HMS Latona (1781)

HMS Latona - Detail from a 1781 painting of Sir Hyde Parker by George Romney
History
Great Britain
Name	HMS Latona
Ordered	22 March 1779
Builder	Edward Greaves's yard at Limehouse
Laid down	October 1779
Launched	13 March 1781
Commissioned	March 1781
Honours and awards	Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Curacoa 1 Jany. 1807"[1]
Fate	1813 hulked. 1816 sold.
General characteristics
Tons burthen	944 20⁄94 (bm)
Length	141 ft 3 in (43.05 m)
Beam	38 ft 11+3⁄4 in (11.881 m)
Depth of hold	13 ft 6 in (4.11 m)
Propulsion	Sail
Complement	270 (raised to 280 on 25 April 1780)
Armament	UD: 28 × 18-pounder guns QD: 8 × 6-pounder guns + 4 × 18-pounder carronades Fc: 2 × 6-pounder guns + 4 × 18-pounder carronades Also 14 swivels

HMS Latona was a 36-gun, fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy that served during the American Revolutionary War, the French Revolutionary Wars, and the Napoleonic Wars. Shortly after her launch in 1781, she participated in the Battle of Dogger Bank against a Dutch squadron in the North Sea. In September 1782, Latona took part in the relief of Gibraltar and was the first ship in the convoy to pass through the Straits, when Richard Howe sent her ahead, to spy on the condition of the Franco-Spanish fleet in Algeciras Bay.

Late in 1792, when the British began re-arming in anticipation of another war with France, Latona underwent a refit and was recommissioned for the Channel Fleet. On 18 November 1793, she spotted, chased and engaged a squadron of six ships-of-the-line and some smaller vessels. She was unable to detain the enemy ships for long and they escaped before the rest of the British fleet could catch up. Still with Howe's fleet in May 1794, Latona and her compatriots were waiting for a large grain convoy bound for France from the United States. The British eventually found what they were looking for off Ushant on 28 May, and began a running battle which ended three days later on the Glorious First of June. Latona escaped serious damage despite being actively involved in the battle, coming to the assistance of the ship-of-the-line HMS Bellerophon and firing on two French 74s before towing her to safety.

Latona operated with a British squadron in the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland during August 1799, and was present at the Vlieter Incident, when a Dutch squadron surrendered without resistance. She subsequently served in the Baltic before being decommissioned and laid up in ordinary, shortly after the Treaty of Amiens. Hostilities resumed in May 1803, but Latona was not brought back into service until the end of 1804. In April 1806, she was sent to the West Indies and was part of a small squadron of four frigates that captured Curaçao, on 1 January 1807. Sailing into the harbour second, behind HMS Arethusa, she helped the British frigate capture the 36-gun Kenau Hasselar before putting men ashore to storm the town and its defences.

When the 40-gun Junon escaped a blockade of the Îles des Saintes in February 1809, she was pursued by Latona, a second frigate and two brigs. As the French frigate engaged the 14-gun HMS Superieure, Latona caught up and forced her to strike. A French expedition to the Caribbean under Amable Troude in April also found itself trapped when it stopped at the Îles des Saintes. When the islands were captured by a force under Major-General Frederick Maitland, the French squadron was forced to flee. Latona, the ship-of-the-line HMS Pompee and the frigate HMS Castor went after the 74-gun D'Hautpoul which struck two days later, when more British ships appeared on the horizon. Latona was converted to a troopship in May 1810 then hulked in 1813. In October that year, she began service as a receiving ship at Leith, then in December, she was recommissioned as a warship and used as the flagship of Admiral Sir William Johnstone Hope. She was sold in 1816.