HMS Amazon, was a 36-gun frigate, built at Rotherhithe by Wells & Co. in 1795 to a design by Sir William Rule. Carrying a main battery of 18-pounder long guns, she was the first of a class of four frigates. She spent her entire career in the Channel, part of the Inshore Squadron under Sir Edward Pellew. She was wrecked in Audierne Bay in 1797, following an engagement with the French ship-of-the-line, Droits de l'Homme.
The Minerva-class sailing frigates were a series of four ships built to a 1778 design by Sir Edward Hunt, which served in the Royal Navy during the latter decades of the eighteenth century.
In 1794, three 64-gun third-rate ships were cut down to 44-gun fifth-rate frigates with a primary armament of 24-pounder guns, in a process known as razeeing. This was in response to rumours then circulating of very large French frigates supposed to be under construction. By Admiralty Order of 11 August 1794, two 64-gun ships of the Intrepid class – Anson and Magnanime – were to be cut down by one deck level. By a subsequent Admiralty Order of 8 September 1794, a third 64-gun ship – the Indefatigable of the Ardent class – which had been launched but never commissioned in 1784, was similarly to be cut down.
Aréthuse was a 46-gun frigate of the French Navy. She served during the Napoleonic Wars, taking part in a major single-ship action. Much later the vessel took part in the conquest of Algeria, and ended her days as a coal depot in Brest, France.
HMS Amazon was a 38-gun fifth-rate Amazon-class frigate of the Royal Navy. She served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars under several notable naval commanders and played a key role in the Battle of Copenhagen under Edward Riou, who commanded the frigate squadron during the attack. After Riou was killed during the battle, command briefly devolved to John Quilliam. Quilliam made a significant impression on Horatio Nelson, who appointed Quilliam to serve on the flagship HMS Victory. Amazon passed to William Parker, who continued the association with Nelson with service in the Mediterranean and participation in the chase to the West Indies during the Trafalgar Campaign. Amazon went on to join Sir John Borlase Warren's squadron in the Atlantic and took part in the defeat of Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand Linois's forces at the action of 13 March 1806. During the battle, she hunted down and captured the 40-gun frigate Belle Poule.
The 24-pounder long gun was a heavy calibre piece of artillery mounted on warships of the Age of Sail. 24-pounders were in service in the navies of France, Spain, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United States. They were comparable to the Canon de 24 Gribeauval used by the French Army as its largest piece of siege artillery. 24-pounders were used as main guns on the heaviest frigates of the early 19th century and on fourth-rate ships of the line, on the second deck of first-rate ships of the line, and on the second deck of a few large third-rates.
HMS Crescent was a 36-gun Flora-class frigate of the British Royal Navy. Launched in 1784, she spent the first years of her service on blockade duty in the English Channel where she single-handedly captured the French frigate, La Reunion. In 1795, Crescent was part of a squadron commanded by George Elphinstone, that forced the surrender of a Batavian Navy squadron at the capitulation of Saldanha Bay. After serving in the West Indies, Crescent returned to home waters and was wrecked off the coast of Jutland on 6 December 1808.
HMS Perseverance was a 36-gun Perseverance-class frigate of the British Royal Navy. She served on the North American station until 1787, after which she returned to England, where she was refitted at Portsmouth. In 1789 Perseverance was sent to the East Indies; she returned to Portsmouth in 1793, when she was laid up before finishing her career there as a receiving ship. She was sold and broken up in May 1823.
HMS Arethusa was a 46-gun Leda-class fifth-rate frigate built for the Royal Navy during the 1810s. The ship was never commissioned and was converted into a lazarette in 1836. She was renamed HMS Bacchus in 1844 and was further converted into a coal hulk in 1851–52. The ship was sold for scrap in 1883.
HMS Romulus was a 36-gun fifth rate frigate of the Flora class, built for the Royal Navy and launched in September 1785. At the outbreak of the French Revolutionary War, Romulus was despatched to the Mediterranean where she joined a fleet under Admiral Lord Hood, initially blockading, and later occupying, the port of Toulon. She played an active role during the withdrawal in December, providing covering fire while HMS Robust and HMS Leviathan removed allied troops from the waterfront.
The Flora-class frigates were 36-gun sailing frigates of the fifth rate produced for the Royal Navy. They were designed in 1778 by Sir John Williams in response to an Admiralty decision to discontinue 32-gun, 12-pounder (5.4 kg), vessels. Williams proposed a frigate with a main battery of twenty-six 18-pound (8.2 kg) guns and a secondary armament of ten 6 pounders (2.7 kg). Four 18-pounder carronades and 12 swivel guns were added to the upperworks in September 1799 and the 6-pound long guns were upgraded to 9-pounders in April 1780, before any of the ships were completed.
The Driver class were a class of paddlewheel steam sloops of the British Royal Navy. Six Driver-class ships were ordered in 1840 and a further ten in March 1841, although only six were built. Five were ordered in 1847, but all were either built as paddle frigates or cancelled. Two wrecked in service, while the rest served until being retired and were either broken up or sold.
The 32-pounder guns were sets of heavy-caliber pieces of artillery mounted on warships in the last century of the Age of sail, during the 18th and early 19th centuries. It was usually the most powerful armament on a warship. The British version fired a 14.4 kilogram projectile at about 487 meters per second, for a muzzle energy of over 1.7 million joules. They were most famous being mounted on HMS Victory of the Royal Navy. Such a powerful gun with a large weight of shot posed serious damage to enemy ships.
HMS Amazon was a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, armed with a main battery of twenty-six 12 pounders and launched at Rotherhithe shipyard in 1773. She was first commissioned in February 1776 for war in America where she took part in operations against New York. Returning to England in February 1779, Amazon underwent a refit before serving in the English Channel and North Sea. In April 1780, she sailed to the Leeward Islands where, in October, she was almost wrecked in a hurricane.
The Maidstone-class frigate was a 32-gun 5th-rate frigate class of two ships designed by Sir John Henslow and based on his Alcmene class, ordered on 4 February 1795. The class was a close copy of the Alcmene class, but were instead constructed of pitch pine. This lighter material caused the class to be armed with 12-pound guns instead of the 18-pound guns that had been expected. Neither ship of the class had a long career, with HMS Shannon sold at Sheerness Dockyard in May 1802 and HMS Maidstone put in ordinary at Chatham Dockyard in 1804 and broken up in 1810.
The Perseverance-class frigate was a 36-gun, later 42-gun, 18-pounder fifth-rate frigate class of twelve ships of the Royal Navy, constructed in two batches. Designed by Surveyor of the Navy Sir Edward Hunt the first iteration, consisting of four ships, was constructed as a rival to the similar Flora-class frigate. Strongly built ships, the Perseverance class provided favourable gunnery characteristics and was highly manoeuvrable, but bought these traits with a loss of speed. The name ship of the class, Perseverance, was ordered in 1779 and participated in the American Revolutionary War, but her three sister ships were constructed too late to take part. The class continued in service after the war, but soon became outdated.
HMS Chichester was a two-deck, fifth-rate ship of the Royal Navy. One of the Adventure-class ships designed by Edward Hunt, she was built to carry 44 guns but for her entire career she served as a troopship, never carrying more than 22. In 1803, she was part of the squadron under Samuel Hood that captured the French held islands of St Lucia and Tobago, and the Dutch colonies of Demerara, Essequibo and Berbice.
