HMS Orpheus (1773)
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom
|
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| Name: | HMS Orpheus |
| Operator: | Royal Navy |
| Ordered: | 1771 |
| Builder: | John Barnard, Harwich |
| Laid down: | 1771 |
| Launched: | 7 May 1773 |
| Commissioned: | 11 June 1773 |
| Fate: | Burnt to avoid capture at Newport, Rhode Island, 5 August 1778 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Lowestoff class frigate |
| Tons burthen: | 708 40/94 bm |
| Length: | 130 ft 0 in (39.62 m) |
| Beam: | 35 ft 1 in (10.69 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 12 ft 6 in (3.81 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sail |
| Complement: | 220– |
| Armament: |
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HMS Orpheus was a British Modified Lowestoffe-class fifth-rate frigate, ordered on 25 December 1770 as one of five fifth-rate frigates of 32 guns each contained in the emergency frigate-building programme inaugurated when the likelihood of war with Spain arose over the ownership of the Falkland Islands (eight sixth-rate frigates of 28 guns each were ordered at the same time). Sir Thomas Slade's design for the Lowestoffe was approved, but was revised to produce a more rounded midships section; the amended design was approved on 3 January 1771 by Edward Hawke's outgoing Admiralty Board, just before it was replaced. The contract to build the Orpheus was awarded to John Barnard at Harwich, the keel being laid in May 1771, and the frigate was launched 7 May 1773, at a cost of £12,654.16.11d. She sailed from Harwich on 24 May for Sheerness Dockyard, where she was completed and fitted out to the Navy Board's needs (for £835.7.7d) by 11 June.
Orpheus measured 130 ft 0 in on the gun deck and 108 ft 2.5 in on the keel, with a breadth of 35 ft 1 in (one inch wider than designed) and a depth in hold of 12 ft 6 in; a total of 708 40/94 tons BM. She mounted twenty-six 12-pounder guns on the upper deck, four 6-pounder guns on the quarterdeck, and two 6-pounder guns on the forecastle; she also carried twelve small (half-pounder) swivel guns. She was established with a complement of 220 men.
She served in the American Revolutionary War, enforcing the blockade of the Delaware Bay, and at the Battle of Turtle Gut Inlet, near Cape May, New Jersey. She was burnt to avoid capture on 5 August 1778 in Narragansett Bay during the Battle of Rhode Island.
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