HMS Lichfield was a 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at King's Yard in Harwich by John Barnard to the dimensions laid down in the 1741 proposals of the 1719 Establishment, and launched on 26 June 1746.

[2] In June 1756, under Captain Matthew Barton, Lichfield captured the French ship of the line Arc-en-Ciel off Louisbourg, Nova Scotia during the Seven Years' War.

In November 1758 Lichfield, was assigned to a squadron under the command of Commodore Augustus Keppel, with orders to transport troops to West Africa to capture the island of Gorée from the French.

At nightfall on the sixteenth day at sea her sailing master estimated their position as being around 350 miles (563.3 kilometres) from shore.

[4] According to the account of Lieutenant Southerland: At six in the morning I was awakened by a very great shock, and a confused noise of the men on deck.