HMS Active (1758)

Active (right) engaging the Spanish frigate Hermione (centre) in 1762: sketch by Richard Wright
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 and 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 Upper deck: 24 × 9-pounder guns QD: 4 × 3-pounder guns 12 × 1⁄2-pounder swivel guns French service (from 1780): Upper deck: 24 × 9-pounder guns Spar deck: 6 × 4-pounder guns + 6 × 18-pounder carronades (British) French service (from 1793): Upper deck: 24 × 8-pounder guns Spar deck: 6 × 4-pounder guns

HMS Active was a 28-gun Coventry-class sixth-rate sailing frigate of the Royal Navy, launched in 1758. She was one of the captors of the Spanish ship Hermione. After Hermione surrendered, her captors found that she carried a large cargo of gold and silver that would lead to the greatest single amount of prize money awarded to the crew of a British warship.

On 1 September 1778 the French frigates Charmante and Dédaigneuse^[2] 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.