Dorsetshire

Posted by Albert Parker on Tuesday 23rd of July 2019 04:12

1746: Dorsetshire was among the ships that Vice-Admiral Isaac Townsend was supposed to take to Louisbourg for the summer, but she does not appear in detailed accounts of the 1746 campaign there such as W.A.B. Douglas, "“Nova Scotia and the Royal Navy, 1713–1766,” Ph.D. dissertation, Queen’s University (Kingston, Ontario), 1973, pp. 113-33 or H.L. Richmond, "The Navy in the War of 1739-48," vol. III, pp. 20–50. In vol. II, p. 230, Richmond says that Dorsetshire was one of the ships that sailed for Louisbourg from Antigua on Jan. 31, 1746. However, the squadron encountered a storm; 2 ships bore away for England, the rest returned to Antigua. Townsend later arrived at Louisbourg with 3 ships only, not including Dorsetshire. Richmond, ibid., says that the rest of Townsend's ships "returned to England with the trade [i.e., a convoy of merchantmen]." Admiralty records kept in London and used by Winfield might reflect Dorsetshire's *assignment to* or *orders for* Louisbourg with the rest of the Leeward Islands squadron.