HMS Circe (1804)

History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Circe
Ordered	16 March 1804
Builder	Plymouth Dockyard
Laid down	June 1804
Launched	17 November 1804
Commissioned	November 1804
Honours and awards	Naval General Service Medal (NGSM) with clasps "Off the Pearl Rock 13 Decr. 1808"[1] "Martinique"[1]
Fate	Sold on 20 August 1814
General characteristics [2]
Class and type	32-gun fifth-rate Thames-class frigate
Tons burthen	67025⁄94 (bm)
Length	127 ft (38.7 m) (overall) 106 ft 10+7⁄8 in (32.6 m) (keel)
Beam	34 ft 4 in (10.5 m)
Depth of hold	11 ft 9 in (3.6 m)
Complement	220
Armament	Upper deck: 26 × 12-pounder guns QD: 8 × 24-pounder carronades Fc: 4 × 24-pounder carronades

HMS Circe was a Royal Navy 32-gun fifth-rate frigate, built by Master Shipwright Joseph Tucker at Plymouth Dockyard, and launched in 1804.^[2] She served in the Caribbean during the Napoleonic Wars, and participated in an action and a campaign for which in 1847 in the Admiralty authorised the issuance of the Naval General Service Medal with clasps. The action, off the Pearl Rock, near Saint-Pierre, Martinique, was a debacle that cost Circe dearly. However, she also had some success in capturing privateers and a French brig. She was sold in 1814.