History
Great Britain
Name	HMS Jamaica
Ordered	18 August 1743
Builder	Deptford Dockyard
Laid down	15 September 1743
Launched	17 July 1744
Completed	28 August 1744 at Deptford Dockyard
Commissioned	July 1744
Fate	Wrecked off Cuba on 27 January 1770
General characteristics
Class and type	Hind-class sloop
Tons burthen	272 89⁄94 (bm)
Length	91 ft 5 in (27.9 m) (gundeck) 75 ft 0.75 in (22.9 m) (keel)
Beam	26 ft 1.75 in (8.0 m)
Depth of hold	12 ft 0 in (3.7 m)
Sail plan	Snow brig
Armament	10 × 6-pounder guns, later increased in 1749 to 14 x 6-pounder guns

HMS Jamaica was a 10-gun (14-gun from 1749) two-masted Hind-class sloop of the Royal Navy, designed by Joseph Allin and built by him at Deptford Dockyard on the Thames River, England and launched on 17 July 1744. She and her sister Trial were the only sloops to be built in the Royal Dockyards between 1733 and 1748.

On 28 October 1757 captured St. Estienne in company with the frigate Garland.^[1]

Fate

Commander George Talbot and Jamaica were sailing from Jamaica to Pensacola when she was wrecked off Cuba on 27 January 1770. Towards evening she ran onto a reef. Efforts to lighten her and get her off failed and she started to fill with water. The crew improvised rafts and with her boats were able over the next three days to transfer all her stores and provisions to a small cay three miles away. At the same time a small boat was sent to get help. A schooner eventually rescued the survivors. The subsequent court martial of Talbot his officers, and crew found that a strong current had taken her further inshore than expected, resulting in her encountering the Coleradoes Reef.^[2]

Citations

References

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
• Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650–1859. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot. ISBN 0-948864-30-3.
• McLaughlan, Ian. The Sloop of War 1650-1763. Seaforth Publishing, 2014. ISBN 978-1-84832-187-8.
• Winfield, Rif (2007). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714–1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 978-1844157006.