HMS Aetna (1803)

Ship's plans for Etna (Aetna)
United Kingdom
Name	Success
Builder	Arundel,[1] equally Littlehampton,[2]
Launched	1803
Fate	Sold 1803
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Aetna
Namesake	Mount Etna
Acquired	by purchase, 1803
Commissioned	December 1803
Decommissioned	Late 1815
Honours and awards	Naval General Service Medal with clasps Basque Roads 1809[3] Boat Service 23 Nov. 1810[4] The Potomac 17 Augt. 1814[5]
Fate	Sold, 1816 and disposed in Woolwich
United Kingdom
Name	Success
Acquired	1816 by purchase
Fate	Wrecked 1823
General characteristics [6]
Type	Bomb vessel
Tons burthen	366,[2] or 367,[1] or 368 (bm)
Length	Overall:102 ft 0 in (31.1 m) Keel:81 ft 0 in (24.7 m)
Beam	29 ft 2+1⁄2 in (8.9 m)
Depth of hold	12 ft 6 in (3.8 m)
Propulsion	Sails
Complement	67
Armament	8 × 24-pounder carronades 1 × 13 in (330 mm) mortar 1 × 10 in (250 mm) mortar

HMS Aetna (or HMS Etna) was the mercantile Success launched in 1803 at Littlehampton. The Admiralty purchased her in 1803 for conversion into a Royal Navy bomb vessel. Aetna participated in the second Battle of Copenhagen in 1807 and the Battle of the Basque Roads in 1809. Later, she participated in the attack on Fort McHenry in the Battle of Baltimore and the bombardment of Fort Washington, Maryland in 1814, during the War of 1812. The Navy sold her in 1816 and she returned to mercantile service under her original name. She sailed to Calcutta, to Rio de Janeiro, and more locally until she was wrecked in 1823.