She grounded on Looe Key off the coast of Florida on 5 February 1744, during the War of Jenkins' Ear.

Looe was ordered on 22 December 1740 from the yards of Thomas Snelgrove, Limehouse to the designs of the 1733 Establishment.

[1] She was commissioned in January 1742 under the command of Captain George Carnegie, the sixth Earl of Northesk, for service in the Bay of Biscay.

With a priority to escape to avoid capture by the Spanish, the three small boats carried by the frigate were inadequate to carry the 274 survivors, however a Spanish sloop was sighted nearby, which was captured after being chased by some of the crew in the frigate's boats.

After the grounded ships had been salvaged for provisions, they were set alight and the survivors departed in the sloop and smaller boats.