Grand Duchess of Russia was built at Whitby in 1774; the
Navy Board chartered her at the beginning of 1775 to serve as a transport. While being modified at
Deptford Dockyard in February, the ship was surveyed and found to be
barque-rigged and just over 308 tons
burthen in size. A survey in New York two years later gave her length as , measured at the
keel, with a
beam of . Naval historian Rif Winfield quotes her burthen as 684 tons with a length at the
gundeck of and beam of .
Grand Duchess of Russia departed for
Boston, Massachusetts carrying 150 marines on 30 March 1775 and she remained in North American waters for the next two years.
Vice Admiral Lord Howe, commander of the
North American Station, informed the
Admiralty on 23 April that he had purchased the
Grand Duchess of Russia and commissioned her as HMS
Vigilant to bombard targets ashore. The ship received fourteen 24-pounder guns from the 50-gun ship , and two 9-pounder and four 6-pounder guns from the
hospital (prison) ship . Additional
gun ports were cut in
Vigilants side to allow two guns to be switched from one side to give her a
broadside of nine guns. The 150 men of her crew came from the crews of Howe's
flagship, the
third rate ,
Centurion, and the
fourth rate , while her 30
marines were drawn from the marine
brigade at
Halifax. Her conversion was completed by the end of June and her first task was to cover the evacuation of British troops from
Perth Amboy, New Jersey on 29 July. The following month,
Vigilant served as Howe's flagship when he landed British troops at
Elkton, Maryland, at the northern end of
Chesapeake Bay, during the
Philadelphia Campaign. In October, the ship sailed for the mouth of the
Delaware River to attack the American fortifications defending
Philadelphia. During this voyage, she rolled so badly during heavy weather that the
round shot fell out of her guns and it was later decided that she should not put to sea with her guns mounted except during the summer months.
Vigilant was not designed to carry such heavy weights as the 24-pounder guns up high in the ship and cutting gun ports in her sides further weakened her structure. The first attack on
Fort Mifflin on 22–23 October had been a disaster with two British ships run aground and burnt. For the second attack three weeks later,
Vigilants crew was reinforced with an extra 50 men to work the guns and 24 riflemen to suppress the defenders of the fort during the attack. The ship's sides were reinforced and two guns were transferred to the starboard side of the ship. Her trim was maintained by placing casks of water on the port side. While other ships bombarded the fort from the main channel,
Vigilant and a smaller ship worked their way up a secondary channel to the rear of the fort. They were able to silence the fort's guns by 6 p.m., and the Americans evacuated five hours later, despite the ship's
grapeshot and small arms fire. During the attack
Vigilant only lost three men killed and five wounded; her hull had only been hit several times, but her
rigging was shot to pieces. In recognition of the ship's success, her commander,
Lieutenant John Henry, was promoted to the command of the frigate .
Vigilant was generally inactive while the British occupied Philadelphia, but she sailed to
New York City when the British evacuated the city in June 1778. She joined the small British squadron there upon the approach of a French squadron under the command of the
Comte d'Estaing in July, but the French declined to engage the British ships. The ship accompanied the British squadron to
Newport, Rhode Island as it attempted to lift the
Franco-American siege, but
Vigilant was badly damaged when a storm interrupted the planned battle on 13 August. Despite the damage, she supported British troops on 29–30 August as they pursued the retreating Americans who had abandoned the siege after the French ships sailed to Boston for repairs. A few days later, on 4 September, the ship collided with the
sloop-of-war Raven during the
British raid on
New London, Connecticut and had her bow stove in by the other ship.
Vigilant was quickly repaired in New York and participated in the
attack on Little Egg Harbor River in October. At the beginning of December, the ship sailed from New York to
Savannah, Georgia to assist in the
attack on that city. Despite dismounting her main armament, the ship had to keep one or more pumps running continuously during the voyage to prevent her from sinking. She arrived at Savannah on 28 December, after the British had secured the city. and decommissioned on 9 April. Her crew and armament were loaded aboard the transport
Margaret & Martha and taken to Charleston where they were transferred to the transport
Margery, which had been purchased and renamed to serve as
Vigilants replacement.
Vigilant was burnt at Beaufort sometime later that year. ==Notes==