In 1603 all English warships with a complement of fewer than 160 men were known as 'small ships'. In 1625/26 to establish pay rates for officers, a six-tier naval ship rating system was introduced. These small ships were divided into three tiers: fourth-, fifth- and sixth-rates. Up to the end of the 17th century, the number of guns and the complement size were adjusted until the rating system was actually clarified. A 'fourth-rate' was nominally a ship of over thirty guns with a complement of 140 men.
Chesapeake was a 38-gun wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy. She was one of the original six frigates whose construction was authorized by the Naval Act of 1794. Joshua Humphreys designed these frigates to be the young navy's capital ships. Chesapeake was originally designed as a 44-gun frigate, but construction delays, material shortages and budget problems caused builder Josiah Fox to alter his design to 38 guns. Launched at the Gosport Navy Yard on 2 December 1799, Chesapeake began her career during the Quasi-War with France and later saw service in the First Barbary War.
HMS Polyphemus, a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 27 April 1782 at Sheerness. She participated in the 1801 Battle of Copenhagen, the Battle of Trafalgar, and the Siege of Santo Domingo. In 1813 she became a powder hulk and was broken up in 1827.
HMS Surprise was the name the Royal Navy gave to the French Navy's corvette Unité after Unité's capture in 1796. Unité was launched on 16 January 1794. Surprise gained fame in 1799 for the recapture of HMS Hermione. In 1802 Surprise was sold out of the service.
HMS Lively was a 38-gun fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy, launched on 23 July 1804 at Woolwich Dockyard, and commissioned later that month. She was the prototype of the Lively class of 18-pounder frigates, designed by the Surveyor of the Navy, Sir William Rule. It was probably the most successful British frigate design of the Napoleonic Wars, to which fifteen more sister ships would be ordered between 1803 and 1812.
HMS Alcmene was a 32-gun Alcmene-class fifth rate of the Royal Navy. This frigate served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars under the command of several notable officers. Alcmene was active in several theatres of the war, spending most of her time cruising in search of enemy vessels or privateers, and escorting convoys. She fought at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801 and served in the blockade of the French coasts during the later Napoleonic Wars until she was wrecked on the French coast in 1809.
HMS Adamant was a 50-gun Portland-class fourth rate warship of the British Royal Navy. She served during the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary Wars, and the Napoleonic Wars in a career that spanned thirty years.
HMS Salsette was a Perseverance-class fifth-rate frigate of a nominal 36 guns, launched in 1805. The East India Company built her for the Royal Navy at the company's dockyards in Bombay. She was the Navy's first teak-built ship.
His Majesty's hired armed ship Harlequin served the British Royal Navy from 2 July 1804 until she was wrecked on 7 December 1809. She was of 18537⁄94 tons (bm), and she carried an armament of ten 6-pounder guns, eight 12-pounder carronades, and two swivel guns. During her service with the Royal Navy Harlequin captured a number of prizes. In 1809, she was wrecked near Newhaven as she was escorting a convoy in the Channel.
The Chesapeake–Leopard affair was a naval engagement off the coast of Norfolk, Virginia, on June 22, 1807, between the British fourth-rate HMS Leopard and the American frigate USS Chesapeake. The crew of Leopard pursued, attacked, and boarded the American frigate, looking for deserters from the Royal Navy. Chesapeake was caught unprepared and after a short battle involving broadsides received from Leopard, the commander of Chesapeake, James Barron, surrendered his vessel to the British. Chesapeake had fired only one shot.
Sir Salusbury Pryce Humphreys, later called Salusbury Pryce Davenport, was an officer of the Royal Navy who saw service during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812, rising to the rank of rear admiral.
HMS Hyaena was a 24-gun Porcupine-class post-ship of the Royal Navy launched in 1778. The French captured her in 1793, took her into service as Hyène, and then sold her. She became a privateer that the British captured in 1797. The Royal Navy took her back into service as Hyaena and she continued to serve until the Navy sold her in 1802. The ship's new owner, Daniel Bennett, renamed her Recovery. Between 802 and 1813, she made seven voyages as a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. She was broken up later in 1813.
Ann and Amelia was a three-decker merchant ship launched in 1781. The British East India Company (EIC) twice employed her as an "extra ship", first when she went out to India to sail in trade in that market, and again in 1803 when she sailed back from India to Britain. On her return to Britain the Admiralty purchased her in June 1804 and converted her to a 44-gun fifth rate with the name HMS Mediator. The Navy converted her to a storeship in 1808, but then expended her as a fireship at the battle of the Basque Roads in April 1809.
HMS Constant was an Archer–class gun-brig of the Royal Navy, launched in 1801 for service against the French during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. She was variously stationed in English home waters, the Baltic, the Caribbean, and off the coast of Spain, and was responsible for the capture of at least seven enemy vessels during her fifteen years at sea. The Royal Navy sold Constant at Chatham Dockyard in 1816.
HMS Speedwell was a mercantile vessel that the Admiralty purchased in 1780. During the American Revolutionary War she served at Gibraltar during the Great Siege. In 1796 she was converted to a brig. Although she did capture two French privateers and participate in an incident in which the Royal Navy violated Swedish neutrality, her service in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars was apparently relatively uneventful. A storm in February 1807 destroyed her, causing the loss of her entire crew.
Hebe was launched in 1804 at Leith. From 27 April 1804 to 30 October 1812 she served the Royal Navy as a hired armed ship and transport. She spent her entire naval career escorting convoys to the Baltic. Afterwards, she became a transport that an American privateer captured in March 1814.
Gordon Thomas Falcon was an officer in the Royal Navy. He first went to sea in 1794 as an able seaman on board HMS Sheerness. Quickly promoted to midshipman, Falcon transferred to HMS Repulse and then HMS Venerable, Admiral Adam Duncan's flagship, in which he served at the Battle of Camperdown.
The Thames-class frigate was a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate class of eight ships of the Royal Navy based on the Richmond-class frigate designed by William Bately. The ships were ordered to the older design, which was of a smaller type of ship compared to more modern designs, so that they could be built quickly and cheaply in time to assist in defending against Napoleon's expected invasion of Britain. The class received several design changes to the Richmond class, being built of fir instead of oak, with these changes making the class generally slower and less weatherly than their predecessors, especially when in heavy weather conditions. The first two ships of the class, Pallas and Circe, were ordered on 16 March 1804 with two more ordered on 1 May and the final four on 12 July. The final ship of the class, Medea, was cancelled on 22 October before construction could begin but the other seven ships of the class were commissioned between 1804 and 1806.
HMS Richmond was a Confounder-class gunbrig, launched at Itchenor in February 1806. She captured several small privateers and merchantmen off the Iberian peninsula before the Royal Navy sold her in 1814. After the Navy sold her, she became the mercantile Ben Jonson.
HMS Hussar was a 38-gun Lively-class frigate serving the Royal Navy launched in 1807 from Buckler's Hard. She was later upgraded to 46 guns.
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