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HMS ''Prince William'' was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She had previously been the ''Nuestra Señora de la Asunción'', but was better known as ''Guipuzcoano'', an armed merchantmen of the Spanish ''Compañía Guipuzcoana de Caracas''. ''Guipuzcoano'' was sailing as the flagship of an escort for a merchant convoy of the company, when they ran into a large British fleet under Admiral Sir George Rodney, bound for the relief of Gibraltar. In a short action Rodney captured the entirety of the convoy and all its escorts, including the ''Guipuscoano'', which he manned and named in honour of Prince William, sending her back to Britain with some of the merchants. The Navy approved her acquisition and after fitting out she was sent to the West Indies, where she took part in most of the battles there during the American War of Independence, including the capture of Sint Eustatius and the battles of Fort Royal, Saint Kitts and the Saintes. She returned to Britain after the end of the wars, was converted to a sheer hulk before the start of the French Revolutionary Wars, was a receiving ship by 1811 and was broken up in 1817, two years after the end of the Napoleonic Wars. ==Capture== ''Guipuzcoano'' was sailing as the flagship of Commodore Don Juan Agustín de Yardi, and commanded by Captain Don Tomás de Malay, in late 1779, escorting a convoy of 15 merchants of the ''Compañía Guipuzcoana de Caracas'' from San Sebastián to Cadiz. Also escorting the convoy were four company frigates, the 32-gun ''San Carlos'', 30-gun ''San Rafael'', 28-gun ''Santa Teresa'' and 26-gun ''San Bruno'', and two smaller vessels, the 16-gun ''San Fermín'' and 10-gun ''San Vicente''. On 8 January 1780 the convoy encountered a large British fleet off Cape Finisterre under Admiral Sir George Rodney, bound for the relief of Gibraltar. Rodney closed on the convoy, the copper sheathing on some of his ships allowing them to outsail the Spanish. The whole convoy was captured, with vessels which had been carrying naval stores to the Spanish fleet at Cadiz, and baled goods for the Royal Caracas Company being sent back to England, escorted by and .〔 Those Spanish ships that were found to be carrying provisions were taken to Gibraltar by Rodney, and used to relieve the British forces there. In addition Rodney commissioned and manned the captured Spanish flagship, the 64-gun ''Guipuzcoano'', naming her HMS ''Prince William'', in honour of Prince William, who had been present at the engagement.〔 The four captured frigates were not added to the navy, but the two smaller vessels were purchased, being named and and rated as 14-gun brigs. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「HMS Prince William (1780)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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