HMS Lizard (1757)

Lizard was built to the same design as HMS Carysfort (pictured)
History
Great Britain
Name	HMS Lizard
Ordered	13 April 1756
Builder	Henry Bird, Globe Stairs, Rotherhithe
Laid down	5 May 1756
Launched	7 April 1757
Completed	1 June 1757 at Deptford Dockyard
Commissioned	March 1757
Honours and awards	Plains of Abraham, 1759 Martinique, 1762 Havana, 1762 Battle of Saint Kitts, 1782
Fate	Hulked as a hospital ship, 1800 Sold, 1828
General characteristics
Class and type	28-gun Coventry-class sixth-rate frigate
Tons burthen	59487⁄94 (bm)
Length	118 ft 8+1⁄2 in (36.2 m) (gundeck) 97 ft 2+3⁄4 in (29.6 m) (keel)
Beam	33 ft 11 in (10.3 m)
Depth of hold	10 ft 6 in (3.20 m)
Sail plan	Full-rigged ship
Complement	200
Armament	28 guns comprising: Upperdeck: 24 × 9-pounder guns Quarterdeck: 4 × 3-pounder guns 12 × ½-pdr swivel guns

HMS Lizard was a 28-gun Coventry-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, in service from 1757 to 1828. Named after the Lizard, a peninsula in southern Cornwall, she was a broad-beamed and sturdy vessel designed for lengthy periods at sea. Her crewing complement was 200 and, when fully equipped, she was armed with 24 nine-pounder cannons, supported by four three-pounders and twelve 1⁄2-pounder swivel guns. Despite her sturdy build, she was plagued with maintenance problems and had to be repeatedly removed from service for repair.

Lizard saw active service between 1757 and 1793, during British involvement in the Seven Years' War, the American Revolutionary War and the French Revolutionary War. She assisted in major naval operations in the Caribbean and North America, including the British capture of Quebec City and Montreal, the Siege of Havana and the Battle of St Kitts. She also secured a total of nine victories at sea over enemy vessels, principally French privateers in action in American and European waters.

Removed from active service in 1794, Lizard was eventually refitted as a hospital ship and assigned to a berth near Burntwick Island where she received merchant seamen suspected of suffering from diseases including yellow fever and bubonic plague. What had been intended as a temporary assignment continued for 28 years, with Lizard eventually becoming the last of the Coventry-class vessels still in operation. She was removed from service, 71 years after her launch, and was sold for scrap at Deptford Dockyard in September 1828.