HMS Active (1799)
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom
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| Name: | HMS Active |
| Ordered: | 27 April 1796 |
| Builder: | Chatham Dockyard (M/Shipwright Edward sison) |
| Laid down: | July 1798 |
| Launched: | 14 December 1799 |
| Renamed: | HMS Argo on 15 November 1833 |
| Reclassified: | On harbour service from February 1826 |
| Honours and awards: |
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| Fate: | Broken up in October 1860 |
| General characteristics as built | |
| Class and type: | 38-gun fifth-rate frigate |
| Tons burthen: | 1058 bm |
| Length: | 150 ft (45.7 m) (gundeck) |
| Beam: | 41 ft (12.5 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sails |
| Sail plan: | Full-rigged ship |
| Complement: | 284 (later 315) |
| Armament: |
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HMS Active was a Royal Navy fifth-rate frigate launched on 14 December 1799 at Chatham Dockyard. Sir John Henslow designed her as an improvement on the Artois-class frigates. She served during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, capturing numerous enemy vessels. Her crews participated in one campaign and three actions that would later qualify them for the Naval General Service Medal. She returned to service after the wars and finally was broken up in 1860.
Active was commissioned under Captain Charles Davers in December 1799 and convoyed East Indiamen in 1800. Then she began operating in the English Channel as part of the Channel Fleet. She later sailed with a convoy for the Mediterranean. In September 1800 she was under the temporary command of Captain John Giffard. On 2 October Active and Castor recaptured the brig Stout.
On 26 January 1801 Active captured the privateer Quinola after a two-hour chase. She was armed with 14 guns, 6 and 2-pounders, and carried a crew of 48 men. She had sailed from Morlaix the morning before and had not made any captures.
Giffard then removed to the third rate Magnificent on 23 February. Active served in the navy's Egyptian campaign between 8 March 1801 and 2 September, which qualified her officers and crew for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal that the Admiralty issued in 1847 to all surviving claimants.
From October Active came under Commander Thomas Shortland, also temporary. On 25 October she captured the Genoese pinco St Anna.
In 1802 Active sailed to Egypt with specie. On 7 March she arrived in Lisbon from Gibraltar, together with Constance. While the captains were ashore the police of the Guard threw the crews of their barges into subterranean holding cells. When the captains went to the office of the Captain of the Regiment of Lisbon, he had the two captains detained as well. Although the British consul and others remonstrated, the captains were held overnight before being released. The underlying issue may have been a violation of quarantine rules that applied to all vessels coming from the Mediterranean. After her return to Britain from Gibraltar on 13 July she sailed to the West Indies and then the waters off Ireland.
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Wikipedia