HMS Druid (1783)

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

HMS Druid, by Nicholas Pocock
History
Great Britain
NameHMS Druid
Ordered20 March 1780
BuilderSydenham Teast, Tombes & Blaming, Bristol
Laid downAugust 1780
Launched16 June 1783
CompletedBy 11 November 1783
Honours and
awards		Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Egypt"[1]
FateBroken up in November 1813
General characteristics
Class and type32-gun Hermione-class fifth-rate frigate
Tons burthen71757⁄94 (bm)
Length
  • 129 ft 1+1⁄4 in (39.4 m) (overall)
  • 107 ft 9 in (32.8 m) (keel)
Beam35 ft 8 in (10.9 m)
Depth of hold12 ft 8 in (3.9 m)
Sail planFull-rigged ship
Complement220
Armament
  • Upper deck: 26 ×  12-pounder guns
  • QD: 4 ×  6-pounder guns + 8 ×  24-pounder carronades
  • Fc: 2 ×  6-pounder guns + 2 ×  24-pounder carronades

HMS Druid was a 32-gun Hermione-class fifth-rate frigate of the British Royal Navy, launched in 1783 at Bristol. She served in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, capturing numerous small prizes. One of her commanders, Captain Philip Broke, described Druid as a "point of honour ship", i.e., a ship too large to run but too small to fight. He and his biographer's view was that it was a disgrace to use a ship like her as a warship.[2] She was broken up in 1813, after a thirty-year career.

  1. ^ "No. 21077". The London Gazette. 15 March 1850. pp. 791–792.
  2. ^ Brighton and Broke (1866), p. 56.