page_title: HMS Lizard (1757)
section_title: Peacetime service
hierarchical_section_title: HMS Lizard (1757) / Peacetime service
caption_attribution_description: English: Rear-Admiral Charles Inglis, c 1731 - 1791. Originally painted in about 1783, this portrait showed Inglis wearing the full dress uniform of a captain with his right hand resting on a cannon. However, presumably at the request of a member of the Inglis family, around four years after the sitter’s death Raeburn repainted the portrait to show him in the dress uniform of a rear-admiral - including gold epaulettes which were only introduced in 1795.
context_page_description: HMS Lizard was a 28-gun Coventry-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, in service from 1757 to 1828. Named after the Lizard, a peninsula in southern Cornwall, she was a broad-beamed and sturdy vessel designed for lengthy periods at sea. Her crewing complement was 200 and, when fully equipped, she was armed with 24 nine-pounder cannons, supported by four three-pounders and twelve ​¹⁄₂-pounder swivel guns. Despite her sturdy build, she was plagued with maintenance problems and had to be repeatedly removed from service for repair.
  Lizard saw active service between 1757 and 1793, during British involvement in the Seven Years' War, the American Revolutionary War and the French Revolutionary War. She assisted in major naval operations in the Caribbean and North America, including the British capture of Quebec City and Montreal, the Siege of Havana and the Battle of St Kitts. She also secured a total of nine victories at sea over enemy vessels, principally French privateers in action in American and European waters.
context_section_description: The frigate was left at anchor for the next six years. A naval survey in 1769 found her unseaworthy and in need of extensive repair. Reconstruction and refitting took 16 months to complete and cost £8,211.16, which was significantly more than the vessel's original construction expense.
  On 10 June 1770, a Spanish expedition expelled the British colony at Port Egmont in the Falkland Islands, giving Spain control of the entire British colony. Admiralty ordered a mobilisation of available Navy vessels to escort a British relief expedition to the Falklands. Lizard was one vessel available for this purpose, and she was recommissioned in October 1770 under Captain Charles Inglis, with orders to proceed at once to the British fleet. However, her repairs continued for another two months and it was not until December 1770 that the frigate was considered seaworthy. She was still fitting out at Portsmouth in January 1771 when a treaty between Britain and Spain brought the Falklands dispute to a close.
  No longer required for Falklands duty, Lizard made an uneventful return voyage to Gibraltar in June 1771, and then remained at Portsmouth until September when she was assigned to patrol and privateer-hunting along the North American coastline. After three years at this station she returned to England to be paid off and her crew dispersed.
caption: Charles Inglis, Lizard's captain in 1770–1771
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