HMS Briton (1812)
HMS Briton off Rio de Janeiro
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| History | |
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 United Kingdom
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| Name: | HMS Briton |
| Owner: | Royal Navy |
| Ordered: | 28 September 1808 |
| Builder: | Chatham Dockyard |
| Laid down: | February 1810 |
| Launched: | 11 April 1812 |
| Fate: | Broken up 18 September 1860 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Leda class Fifth-rate 44 gun frigate |
| Tons burthen: | 1,079 81⁄94 (bm) |
| Length: | 149 feet 11 inches (45.7 m) (overall) *125 feet 3 3⁄4 inches (38.2 m) (keel) |
| Beam: | 40 feet 3 inches (12.3 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 12 feet 8 1⁄2 inches (3.9 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sail |
| Sail plan: | Fully rigged |
| Complement: | 284 |
| Armament: |
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HMS Briton was a 38-gun fifth-rate frigate of the British Royal Navy's Leda class. She was ordered on 28 September 1808 and her keel laid down at Chatham Dockyard in February 1810. Navy veteran Sir Thomas Staines was appointed her first captain on 7 May 1812 but did not join the ship until 17 June 1813 owing to his being at sea aboard HMS Hamadryad. After a period of privateering in the Bay of Biscay, the vessel set sail for South America where during the course of several missions she unexpectedly encountered the last member of the crew that had seized HMS Bounty from its captain Lieutenant William Bligh during the 1789 mutiny aboard the ship. With the coming of the Pax Britannica in 1815, Briton undertook various voyages before she was broken up in 1860.
At the time of HMS Briton's launch, the United Kingdom was at war with the United States and France such that vessels of either country were considered legitimate prizes of war. As a result, on 11 December 1812 together with the frigate HMS Andromache, Briton took the American brig Leader from Boston bound for Bordeaux, France with a cargo of fish, and then on 10 December the French privateer San Souci from St Malo. San Souci of 14 guns, had a crew of 120 men.San Souci arrived at Plymouth on 20 December. Lloyd's List described her as being of 16 guns and having a crew of 70. It further reported that Andromache and Briton had chased Sans Souci for 12 hours before catching her. San Souci had been out six weeks and had captured two British vessels, Speculation, which had been sailing from Cork to Lisbon, and the South Seas whaler Frederick. Sans Souci had only captured Frederick after an hour-long engagement in which Frederick lost her mate killed, and had "Body" and three or four other crew severely wounded.Sans Souci had on board the crew from Frederick.
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