HMS Mermaid was a 32-gun Active-class fifth-rate

Fifth-rate

In Britain's Royal Navy during the classic age of fighting sail, a fifth rate was the penultimate class of warships in a hierarchal system of six "ratings" based on size and firepower.-Rating:...

 frigate

Frigate

A frigate is any of several types of warship, the term having been used for ships of various sizes and roles over the last few centuries.In the 17th century, the term was used for any warship built for speed and maneuverability, the description often used being "frigate-built"...

 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...

 .

Design and construction

Mermaid was one of the eight ship Active class, designed by Edward Hunt. She was initially ordered from the shipwright George White, of Woolwich Dockyard Shipwright on 27 August 1778, and laid down in September 1778, but the order moved to John Jenner in April 1779. On 21 March 1782 the order was canceled and moved instead to Thomas Pollard, at Sheerness Dockyard, and the frigate was again laid down, on 29 July 1782. She was launched on 29 November 1782, and commissioned for the ordinary on 30 December 1784. She was commissioned again between June and August 1790 for sea. She had cost £12,854 to build, with another £2,539 paid for her fitting out in 1790. The Woolwich work had cost £1,807.

Early career

Mermaid was commissioned in June 1790 during the Spanish Armament under Captain Cuthbert Collingwood

Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron Collingwood

Vice Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron Collingwood was an admiral of the Royal Navy, notable as a partner with Lord Nelson in several of the British victories of the Napoleonic Wars, and frequently as Nelson's successor in commands.-Early years:Collingwood was born in Newcastle upon Tyne...

. She sailed to the West Indies, but returned in April 1791, and was then paid off. She was again fitted out, this time at Portsmouth

Portsmouth

Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...

 for £3,446, between February and May 1793, commissioning in March that year under Captain John Trigge. She was assigned to the Mediterranean, departing Britain on 22 May 1793. On 27 May she and captured the 20-gun privateer

Privateer

A privateer is a private person or ship authorized by a government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping during wartime. Privateering was a way of mobilizing armed ships and sailors without having to spend public money or commit naval officers...

 Général Washington, and on 30 May 1793 Mermaid and captured the 16-gun privateer Angélique. Mermaid also captured a 14-gun privateer in June that year. Mermaid then joined Admiral Samuel Hood's

Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood

Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood was a British Admiral known particularly for his service in the American War of Independence and French Revolutionary Wars...

 fleet at Toulon

Toulon

Toulon is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department in the former province of Provence....

.

The Caribbean

She came under the command of Captain Henry Warre in June 1794, and then sailed to the Leeward Islands

Leeward Islands

The Leeward Islands are a group of islands in the West Indies. They are the northern islands of the Lesser Antilles chain. As a group they start east of Puerto Rico and reach southward to Dominica. They are situated where the northeastern Caribbean Sea meets the western Atlantic Ocean...

 on 5 May 1794. Then Mermaid captured the 10-gun Brutus

French brig Brutus (1793)

The Brutus was a 10-gun brig of the French Navy.In 1794, she ferried a new ambassador to the USA to replace Edmond-Charles Genêt, and to bring despatches to Van Stabel.She was captured by HMS Mermaid off Grenada on 10 October 1795....

 off Grenada

Grenada

Grenada is an island country and Commonwealth Realm consisting of the island of Grenada and six smaller islands at the southern end of the Grenadines in the southeastern Caribbean Sea...

 on 10 October 1795, followed by the capture of the 18-gun French schooner Républicaine on 14 October 1795. shared by agreement.

In February 1796 Mermaid briefly came under the command of Captain Charles Davers, but by April Robert Otway

Robert Otway

Admiral Sir Robert Waller Otway, 1st Baronet, GCB was a senior Royal Navy officer of the early nineteenth century who served extensively as a sea captain during the Napoleonic War and later supported the Brazilian cause during the Brazilian War of Independence...

 had succeeded Danvers. Mermaid fought an action with the 40-gun La Vengeance off Guadeloupe

Guadeloupe

Guadeloupe is an archipelago located in the Leeward Islands, in the Lesser Antilles, with a land area of 1,628 square kilometres and a population of 400,000. It is the first overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. As with the other overseas departments, Guadeloupe...

 on 8 August 1796. She and captured the 16-gun Général Leveau off San Domingo on 10 December 1796, followed by the privateer Liberté Générale on 7 March 1797.

On 20 April 1797 Mermaid formed part of a squadron under Captain Hugh Pigot

Hugh Pigot (Royal Navy captain)

Hugh Pigot was an officer in the Royal Navy. Through his connections and their patronage he was able to rise to the rank of captain, despite apparently poor leadership skills and a reputation for brutality. While he was captain of Hermione he eventually provoked his men to mutiny...

, consisting of the 32-gun frigates, and , the 14 gun brig and the cutter . The squadron cut out nine ships at Jean-Rabel

Jean-Rabel

Jean-Rabel is a city located west of the city of Port de Paix and east of the city of Mole st Niclas Môle-Saint-Nicolas Arrondissement, in the Nord-Ouest Department of Haiti.It has 125,745 inhabitants....

 without suffering any casualties.

English Channel and the Mediterranean

She came under the command of James Newman-Newman in 1797, helping to capture the 12-gun privateer Aventure off Belleisle on 31 December 1797.

While patrolling off the Penmarks on 29 June 1798 Mermaid, and came across the French frigate Seine

HMS Seine (1798)

Seine was a 38-gun Seine-class French frigate that the Royal Navy captured in 1798 and commissioned as the fifth rate HMS Seine. On 20 August 1800, Seine captured the French ship Vengeance in a single ship action that would win for her crew the Naval General Service Medal...

. Seine was bound for Lorient

Lorient

Lorient, or L'Orient, is a commune and a seaport in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France.-History:At the beginning of the 17th century, merchants who were trading with India had established warehouses in Port-Louis...

. The British squadron manoeuvred to cut her off from land, but Mermaid soon lost contact, leaving Pique, under Captain Milne, and Jason under Captain Charles Stirling

Charles Stirling

Sir Charles Stirling was a vice-admiral in the Royal Navy.-Early life and career:Charles Stirling was born in London on 28 April 1760 and baptised at St. Albans on 15 May. The son of Admiral Sir Walter Stirling, he was born into a family with a long and proud naval tradition. Stirling joined the...

, to chase down the Frenchman.

The chase lasted all day, until 11 o'clock at night when Pique was able to range alongside the Seine and fire a broadside. The two exchanged fire for several hours, with the lighter Pique suffering considerable damage to her masts and rigging. Jason then ranged up and Captain Stirling called upon Milne to anchor, but Milne did not hear. Determined to see the Seine captured, Pique pressed on but suddenly ran aground. The Jason too ran aground before she could swing way. Furthermore, the Seine was observed to have grounded and to have lost all her masts in the process. As the tide rose the Seine was able to swing into a position to rake the two British ships. With difficulty the sailors of Jason dragged several guns to the bow in order to exchange fire, while the Pique was able to bring her foremost guns to bear. Under fire from both British ships, the appearance on the scene of the Mermaid convinced the French to surrender. Jason had lost seven killed and 12 wounded, while Pique sustained casualties of one killed, one missing and six wounded. Seine however had 170 killed and 100 wounded.

Mermaid was next involved in the capture of the French frigate Loire

French frigate Loire (1797)

The Loire was a 44-gun frigate of the French Navy.-French service and capture:She took part in the Expédition d'Irlande, and in the Battle of Tory Island, where she battled , , and . After the battle, Loire and Sémillante escaped into Black Sod Bay, where they hoped to hide until they had a clear...

 in the aftermath of the Battle of Tory Island

Battle of Tory Island

The Battle of Tory Island, was a naval action of the French Revolutionary Wars, fought on 12 October 1798 between French and British squadrons off the northwest coast of Donegal, then in the Kingdom of Ireland...

.

Mermaid was detached to operate off Corunna

A Coruña

A Coruña or La Coruña is a city and municipality of Galicia, Spain. It is the second-largest city in the autonomous community and seventeenth overall in the country...

 and together with HMS Sylph, captured the Spanish packet

Packet ship

A "packet ship" was originally a vessel employed to carry post office mail packets to and from British embassies, colonies and outposts. In sea transport, a packet service is a regular, scheduled service, carrying freight and passengers...

 Golondrevia on 24 March 1799. In April 1799 Captain Robert Dudley Oliver

Robert Dudley Oliver

Admiral Robert Dudley Oliver was a senior officer of the British Royal Navy during the early nineteenth century, who served in the American Revolutionary War, the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars with distinction, seeing action several times during his career, particularly with...

, replaced Newman-Newman and commanded Mermaid off France and Italy in the Western Mediterranean.

On 1 June 1800 about 12 leagues

League (unit)

A league is a unit of length . It was long common in Europe and Latin America, but it is no longer an official unit in any nation. The league originally referred to the distance a person or a horse could walk in an hour...

 southward of Les Hières she captured the brig , which was eight hours out of Toulon. She was a brig of six guns, four of which she had thrown overboard during the chase, and had a crew of 43 men under the command of Ensigne de vaisseau Francis Xavier Jeard. She had been a bomb vessel

Bomb vessel

A bomb vessel, bomb ship, bomb ketch, or simply bomb was a type of wooden sailing naval ship. Its primary armament was not cannon —although bomb vessels carried a few cannon for self-defence—but rather mortars mounted forward near the bow and elevated to a high angle, and projecting their fire in a...

 but had left her mortar at Toulon. She was carrying supplies for Malta when Mermaid intercepted her. The British took Cruelle into service under her existing name.

Mermaid then returned to Britain and was paid off and placed in ordinary

Reserve fleet

A reserve fleet is a collection of naval vessels of all types that are fully equipped for service but are not currently needed, and thus partially or fully decommissioned. A reserve fleet is informally said to be "in mothballs" or "mothballed"; an equivalent expression in unofficial modern U.S....

 at Woolwich in August 1802.

America

Mermaid was fitted out again between June and September 1803, commissioning in August that year under Captain Askew Hollis. She spent the period between 1804 and 1807 at Jamaica

Jamaica

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

. She was at Havanna when war with Spain was declared and successfully brought the British ships in the harbour to safety. She was then on the Halifax Station, finally being paid off again in August 1807. She was refitted at Woolwich between September 1808 and March 1809, recommissioning in February 1809 under Captain Major Henniker. She then sailed on 12 June 1809 with a troop convoy bound for Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

.

Troopship

She was recommissioned as an 18-gun troopship

Troopship

A troopship is a ship used to carry soldiers, either in peacetime or wartime...

 in January 1810, and was fitted out as a troopship at Chatham Dockyard

Chatham Dockyard

Chatham Dockyard, located on the River Medway and of which two-thirds is in Gillingham and one third in Chatham, Kent, England, came into existence at the time when, following the Reformation, relations with the Catholic countries of Europe had worsened, leading to a requirement for additional...

between October 1810 and February 1811. She came under the command of Commander William Percy in 1811, and by April 1812 was under Commander David Dunn, serving in the Mediterranean.