HMS Active (1758)

History
Great Britain
Name:	HMS Active
Ordered:	6 May 1757
Builder:	Thomas Stanton, Rotherhithe
Laid down:	13 June 1757
Launched:	11 January 1758
Completed:	2 March 1758 at Deptford Dockyard
Commissioned:	January 1758
Fate:	Taken by the French off San Domingo 1 September 1778
France
Name:	Active
Acquired:	1778 by capture
Fate:	Broken up 1795
General characteristics [1]
Class & type:	28-gun Coventry-class sixth-rate frigate
Displacement:	850 tons (French)
Tons burthen:	594 ^87⁄94 bm
Length:	118 ft 4 in (36.1 m) (gundeck) 97 ft 5 ^3⁄8 in (29.7 m) (keel)
Beam:	33 ft 10 ^1⁄2 in (10.3 m)
Depth of hold:	10 ft 6 in (3.20 m)
Sail plan:	Full-rigged ship
Complement:	British service:200 officers and men French service:130 (peace) and 210 (war)
Armament:	British service Upperdeck: 24 × 9-pounder guns QD: 4 × 3-pounder guns 12 × ^1⁄2-pounder swivel guns French service (from 1780): Upper deck:24 x 9-pounder guns Spar deck:6 x 4-pounder guns + 6 x 18-pounder carronades (British) French service (from 1793): Upper deck:24 x 8-pounder guns Spar deck:6 x 4-pounder guns

HMS Active was a 28-gun Coventry-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, launched in 1758. She was one of the captors of the Spanish Spanish register ship Hermione. After Hermione surrendered, her captors found that she carried a large cargo of gold and silver that would lead to the greatest amount of prize money awarded to British warships.^[2] On 1 September 1778 two French frigates captured Active after a storm had dismasted her. The French Navy took Active into service under her existing name. She was broken up in 1795.

British career

In an action on 31 May 1762, Active, under Captain Herbert Sawyer, sailing in company with the 18-gun sloop Favourite under Philemon Pownoll, chased down and then captured Hermione off Cape St Mary while she was bound for Cadiz.^[3]

Capture

In 1778 Active was under the command of Captain William Williams. A hurricane in late August dismasted Active and her crew had to throw 11 guns overboard to lighten her. On 1 September she encountered the French frigates Charmante and Dédaigneuse off San Domingo. Williams fired two broadsides and then struck. Reportedly, the need to surrender caused Williams to die soon after "of mortification".^[4]

French career and fate

Active was condemned in November 1794 at Brest and broken up in 1795.^[1]

Citations and references

Citations

1. Winfield and Roberts (2015), p.122.
2. Bradt (2010), p.144.
3. The London Magazine. p. 396.
4. Hepper (1994), p.53.

References

• Robert Gardiner, The First Frigates, Conway Maritime Press, London 1992. ISBN 0-85177-601-9.
• Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650-1859. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot. ISBN 0-948864-30-3.
• David Lyon, The Sailing Navy List, Conway Maritime Press, London 1993. ISBN 0-85177-617-5.
• Winfield, Rif (2007). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714–1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 978-1844157006.
• Winfield, Rif & Stephen S. Roberts (2015) French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786 - 1861: Design Construction, Careers and Fates. (Seaforth Publishing). ISBN 9781848322042