HMS Amazon (1773)

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Amazon.

The Amazon entering the Harbour of St Lucia, a painting by John Thomas Serres
History
Great Britain
NameHMS Amazon
Ordered25 December 1770
BuilderRotherhithe
Laid down1771
Launched1773
Commissioned1777
FateBroken up 1794
General characteristics as built
Class and type32-gun fifth-rate Amazon-class frigate (1773) frigate
Length
  • 126 ft 4 in (38.51 m) (gundeck)
  • 104 ft 6 in (31.85 m) (keel)
Beam35 ft 2 in (10.72 m)
Draught
  • 8 ft 8 in (2.64 m) (forwards)
  • 12 ft 10 in (3.91 m) (aft)
Depth of hold12 ft 2+1⁄2 in (3.721 m)
Sail planFull-rigged ship
Complement220
Armament
  • Upper deck: 26 × 12-pounder guns
  • QD: 4 × 6-pounder guns + 4 × 18-pounder carronades
  • Fc: 2 × 6-pounder guns + 2 × 18-pounder carronades

HMS Amazon was a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, armed with a main battery of twenty-six 12 pounders (5.4 kilograms) and launched at Rotherhithe shipyard in 1773. She was first commissioned in February 1776 for war in America where she took part in operations against New York. Returning to England in February 1779, Amazon underwent a refit before serving in the English Channel and North Sea. In April 1780, she sailed to the Leeward Islands where, in October, she was almost wrecked in a hurricane.

Amazon was in Samuel Hood's squadron on 29 April 1781, when it engaged the French fleet under François Joseph Paul de Grasse at the Battle of Fort Royal. In May 1781, she was part of a squadron under Francis Samuel Drake, which arrived too late to prevent the capture of Tobago. After further service in the Leeward Islands and North American waters, Amazon sailed to England, reaching Portsmouth in February 1782, where she paid off. Taken to Plymouth in 1784, Amazon was fitted for ordinary. She was used there as a receiving ship in 1791 and was broken up in June 1794.