HMS Boreas (1774)

HMS Boreas was a modified Mermaid-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was first commissioned in August 1775 under Captain Charles Thompson.

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Boreas.
History
Great Britain
Name: HMS Boreas
Ordered: 25 December 1770
Builder: Hugh Blaydes & Mr Hodgson, Hull
Laid down: May 1771
Launched: 23 August 1774
Completed: 23 October 1775 at Chatham Dockyard
Commissioned: August 1775
Fate: Sold to break up at Sheerness in May 1802
General characteristics
Class and type: Modified Mermaid-class frigate
Displacement: 626 ​48⁄94 (bm)
Length:
  • 124 ft 6 in (37.95 m) (gundeck)
  • 103 ft 11 in (31.67 m) (keel)
Beam: 33 ft 8 in (10.26 m)
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Complement: 200 officers and men
Armament:
  • Upper deck: 24 × 9-pounder guns
  • QD: 4 × 3-pounder guns
  • 12 swivel guns

On 31 August 1779 Boreas, under the command of Captain Charles Thompson, captured the French corvette Compas, of eighteen 6-pounder guns, which was carrying a cargo of sugar.[1][Note 1] Compas, which was armed en flute, put up resistance for about 20 minutes, with the result that she suffered nine men killed and wounded before she struck.[3] Boreas was part of a squadron under the command of Rear Admiral of the Red Hyde Parker on the Jamaica station.

Horatio Nelson (who was created 1st Viscount Nelson 1801) was Senior Naval Officer of the Leeward Islands from 1784 to 1787 on the Boreas.

The Boreas was used as a slop ship from 1797 until its breakup.

Footnotes
Notes
  1. Compas had been launched on 12 September 1776. She had originally been intended as a training corvette for 40 students at the École de la Marine at Havre, but it closed in March, before she was launched. The Royal Navy did not take her into service. French sources report that she was armed with eighteen 8-pounder guns.[2]
Citations
  1. Clowes et al., (1897-1903), Vol. 4, p.31.
  2. Demerliac (1996), p.107, #742
  3. "No. 12050". The London Gazette. 18 January 1780. p. 1.

References
  • *Clowes, W. Laird, et al. (1897-1903) The royal navy: a history from the earliest times to the present. (Boston: Little, Brown and Co.; London: S. Low, Marston and Co.).
  • Demerliac, Alain (1996) La Marine De Louis XVI: Nomenclature Des Navires Français De 1774 À 1792. (Nice: Éditions OMEGA). ISBN 2-906381-23-3
  • Robert Gardiner, The First Frigates, Conway Maritime Press, London 1992. ISBN 0-85177-601-9.
  • David Lyon, The Sailing Navy List, Conway Maritime Press, London 1993. ISBN 0-85177-617-5.
  • Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 1-86176-246-1.
  • Winfield, Rif (2014). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1817–1863: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 978-1-84832-169-4.


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