HMS Tamar (1758)

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Tamar.

HMS Tamar or Tamer was a 16-gun Favourite-class sloop-of-war of the Royal Navy.

Tamar
History
Great Britain
Name	HMS Tamar
Ordered	11 January 1757
Builder	John Snooks, Saltash
Laid down	15 March 1757
Launched	23 January 1758
Commissioned	January 1758
In service	1758–1780
Renamed	HMS Pluto in 1780
Honours & awards	Battle of Ushant (1778)
Captured	30 November 1780
Fate	Captured at sea by 24-gun French privateer Duc de Chartres
General characteristics
Class & type	16-gun Favourite-class sloop-of-war
Tons burthen	313 15⁄94 (bm)
Length	96 ft 4 in (29.4 m) (gundeck) 78 ft 10 in (24.0 m) (keel)
Beam	27 ft 4 in (8.3 m)
Depth of hold	8 ft 3+1⁄2 in (2.5 m)
Propulsion	Sail
Sail plan	Ship rig
Complement	125
Armament	16 × 6-pounder guns 14 × ½-pounder swivel guns

This plan specifically illustrates the jury rudder made on the return voyage to Britain after she lost her rudder through electrolysis between the copper sheathing and the iron rudder pintles

The ship was launched in Saltash in 1758 and stationed in Newfoundland from 1763 to 1777.

From 21 June 1764 to mid-1766, under Commander Patrick Mouat, she accompanied the Dolphin on a circumnavigation of the globe during which the latter's commander, Capt. Byron, took possession of and named the Falkland Islands in January 1765.^[1]

Her Captain on 1 January 1775 is listed as Cpt. Edward Thornborough, with ship's name spelled Tamer.^[2]

Converted into a fire ship and renamed Pluto in 1777

The warship hosted South Carolina's royal governor, Lord William Campbell, beginning in September 1775, when increasingly-violent patriot activity drove the governor from his home on the mainland.^[3] She was renamed HMS Pluto when she was converted into a fire ship in 1777. The French privateer Duc de Chartres captured her on 30 November 1780.^[4] Her subsequent fate is unknown.^[5]