page_title: HMS Roebuck (1774)
section_title: Service
hierarchical_section_title: HMS Roebuck (1774) / Service
caption_attribution_description: English: Map showing the positions of the British and American armies at the Battle of Long Island on 27 August 1776
context_page_description: HMS Roebuck was a fifth-rate ship of the Royal Navy which served in the American and French Revolutionary Wars. Designed in 1769 by Sir Thomas Slade to operate in the shallower waters of North America, she joined Lord Howe's squadron towards the end of 1775 and took part in operations against New York the following year. She engaged the American gun batteries at Red Hook during the Battle of Long Island in August 1776, and forced a passage up the Hudson River in October. On 25 August 1777, Roebuck escorted troopships to Turkey Point, Maryland, where an army was landed for an assault on Philadelphia. She was again called upon to accompany troopships in December 1779, this time for an attack on Charleston. When the ships-of-the-line, which were too large to enter the harbour, were sent back to New York, Admiral Marriot Arbuthnot made Roebuck his flagship. She was, therefore, at the front of the attack, leading the British squadron across the shoal to engage Fort Moultrie and the American ships beyond.
  After the American Revolutionary War ended in October 1783, Roebuck underwent repairs at Sheerness and was refitted as a hospital ship.
caption: Map marking British and American positions at the Battle of Long Island. Roebuck is shown bombarding an American battery at Red Hook
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