HMS Perseus (1776)

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Perseus.

HMS Perseus was a 20-gun (later 26-gun) sixth-rate Sphinx-class post ship of the Royal Navy which saw service as a privateer-hunter in the American Revolutionary War between 1776 and 1783, and as a bomb vessel in the French Revolutionary Wars between 1794 and 1801.

1796 painting of Perseus' sister ship HMS Camilla by John Thomas Serres}
History
Great Britain
Name	HMS Perseus
Ordered	30 October 1775
Builder	John Randal and Company, Rotherhithe
Laid down	November 1775
Launched	20 March 1776
Completed	26 May 1776 at Deptford Dockyard
Commissioned	March 1776
Decommissioned	September 1805
Reclassified	Bomb vessel in 1798
Honours and awards	Siege of Charleston, 1780
Fate	Broken up at Sheerness Dockyard, September 1805
General characteristics
Class & type	20-gun sixth-rate Sphinx-class post ship
Tons burthen	43188⁄94 bm
Length	108 ft 1 in (32.9 m) (gun deck) 89 ft 6.5 in (27.3 m) (keel)
Beam	30 ft 1.5 in (9.2 m)
Depth of hold	9 ft 8 in (2.9 m)
Sail plan	Full-rigged ship
Complement	140
Armament	20-26 guns comprising: Upper deck: 20 × 9-pounder guns Quarterdeck: 4 × 12-pounder carronades (from 1794) Forecastle: 2 × 12-pounder carronades (from 1794)

Naval service

Launched in 1776, Perseus' early duties were as a hunter of American and French privateers which were disrupting British merchant trade off the coast of North America. In this role she secured five victories at sea over enemy vessels. In 1780 she was part of the British naval forces engaged in the six-week Siege of Charleston which culminated in the surrender of the Amrican garrison. Returning to her previous role, Perseus secured another three victories over privateers before she was paid off and decommisisoned at the conclusion of the War in 1782.^[1]

Recommissioned for peacetime service in 1783, Perseus assisted in protecting British merchant vessels in the English Channel and Irish Sea, but was repeatedly forced from service for refit and repair. In the lead up to the French Revolutionary Wars, Perseus was refitted as a bomb vessel capable to conducting naval bombardment of French ports. Despite her change of role, Perseus secured one further vitory at sea over an enemy privateer, capturing the 16-gun San Lion in 1798. A year later she was part of Royal Navy squadrons in action against land-based targets, off Alexandria during the British response to France's Egyptian Campaign, and against the French-aligned Parthenopean Republic in southern Italy. In 1803 she was also engaged in the Royal Navy's blockade and bombardment of the French port of Dieppe. ^[1]

Decommissioned at the conclusion of the French Revolutionarey Wars, she was broken up for scrap at Sheerness Dockyard in 1805.^[1]