HMS Experiment (1784)

Experiment's sister ship HMS Argo
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Experiment
Ordered	13 July 1780
Builder	Robert Fabian, East Cowes
Cost	£17,364[1]
Laid down	June 1781
Launched	27 November 1784
Completed	11 January 1785
Commissioned	January 1793
Fate	Sold 8 September 1836
General characteristics [2]
Class and type	Roebuck-class fifth-rate
Tons burthen	890 35⁄94 (bm)
Length	140 ft 0+1⁄2 in (42.7 m) (gundeck) 115 ft 8 in (35.3 m) (keel)
Beam	38 ft 0+1⁄2 in (11.6 m)
Draught	9 ft 5 in (2.9 m) (forward) 13 ft 9 in (4.2 m) (aft)
Depth of hold	16 ft 4 in (5 m)
Propulsion	Sails
Complement	300 (155 from 1798)
Armament	1793 Lower deck: 20 × 18-pounder guns Upper deck: 22 × 12-pounder guns Quarterdeck: Nil Forecastle: 2 × 6-pounder guns 1798 Lower deck: Nil Upper deck: 16 × 9-pounder guns Quarterdeck: 4 × 6-pounder guns Forecastle: Nil

HMS Experiment was a 44-gun fifth-rate Roebuck-class ship of the Royal Navy launched in 1784. The ship spent her entire career serving as a troop ship, store ship, or lazarette. Initially stationed in the West Indies, Experiment participated in the Battle of Martinique and Invasion of Guadeloupe in 1794. While travelling to Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1797, the ship captured several high-value Spanish merchant ships, and subsequently returned to Britain. In 1801 she travelled to the Mediterranean Sea where she participated in the Egypt Campaign, with her boats serving as landing craft at the Battle of Abukir.

From 1803 onwards Experiment only served within British waters, initially as a guard ship at Lymington, and then as a harbour store ship at Falmouth. In 1815 the ship was converted into a lazarette, being stationed at Liverpool from 1817 until 1834. The ship was sold two years later.