HMS Crescent (1784)
HMS Crescent captures La Réunion off the Cotentin Peninsula, on 20 October 1793
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| History | |
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 Great Britain
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| Name: | HMS Crescent |
| Ordered: | 11 August 1781 |
| Builder: | John Nowlan and Thomas Calhoun, Bursledon |
| Laid down: | November 1781 |
| Launched: | 28 October 1784 |
| Commissioned: | May 1790 |
| Fate: | Wrecked |
| General characteristics As built | |
| Class and type: | Flora-Class (36-gun frigate) |
| Tons burthen: | 887 85⁄94 (bm) |
| Length: | 137 feet 2 1⁄2 inches (41.821 m) (overall) |
| Beam: | 38 feet 5 1⁄25 inches (11.710 m) |
| Depth: | 13 feet 3 1⁄2 inches (4.051 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sails |
| Sail plan: | Full rigged ship |
| Armament: |
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HMS Crescent was a 36-gun Flora-Class frigate of the British Royal Navy. Launched in 1784, she spent the first years of her service on blockade duty in the English Channel where she single-handedly captured the French frigate, La Reunion. In 1795, Crescent was part of a squadron commanded by George Elphinstone, that forced the surrender of a Batavian squadron at the capitulation of Saldanha Bay. After serving in the West Indies, Crescent returned to home waters and was wrecked off the coast of Jutland on 6 December 1808.
Britain's early preference for smaller warships was mainly because of a requirement to maintain a large navy and to keep the expense of doing so down. However, by the latter half of the 1770s, Britain was facing a war with France, Spain and the United States of America, and was in need of a more powerful type of frigate. In 1778, the Navy Board ordered the first of two new types of frigate, one with 38 guns, the Minerva-class, and the other with 36, the Flora-Class. Both had a main battery of 18 pounder guns. Crescent was ordered on 11 August 1781 and was to be of the 36-gun variety.
Built by John Nowlan and Thomas Calhoun of Bursledon, Crescent was 137 feet 2.5 inches (41.821 m) along her gundeck, had a 38 feet 5.5 inches (11.722 m) beam and a depth in the hold of 13 feet 3.5 inches (4.051 m). This gave her a capacity of 887 85⁄94 tons (bm). Launched on 28 October 1784, she was completed in January the following year, including copper sheathing of the hull, and was taken to Portsmouth where she was laid up in ordinary and not fitted for sea until 6 June 1790.Crescent was armed with a 26-gun main battery of 18 pounders on her gundeck, eight 9 pound guns and four 18 pound carronades on her quarterdeck, and two 9 pound guns and four 18 pound carronades on her fo'c'sle.
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