HMS Dryad (1795)
HMS Dryad taking the French frigate Proserpine as a prize, 13 June 1796, by Thomas Whitcombe
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| History | |
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| Name: | HMS Dryad |
| Ordered: | 24 May 1794 |
| Builder: | William Barnard, Deptford |
| Laid down: | June 1794 |
| Launched: | 4 June 1795 |
| Decommissioned: | 13 September 1832 |
| Out of service: | 1814 - 1827 |
| Honours and awards: |
Naval General Service Medal (NGSM) with clasp "Dryad 13 June 1796" |
| Fate: |
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| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | 36-gun fifth-rate frigate |
| Tons burthen: | 924 6⁄94 (bm) |
| Length: |
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| Beam: | 38 ft 2 1⁄2 in (11.6 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 13 ft 5 in (4.1 m) |
| Sail plan: | Ship rigged |
| Complement: | 264 |
| Armament: |
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HMS Dryad was a fifth-rate sailing frigate of the Royal Navy that served for 64 years, at first during the Napoleonic Wars and then in the suppression of slavery. She fought in a notable single-ship action in 1805 when she captured the French frigate Proserpine, an action that would later earn her crew the Naval General Service Medal. Dryad was broken up at Portsmouth in 1860.
Launched on 4 June 1795, Dryad was commissioned under Captain the Hon. Robert Allaster Cam Forbes (2nd son of Lord Forbes), who had previously been the captain of Southampton at the Glorious First of June. The brand new frigate may have been a reward for his services, but he did not live long to enjoy it; The Edinburgh Magazine reported his death (by drowning) as: "7 Oct, off the coast of Norway, the Honourable Capt. Robert Forbes, commander of his Majesty's ship Dryad".
Forbes' successor, Captain Lord Amelius Beauclerk, 3rd son of the Duke of St Albans, took command in December 1795.Dryad was then stationed off the coast of Ireland. On 2 May 1796, while Dryad was under acting Commander John Pullin, she captured the 14-gun cutter Abeille some 16 or 17 leagues off The Lizard.Abeille was three days out of Brest and had not taken anything. The Royal Navy took her into service under her existing name.
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Wikipedia