HMS Niemen (1809)

Niemen
History
France
Name	Niémen
Namesake	Neman River
Builder	Chantier Courau Frères, Bordeaux
Laid down	May 1807
Launched	8 November 1808
In service	January 1809
Captured	6 April 1809, by the Royal Navy
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Niemen[1]
Acquired	5 April 1809
Fate	Broken up in September 1815
General characteristics
Class and type	38-gun fifth-rate frigate
Tons burthen	1,093+37⁄94 (bm)
Length	154 ft 2+1⁄2 in (47.0 m) (gundeck) 129 ft 1+3⁄4 in (39.4 m) (keel)
Beam	39 ft 10+3⁄4 in (12.2 m)
Draught	12 ft 5+7⁄8 in (3.8 m)
Sail plan	Full-rigged ship
Complement	300 (later 315)
Armament	French service 28 × 18-pounder guns 8 × 8-pounder guns 8 × 36-pounder carronades British service Upper deck: 28 × 18-pounders QD: 14 × 32-pounder carronades Fc: 2 × 9-pounder guns + 2 × 32-pounder carronades

HMS Niemen was a Royal Navy 38-gun fifth-rate frigate. She began her career as the Niémen, a 44-gun French Navy Armide-class frigate, designed by Pierre Rolland. She was only in French service for a few months when in 1809 she encountered some British frigates. The British captured her and she continued in British service as Niemen. In British service she cruised in the Atlantic and North American waters, taking numerous small American prizes, some privateers but mostly merchantmen. She was broken up in 1815, at the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812.