History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Blandford
Ordered	4 July 1719
Builder	Royal Dockyard, Deptford
Cost	£3,041.11.3d plus £480.0.83/4 for fitting
Launched	13 February 1720
Completed	4 March 1720
Commissioned	1720
Fate	Sold at Deptford 28 October 1742
General characteristics
Type	20-gun Sixth Rate
Tons burthen	375+18⁄94 bm
Length	106 ft 0 in (32.3 m) gundeck 87 ft 3 in (26.6 m) keel for tonnage
Beam	28 ft 5.5 in (8.7 m) for tonnage
Depth of hold	9 ft 2 in (2.8 m)
Armament	20 × 6-pdr 19 cwt guns on wooden trucks (UD)

HMS Blandford was a member of the 1719 Establishment Group of 20-gun sixth rates.^[1] After commissioning she spent her career in Home Waters, the Baltic, North America and the Mediterranean on trade protection duties. After more than 20 years service in the Royal Navy, she was sold at Deptford in October 1742.^[2] New owner, Bristol based James Pearce, refitted the vessel and entered her into the transatlantic slave trade.^[3]

Blandford was the second named vessel since it was used for a 24-gun sixth rate launched at Woolwich on 29 October 1711 and lost with all hands in the Bay of Biscay on 23 March 1719.^[4]

She was ordered on 4 July 1719 from Deptford Dockyard to be built under the guidance of Richard Stacey, Master Shipwright of Deptford. She was launched on 13 February 1720. She was completed for sea on 4 March 1720 at a cost of 3,041.11.3d^{[Note 1]} plus 480.0.83/4^{[Note 2]} for fitting.^[5]

She was commissioned in 1720 under the command of Captain William Martin, RN for service in the Baltic then to Carolina from 1721 to 24. She under the command of Captain George Protheroe, RN in 1727 for service in the Mediterranean in 1728 then she moved to New England in 1730/31. She returned home and paid off in July 1732. She was underwent a great repair at Sheerness from September 1732 to February 1733 at a cost of £1,872.1.9d.^{[Note 3]} She was under the command of Captain George Burrish, RN for service in the North Sea in May 1732, She went to the Portuguese coast in 1734, then back to the English Channel in 1735 on to Georgia in 1738 and Jamaica 1739–40. She sailed for home with dispatches on 1 September 1740. She was surveyed in December 1740.^[6]

In 1742, Bristol based James Pearce purchased the vessel. After refitted her, he entered her into the Atlantic slave trade. Under Captain John Brackenridge, HMS Blandford would have taken part in a triangular trade. Of the 468 slaves embarked during Blandford’s first and only known slavery voyage, only around 400 survived to be landed ashore in Kingston, colony of Jamaica.^[7] Upon Blandford’s return to England in June 1745, she was put up for sale a second time. The purchaser and her future unfolded is not known.^[8]

HMS Blandford was lost with all hands during a storm in the Bay of Biscay on 23 March 1719.^[9]

The town of Blandford, Massachusetts, in the USA, is named after her.^[10]

• Winfield 2007, British Warships in the Age of Sail (1714 – 1792), by Rif Winfield, published by Seaforth Publishing, England © 2007, EPUB ISBN 978-1-78346-925-3, Chapter 6, Sixth Rates, Sixth Rates of 20 or 24 guns, Vessels acquired after 1 August 1714, 1719 Establishment Group, Blandford
• Colledge, Ships of the Royal Navy, by J.J. Colledge, revised and updated by Lt Cdr Ben Warlow and Steve Bush, published by Seaforth Publishing, Barnsley, Great Britain, © 2020, EPUB ISBN 978-1-5267-9328-7, (EPUB), Section B (Blandford)