HMS Dryad (1795)

HMS Dryad taking the French frigate Proserpine as a prize, 13 June 1796, by Thomas Whitcombe
History
Great Britain
NameHMS Dryad
Ordered24 May 1794
BuilderWilliam Barnard, Deptford
Laid downJune 1794
Launched4 June 1795
Decommissioned13 September 1832
Out of service1814 - 1827
Honours and
awards
Naval General Service Medal (NGSM) with clasp "Dryad 13 June 1796"[1]
Fate
  • Harbour receiving ship 1832 - 1859
  • Broken up 1859
General characteristics [2]
Class and type36-gun fifth-rate frigate
Tons burthen924694 (bm)
Length
  • 142 ft 8 in (43.5 m) (overall);
  • 119 ft 0 in (36.3 m) (overall)
Beam38 ft 2+12 in (11.6 m)
Depth of hold13 ft 5 in (4.1 m)
Sail planShip rigged
Complement264
Armament
  • Upper deck: 26 × 18-pounder guns
  • QD: 8 × 9-pounder guns + 6 × 32-pounder carronades
  • Fc: 2 × 9-pounder guns + 4 × 32-pounder carronades

HMS Dryad was a fifth-rate sailing frigate of the Royal Navy that served for 64 years, at first during the Napoleonic Wars and then in the suppression of slavery. She fought in a notable single-ship action in 1796 when she captured the French frigate Proserpine, an action that would later earn her crew the Naval General Service Medal. Dryad was broken up at Portsmouth in 1860.[2]

  1. ^ "No. 20939". The London Gazette. 26 January 1849. p. 238.
  2. ^ a b Winfield (2008), p. 146.