HMS Looe

Six ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Looe, after the Cornish town of Looe. A seventh was planned but never completed:

HMS Looe (1741)

HMS Looe was a 44-gun fifth rate warship of the Royal Navy. She grounded on Looe Key off the coast of Florida on 5 February 1744, during the War of Jenkins' Ear.

Construction and commissioning

Looe was ordered on 22 December 1740 from the yards of Thomas Snelgrove, Limehouse to the designs of the 1733 Establishment. She was laid down on 26 January 1741 and launched on 29 December 1741. She was by then the fourth ship of the Navy to be named Looe, after the town of Looe, Cornwall. She was completed by 3 April 1742 at Deptford Dockyard, having cost £6,949.10.0d to build with a further £4,403.7.7d spent on fitting out. She was commissioned in January 1742 under the command of Captain George Carnegie, the sixth Earl of Northesk, for service in the Bay of Biscay.

Service

Looe was with HMS Deal Castle off Vigo on 7 July 1742, and took part in an attempt to cut out privateers from Ponta Nova on 19 July 1742. In 1743 Captain Ashby Utting took command.

Looe was lost off the Florida coast early in the morning of 5 February 1744. She had a captured merchant ship commanded by a Spanish crew in tow when, just after midnight, she struck a reef, followed shortly by the merchant ship. With a priority to escape to avoid capture by the Spanish, the three small boats carried by the frigate were inadequate to carry the 274 survivors, however a Spanish sloop was sighted nearby, which was captured after being chased by some of the crew in the frigate's boats. After the grounded ships had been salvaged for provisions, they were set alight and the survivors departed in the sloop and smaller boats.

Looe

Coordinates: 50°21′13″N 4°27′14″W / 50.3535°N 4.4540°W / 50.3535; -4.4540

Looe (Cornish: Logh, meaning deep water inlet) is a small coastal town, fishing port and civil parish in the former Caradon district of south-east Cornwall, UK, with a population of 5,280 at recent census'(2001 & 2011 census'). The two electoral wards mentioning Looe but also including Polperro had a total population of 7,117 at the 2011 census

The town of Looe is approximately 20 miles (32 km) west of the city of Plymouth and seven miles (11 km) south of Liskeard. and is divided in two by the River Looe, East Looe (Cornish: Logh) and West Looe (Cornish: Porthbyhan, meaning Little Cove) being connected by a bridge.

The town centres around a small harbour and along the steep-sided valley of the River Looe which flows between East and West Looe to the sea beside a sandy beach. Off shore to the west, opposite the stonier Hannafore Beach, lies the idyllic St George's Island, otherwise known as Looe Island.

History

Prehistory and foundation

Looe (disambiguation)

Looe is a town in Cornwall, England, UK.

Looe may also refer to:

Geography

Other fields