HMS Falcon (1704)
HMS Falcon was a 32-gun fifth rate built at Deptford Dockyard in 1703/04. Her initial assignment was with Sir Cloudesley Shovell's Fleet. She was then assigned to the Mediterranean where she was taken by the French in 1709.
Falcon was the thirteenth vessel to bear this name since it was used for a ballinger dating from 1343 and sold in 1352.
Construction and specifications
Falcon was ordered on 16 March 1703 to be built at Deptford Dockyard under the guidance of Master Shipwright Fisher Harding. She was launched on 2 December 1704. Her dimensions were a gundeck of with a keel of for tonnage calculation with a breadth of and a depth of hold of. Her builder's measure tonnage was calculated as 411 tons.The gun armament initially was four demi-culverins on the lower deck with two pair of guns per side. The upper deck battery would consist of between twenty and twenty-two 6-pounder guns with ten or eleven guns per side. The gun battery would be completed by four 4-pounder guns on the quarterdeck with two to three guns per side.