HMS Centurion was a 60-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Portsmouth Dockyard by Joseph Allin the younger and launched on 6 January 1732.

Owing to concerns over the relative sizes of British ships compared to their continental rivals, Centurion was ordered to be built 1 ft (0.3 m) wider across the beam than the Establishment prescribed.

[3] She served in the Channel Fleet, and took part in Sir John Norris's expedition to Lisbon in 1736, under the command of Captain George Proctor.

[3] Captain George Anson took command in December 1737, and led a small squadron to the African coast, then to Jamaica, before arriving back in England in late 1739.

[3] She then underwent a refit at Portsmouth, at a cost of £4,791.4.8d, between August 1739 and January 1740 to prepare for a special mission to harass Spanish shipping along the coast of South America and interdict the Manila galleons.

The two squadrons would intercept Spanish shipping as they sailed, and on their rendezvousing at Manila, would refit, replenish and await further orders.

[3][5] The squadron called at Madeira, Brazil, Port St Julian and Argentina, eventually reaching Cape Horn by March 1741.

[5] The Gloucester was in a state of such disrepair that Anson ordered her scuttled, transferring her crew to the Centurion, and finally landing at Tinian on 15 August.

[5] The Centurion arrived back at Spithead on 15 June 1744, the only ship of the original squadron to have survived the entire voyage.

[3] She played a significant role, as described in a topical song of the time: She became part of Sir Peter Warren's fleet in 1748, and came under the command of Captain Augustus Keppel in August that year.

[7] All that remained was a four-foot high lion's paw which was eventually recognised as a piece of significant historical interest and returned to Shugborough Hall during the 1920s.