HMS Grampus was a 14-gun snow-rigged sloop of the Royal Navy, launched in 1743 as the last of three s constructed for action against French and Spanish privateers during the War of Jenkins' Ear.
Grampus was the last of three small, fast vessels built for coastal patrol and privateer-hunting and designated by the British Admiralty as the Wolf class. Her design was similar to that of the preceding sloops but larger and more heavily armed. Construction was contracted to civilian shipwright Philemon Perry.
As designed, Grampuss dimensions were in keeping with other vessels of her class with an overall length of , a beam of and measuring tons burthen. She had two masts, square-rigged and supported by a trysail mast aft of the main mast. Two decks were fitted instead of one, reflecting the design of her predecessor, the 1731 . Constructed with eight pairs of gunports, she was supplied with fourteen four-pounder cannons in addition to twelve deck-mounted half-pounder swivel guns.
Construction took five months from the laying of the keel in February 1743 to launch in July of the same year, at a fixed building cost of ã1,793.8.0d based on a contract price of ã7.7.0d per ton burthen, plus an additional ã1,838.13.10d for fitting out.
Grampus was commissioned into the Navy at Woolwich Dockyard in July 1743 under Commander Richard Collins, in the later stages of the War of Jenkins' Ear against France and Spain. Internal fitout continued until September, after which Grampus was joined to the Channel Fleet under Admiral John Norris. On 4 April 1744 she secured her first victory at sea, capturing the 26-gun French vessel La Medee in company with the fourth-rate .
In early 1744 Grampus was engaged against French traders and privateers off Martinique in the Caribbean, securing the capture of eight small enemy vessels while in company with a small squadron of other Royal Navy vessels. Returning to British home waters, she in April 1744, she was then assigned to escort British trade and supply to Portugal. This was Grampus last formal duty in British service. On 30 September 1744 she was captured by a French naval squadron in the Bay of Biscay and sailed to the French port of Brest.