HMS Arethusa (1781)

Anson (left) and Arethusa (centre) capture Pomona
History
Great Britain
Name:	HMS Arethusa
Operator:	Royal Navy
Ordered:	1779
Laid down:	1779
Launched:	10 April 1781
Commissioned:	1 June 1781
Honours and awards:	Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Curacoa 1 Jany. 1807"
Fate:	Broken up, 1815
General characteristics
Class and type:	38-gun Minerva-class fifth-rate frigate
Tons burthen:	948 bm
Length:	141 ft 2 in (43.03 m)
Beam:	39 ft 0 in (11.89 m)
Depth of hold:	13 ft 9 in (4.19 m)
Sail plan:	Full-rigged ship
Complement:	280
Armament:	UD: 28 × 18-pounder guns QD: 8 × 9-pounder guns + 6 × 18-pounder carronades Fc: 2 × 9-pounder guns 4 × 18-pounder carronades

HMS Arethusa was a 38-gun Minerva-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy built at Bristol in 1781. She served in three wars and made a number of notable captures before she was broken up in 1815.

In February 1782, Arethusa captured the French ship Tartare, of fourteen 6-pounder guns. Tartarte was the former British privateer Tartar, which the French ships Aimable and Diligente had captured in September 1780. The Royal Navy took Tartare into service as True Briton.

On 20 August 1782, Arethusa recaptured the former British warship Thorn. She was armed with 18 guns and carrying a crew of 71 men. She was also carrying a cargo of 10,000 pounds of indigo and eight hogsheads of tobacco.

Arethusa was assigned to the British Western Frigate Squadron under Commodore John Borlase Warren. The squadron consisted of Flora, Captain Sir John Warren, Arethusa, Captain Sir Edward Pellew (later Lord Exmouth), Melampus, Captain Thomas Wells, Concorde, Sir Richard Strachan , and Nymphe, Captain George Murray. These were all 36-gun ships, apart from Nymphe and Arethusa with 38.

The Western Frigate Squadron engaged a French squadron off the Île de Batz on 23 April 1794. The squadron had sighted four strange sail which, upon closure, were identified as three French frigates and a corvette. The French squadron included the new French Frigate Pomone which, at 44 guns, was the most powerful ship in action that day. Flora and Arethusa were the first to close with Pomone and Babet, the corvette of 20 guns. The opening shots were fired just before 6 a.m. For about forty-five minutes, the four ships manoeuvred against one another without any severe damage being done. Then Flora lost her mainmast and was forced to drop astern. With Flora out of action, Pellew ordered Arethusa to close with the corvette. Arethusa’s carronades quickly destroyed her resistance. Leaving Babet to be finished by Melampus, Arethusa then engaged Pomone, coming to within pistol range at 8.30 a.m. and raking her repeatedly. Within twenty-five minutes one of the finest new French frigates was a ruin, her main and mizzen masts shot away and a fire burning on her aft deck. Just after 9 a.m., Pomone struck her colors.