HMS Pylades (1781)

History
Dutch Republic
Name	Hercules
Builder	Amsterdam
Launched	1781
Captured	December 1781
Great Britain
Name	HMS Pylades
Acquired	3 December 1781
Fate	Broken up by 23 March 1790
General characteristics
Class and type	18-gun brig-sloop
Tons burthen	399 12⁄94 (bm)
Length	90 ft 2 in (27.5 m) (overall) 81 ft 8 in (24.9 m) (keel)
Beam	30 ft 4 in (9.2 m)
Depth of hold	12 ft (3.66 m)
Sail plan	Brig
Complement	125
Armament	18 × short 9-pounder guns + 12 × 1⁄2-pdr swivel guns

HMS Pylades was an 18-gun Dutch-built brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, launched in 1781. She was originally built as the privateer Hercules, which in November the British captured. She went on to serve during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War and the subsequent years of peace.

The privateer was one of two captured in the North Sea at the same time, both of which the Royal Navy took into service. Pylades went on to serve under several commanders, spending most of her career sailing in the English Channel. She did not survive to see service in the French Revolutionary Wars, having been sold for breaking up in March 1790.