left The Downs early on 7 March 1744, having received word that 15 French ships out of Brest were off Dungeness. Contrary wind and tide forced the British to anchor within sight of their enemy, where at 11:00 they were joined by Roebuck from Portsmouth. At about 01:00 the following morning, a storm blew up which continued for much of the day, breaking cables and scattering the fleet. Roebuck remained at anchor but lost one of her boats. The storm broke that evening but the French, by that time, had already gone. Although France and Great Britain were technically at peace, a declaration of war was expected at any time and the possibility of invasion from a large fleet of French transports at Dunkirk kept Norris from pursuing.
Norris wanted to retain enough ships to attack the French at Dunkirk should an opportunity present itself but ships were also needed to escort 6,000 Dutch troops from Willemstadt. In addition Admiral Thomas Mathews' fleet in the Mediterranean was desperately short of supplies and the victualing fleet at Spithead was unable to move while the French were still at large. Norris, required to divide his forces but wanting to prevent the Channel Fleet from becoming too depleted, decided that eight of his most powerful vessels, under the command of Captain Charles Hardy would chaperone Mathews' supplies only as far as Brest. Two fifth-rates, Roebuck and HMS Preston, would then take the convoy the rest of the way. The order was later amended; Roebuck and Preston would take the transports only as far as the Tagus, with Mathews left to arrange the remainder of the journey.
The convoy was due to sail on 5 April, but foul weather delayed departure until 10 April. Progress was slow due to the lack of wind and in due course the fleet was forced to anchor once more. When the wind returned, it was blowing the wrong way. On 13 April, Hardy received unconfirmed news that the French ships at Brest had put to sea. A lightly-protected convoy travelling to Lisbon would now be vulnerable to attack. On 23 April, the Admiralty issued new orders: Hardy was to send a ship ahead to look into Brest and, if the rumour proved to be true, his whole squadron was to escort the convoy to Lisbon but if it were false, he need only take the convoy passed this dangerous area and leave Roebuck and Preston to accompany it the remainder of the journey. The former proved to be the case and so, on 4 May 1744, Roebuck and Preston, with the ships-of-the-line , Duke, , St George, Princess Royal, , , Princess Amelia, escorted the convoy up the Channel.