This book tells the story of HMS Guernsey, a fifth rate ship of war or frigate, built and launched at Walberswick Old Quay on the Suffolk coast in April 1654 as an addition to the Commonwealth Navy. She was named Basing on launching but renamed HMS Guernsey in 1660 on the restoration of King Charles II to the throne. The book starts with the local scene, the state of the small town of Walberswick and something of its history, the topography, the historical background and the state of the Navy at the time. It goes on to describe how the ship was built, the dimensions and materials used, and continues with Basing's first duties, escort duties to Scotland and Ireland, and service with the Baltic fleet. After the Restoration the story of our ship, now named HMS Guernsey, is interwoven with English naval history until 1693 when Guernsey was surveyed, found 'unuseful' for the Navy and sold. The story covers the Second and Third Dutch Wars, service in the Mediterranean against Algerian and Moorish corsairs, and in the Caribbean against the French. Guernsey won two battle honours, had three captains killed in action, and bore her full share of the fighting in this stirring period of England's history when the country grew from relative un importance into a major European power with a Navy second to none. Also appearing in the story are some of the important personalities of the time: Oliver Cromwell, Admiral Robert Blake, King Charles II, James Duke of York, Prince Rupert, the Duke of Albemarle, Samuel Pepys, John Evelyn, the Earl of Sandwich, and many outstanding naval commanders, some of them local to Suffolk where Guernsey's story started. The East Anglian connection is continued during the period of the Dutch Wars because of the fleet's use of Sole Bay as an anchorage. The book is a mixture of local history and naval history and relies largely on original sources, naval commanders' journals, captains' logs, Samuel Pepys's correspondence, and the Calendar of State Papers (Domestic). The book ends with a postscript on subsequent HMS Guernseys.