HMS Dido (1784)
Capture of La Minerve off Toulon, 24 June 1795 by Thomas Whitcombe. In the foreground the damaged and dismasted Minerve duels with HMS Dido, while in the background Artémise flees, pursued by Lowestoffe.
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| History | |
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 Great Britain
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| Name: | HMS Dido |
| Ordered: | 5 June 1782 |
| Builder: |
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| Laid down: | September 1782 |
| Launched: | 27 November 1784 |
| Completed: | 15 March 1785 |
| Commissioned: | September 1787 |
| Honors and awards: |
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| Fate: | Sold to be broken up, 3 April 1817 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tons burthen: | 595 39⁄94 (bm) |
| Length: |
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| Beam: | 33 ft 7 in (10.24 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 11 ft 0 in (3.35 m) |
| Sail plan: | Full-rigged ship |
| Complement: | 200 officers and men |
| Armament: | |
HMS Dido was one of the twenty-seven Enterprise class of 28-gun sixth-rate frigates in service with the Royal Navy during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Dido was commissioned in September 1787 under the command of Captain Charles Sandys. She participated in a notable action for which her crew would later be awarded the Naval General Service Medal; her participation in a campaign resulted in the award of another. Dido was sold for breaking up in 1817.
On 9 August 1793 Dido was patrolling off Norway when she encountered a French privateer. She drove the vessel ashore, and Lieutenant Edward Hamilton took a boat and eight men to take possession. The privateer was the Vrai Patriote, of 13 guns and a crew of 45 men, whose crew had set her on fire before escaping ashore. Hamilton and his men extinguished the fire, the setting of which Hamilton considered a "base attempt" as had it been successful it would have deprived the British of prize money. Unwilling to let the matter go, Hamilton and his men pursued the privateers inland and captured 13 of them. The British then brought out the prize, for which prize money was paid in July 1799.
Hamilton and his prize crew of two midshipmen and twenty sailors were taking Vrai Patriote back when they encountered the cutter Nimble. Nimble had been looking for privateer, and not realizing that the Dido had captured her, attempted to take Vrai Patriote. Hamilton hoisted British colors over the French and sent his crew below decks while he attempted to convince Nimble that the French vessel was now in British hands. Nimble, unconvinced, fired several broadsides into Vrai Patriote causing damage but no casualties. Eventually Nimble was convinced and ceased fire. Nimble herself suffered casualties when one of her guns burst.
Dido captured Révolution, a French vessel possibly a navy corvette, on 8 October 1794 off Porto Mauruzio between Nice and Genoa.
Dido captured the xebec Témėraire on 14 March 1795. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Temeraire, later renamed to HMS Transfer.
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Wikipedia