HMS Daedalus (1811)
Hortense, sister-ship of Corona
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| History | |
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 Kingdom of Italy
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| Name: | Corona |
| Namesake: | Crown |
| Builder: | Battistella, Venice |
| Launched: | 27 December 1807 |
| Captured: | 13 March 1811 |
 United Kingdom
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| Name: | Daedalus |
| Namesake: | Daedalus, ancient Greek inventor |
| Acquired: | 13 March 1811 (by capture) |
| Fate: | Wrecked, and sunk on 2 July 1813 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Hortense-class frigate |
| Tons burthen: | 1093 81⁄94 (bm) |
| Length: |
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| Beam: | 40 ft 3 in (12.27 m) |
| Draught: | 5.9 m (19 ft) |
| Depth of hold: | 120 ft 0 1⁄2 in (36.589 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sails |
| Sail plan: | Ship |
| Complement: | British service: 274, later 315 |
| Armament: | |
Corona was a 40-gun Hortense-class frigate of the Italian Navy. The French built her in Venice in 1807 for the Venetian Navy. The British captured Corona at the Battle of Lissa and took her into the Royal Navy as HMS Daedalus. She grounded and sank off Ceylon in 1813 while escorting a convoy.
Corona was initially built in Venice for the Venetian Navy of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, using French plans. She was at Venice in 1809.
Under Captain Nicolò Pasqualigo she served as part of the Franco-Italian squadron operating in the Adriatic in 1811 under Commodore Bernard Dubourdieu. On 22 October she entered the port of Lissa and there captured several vessels.
Corona was one of the ships that Dubourdieu lost at Lissa on 13 March 1811 during the battle that resulted in his death. Corona's captain was also wounded and taken prisoner in the battle: in all she lost some 200 men killed and wounded. Following her capture by Active, a fire destroyed much of Corona's upper works and killed members of her crew and five members of the British prize crew before they could extinguish it. In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the issuance of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Lissa" to the still living survivors of the battle.
Her captors took her to Malta and then to Britain where they renamed her Daedalus, Daedalus having just been broken up, and took her into the Royal Navy. She was laid up for a year while her battle damage was repaired. The British considered her weakly built and considered giving her 32-pounder carronades in her battery to reduce the weight of her armament. Instead, they gave her 24-pounder Gover short-barreled guns. In October 1812 she was finally readied for sea under Captain Murray Maxwell, fresh from his own victory in the Adriatic.
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Wikipedia