Lieutenant's logbook for HMS CENTURION 1739 - 1743: Captain George Anson (TICKET BOOK)
HMS CENTURION 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, Anson was placed in charge of a squadron of six ships, consisting of the CENTURION, GLOUCESTER 50, SEVERN 50, PEARL 40, WAGER 28, and the sloop TRIAL 8, plus two store ships ANNA and INDUSTRY, and instructed to sail to Manila and capture the Spanish colony.
Anson sailed on 18 September 1740, with the squadron calling at Madeira, Brazil, Port St Julian and Argentina, eventually reaching Cape Horn by March 1741. A series of gales dispersed the ships of the fleet, and the crews were greatly reduced by disease. The squadron continued to raid Spanish settlements, and intercept Spanish merchants, before the CENTURION and the GLOUCESTER sailed to China. 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 1741. Anson and a number of his crew landed, but on 21 September a typhoon blew the CENTURION out to sea. but the CENTURION had survived the gale, and her crew were able to sail her back to rejoin Anson.

The CENTURION reached Macau with 200 scurvy-ridden crew on 12 November 1742, and underwent a refit. Anson decided to cruise off the Philippines in the hope of intercepting Spanish treasure galleons, and on 20 June the galleon NUESTRA SENORA DE COVODONGA, carrying 36 guns, was sighted. . After a brief engagement that left 67 Spanish dead and a further 84 wounded, to just two of the CENTURION’s crew killed and another 17 wounded, the NUESTRA SENORA DE COVODONGA was taken. Anson commissioned her into his fleet the following day, placing her under the command of Captain Philip Saumarez. The two ships sailed into Canton on 11 July, where Anson sold the NUESTRA SENORA DE COVODONGA, and after re-provisioning, sailed for England aboard the CENTURION on 15 December 1743.