Spanish ship Princesa (1750)

For other ships with the same name, see Spanish ship Princesa.

Princesa after the Battle of Cape St Vincent
History
Spain
Name	Princesa
Ordered	1748
Builder	Havana
Laid down	11 May 1748
Launched	15 September 1750
Commissioned	15 August 1751
Captured	16 January 1780, by Royal Navy
Great Britain
Name	HMS Princessa
Acquired	16 January 1780
Fate	Broken up, 1809
General characteristics
Class & type	70-gun third rate ship of the line
Tons burthen	1966
Length	170 ft 2½ in (51.9 m) (gundeck)
Beam	51 ft 2 in (15.6 m)
Depth of hold	22 ft 1 in (6.7 m)
Propulsion	Sails
Sail plan	Full-rigged ship
Armament	70 guns of various weights of shot

Princesa was a 70-gun ship of the line of the Spanish Navy. She was one of three ships ordered in 1748 to the specification laid down by Ciprian Autran and designed and built at Havana by Pedro de Torres. Princesa was laid down on 11 May 1748 and launched on 15 September 1750. She was commissioned along with her sister ships Infante and Galicia on 15 August 1751, and left Havana together with the 80-gun Rayo on 1 March 1752 as a squadron under the overall command of Squadron Commander Francisco Ponce de Leon, arriving at Cádiz on 30 April.

Princesa fought at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent on 16 January 1780, where she was captured by a Royal Navy squadron under the command of Admiral George Rodney. She was then recommissioned in England as the third-rate HMS Princessa. On 12 April 1782, she was the flagship of the Blue squadron at the Battle of the Saintes under Admiral Francis Samuel Drake. From 1784 onwards, Princessa was employed as a sheer hulk, and was broken up in 1809.

References

• Lavery, Brian (1984). The Ship of the Line. Vol. 1: The Development of the Battlefleet 1650–1850. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-85177-252-8.
• Winfield, Rif (2007). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714–1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84415-700-6.
• Winfield, Rif; Tredrea, John M; García-Torralba Pérez, Enrique & Blasco Felip, Manuel (2023). Spanish Warships in the Age of Sail 1700—1860: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-5267-9078-1.