HMS Daedalus (1811)

HMS "Daedalus" was a Royal Navy fifth rate frigate, captured from the Italian Navy at the Battle of Lissa in 1811.

"Daedalus" was originally the Italian ship "Corona", which served as part of the French squadron operating in the Adriatic in 1811 under Commodore Bernard Dubourdieu. "Corona" was one of the ships lost by Dubourdieu at Lissa on 13 March 1811 during the battle, at which the French commodore was killed. Following her capture by HMS "Active" in which "Corona"'s captain was also killed, and the ship was almost destroyed by a fire that destroyed much of her upper works and killed a number of her crew and British prize crew before it was extinguished.

Taken to Malta and the Britain by her captors, "Corona" was renamed after the ancient Greek inventor Daedalus and commissioned into the Royal Navy, laying in reserve for a year while her battle damage was repaired. In late 1812 she was finally readied for sea under Captain Murray Maxwell, fresh from his own victory in the Adriatic. Six months after her first commission however, on 1 July 1813, "Daedalus" was escorting a number of East Indiamen off Ceylon when she grounded on a shoal, fatally damaging her bottom. Although Maxwell and his crew attempted numerous remedies, "Daedalus" could not be saved and the following day the crew were evacuated to the Indiamen. Within five minutes of Maxwell's departure, "Daedalus" capsized and sank.

References

*Colledge
* [http://www.ageofnelson.org/MichaelPhillips/info.php?ref=0689 Ships of the Old Navy]
*cite book
last = Grocott
first = Terence
authorlink =
year = 2002 [1997]
chapter =
title = Shipwrecks of the Revolutionary & Napoleonic Era
publisher = Caxton Editions
location =
id = ISBN 1-84067-164-5