HMS Frolic was a 18-gun Cruizer-class

Cruizer class brig-sloop

The Cruizer class was an 18-gun class of brig-sloops of the Royal Navy. Brig-sloops were the same as ship-sloops except for their rigging...

 brig-sloop of the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

. She was built by Boole, of Bridport

Bridport

Bridport is a market town in Dorset, England. Located near the coast at the western end of Chesil Beach at the confluence of the River Brit and its Asker and Simene tributaries, it originally thrived as a fishing port and rope-making centre...

 and was launched on 9 February 1806. In 1812 the American sloop captured her after a fierce fight, but later that day the British recaptured Frolic and captured Wasp. Frolic was broken up in 1813.

Caribbean

Frolic, under Commander Thomas Whinyates, participated in the Invasion of Martinique

Invasion of Martinique (1809)

The invasion of Martinique of 1809 was a successful British amphibious operation against the French West Indian island of Martinique that took place between 30 January and 24 February 1809 during the Napoleonic Wars...

 in February 1809, and then in the invasion of Guadeloupe

Invasion of Guadeloupe (1810)

The Invasion of Guadeloupe was a British amphibious operation fought between 28 January and 6 February 1810 over control of the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe during the Napoleonic Wars. The island was the final remaining French colony in the Americas, following the systematic invasion and capture...

 In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the issuance of the Naval General Service Medal with clasps "Martinique" and "Guadaloupe".

On 14 June 1810, Frolic and Freya (or Freija) arrived at Sombrero Island

Sombrero, Anguilla

Sombrero, also known as Hat Island, is the northernmost island of the Lesser Antilles in position 18° 60'N, 63° 40'W. It lies north west of Anguilla across the Dog and Prickly Pear Passage. The distance to Dog Island, the closest island of Anguilla, is . Sombrero is long north-south, and wide....

 in the West Indies. The Admiralty had sent them there to assess separately and independently the survival prospects for someone landed at this place without food and water. Captain Warwick Lake

Viscount Lake

Viscount Lake, of Delhi and Laswary and of Aston Clinton in the County of Buckingham, was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1807 for the prominent soldier Gerard Lake, 1st Baron Lake. He was Commander-in-Chief of India from 1801 to 1805 and from 1805 to 1807...

 of Recruit

HMS Recruit (1806)

HMS Recruit was an 18-gun Cruizer class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, launched in 1806 at Sandwich, Kent. She is best known for an act of pique by Cmdr. Warwick Lake, who marooned a seaman, and for an inconclusive but hard fought ship action under Cmdr. Charles John Napier against the French...

 had marooned an impressed seaman, Robert Jeffrey, there on 13 December 1807, and was now the subject of an Admiralty investigation. They reported back that survival prospects were poor. As it turned out, Jeffrey was alive, a passing American vessel having rescued him. Still, a court-martial dismissed Lake from the Royal Navy.

Frolic vs. Wasp

In October 1812 the Frolic was serving on the North American station, protecting a convoy of six merchantmen off Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

. On a passage from the Bay of Honduras, a gale dispersed the convoy and carried away Frolics main top yard and sprung her main top mast.

On 18 October, while the convoy was reassembling and Frolic was working on the damage, a strange sail was spotted. Frolic sent the convoy on its way and hoisted a Spanish ensign as a ruse to buy time.

The strange sail turned out to be the , of 18 guns, commanded by Jacob Jones

Jacob Jones

Commodore Jacob Nicholas Jones was an officer in the United States Navy during the Quasi-War with France, the Barbary Wars, and the War of 1812.-Biography:...

. The ships closed. Initially Frolic fired more rapidly but less accurately, but the gale damage had rendered her unmanageable. Within 40 minutes the Wasp had repeatedly raked Frolic, killing 15 and wounding 43 out of the 120 seamen and boys aboard, including Whinyates. The Americans boarded Frolic and all resistance stopped. The Americans had 5 killed and 5 wounded.

Frolic was only temporarily in American hands. Later that day the British 74-gun captured both ships. Captain John Poo Beresford

Sir John Beresford, 1st Baronet

Admiral Sir John Poo Beresford, 1st Baronet, GCH was an officer in the Royal Navy who rose to the rank of Second Sea Lord. He was a Tory politician in the United Kingdom.-Naval career:...

of Poictiers restored Whinyates to command of Frolic. The subsequent court martial for the loss of the ship honorably acquitted Whinyates, his officers and his men.

Fate

Frolic was recommissioned later in October under Lieutenant Andrew Mitchell (acting). His commission as commander was confirmed on 24 August 1813.

Frolic continued in service until being broken up at Portsmouth in November 1813.