HMS Hydra (1797)

HMS "Hydra" launched in 1797 was a fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, armed with a main battery of twenty-eight 18-pounder guns.

She was built to the design of the captured French frigate "Melpomene" (taken in 1794).

ervice

The "Hydra" was commissioned in April 1797 under Captain Sir Francis Laforey. She was present at the capture and destruction of the French 36-gun "La Confiante" on 31 May 1798 and was anchored at the Nore on Sunday 17 May 1801 (as recorded in the journal of Captain Matthew Flinders of HMS "Investigator" [ [http://image.sl.nsw.gov.au/Ebind/s1_24/a055/a055032/a055032.html Image] ] . Under the command of Captain George Mundy RN, for eight years from October 1802 to September 1810, she had an active career in the Napoleonic Wars, including the Blockade of Cadiz 1805-1806, the capture of the French brig "Le Furet" on 27 February 1806 [ [http://www.nmm.ac.uk/mag/pages/mnuExplore/PaintingDetail.cfm?ID=BHC0572 Maritime Art Greenwich] ] . She took part in the Peninsular War in 1807, including the bombardment of the defences of the Catalonian port of Bagur (Begu) on 7 August 1807 [ [http://www.nmm.ac.uk/mag/pages/mnuExplore/PaintingDetail.cfm?ID=BHC0577 Maritime Art Greenwich] ] . She was then out of commission for nearly three years. During a refit at Portsmouth in 1813, she was fitted as a troopship and recommissioned in July 1813 under Captain Joseph Digby. From then until finally paying off in 1817 she was employed as a troopship and, in that capacity, for example, Captain Robert Lawson's Company, 8th Battalion Royal Artillery, left Spain on the 22 July 1814, on board HMS "Hydra", bound for Plymouth [ [http://www.army.mod.uk/4regtra/battery_histories/97_bty_history.htm Regimental history] ] . The ship was sold in 1820.

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