HMS Dido (1784)

Capture of La Minerve off Toulon, 24 June 1795 by Thomas Whitcombe. In the foreground the damaged and dismasted Minerve duels with HMS Dido, while in the background Artémise flees, pursued by Lowestoffe.
History
RN EnsignGreat Britain
NameHMS Dido
Ordered5 June 1782
Builder
Laid downSeptember 1782
Launched27 November 1784
Completed15 March 1785
CommissionedSeptember 1787
Honors and
awards
FateSold to be broken up, 3 April 1817
General characteristics
Tons burthen595 3994 (bm)
Length
  • 120 ft 5 in (36.70 m) (gundeck)
  • 99 ft 3 in (30.25 m) (keel)
Beam33 ft 7 in (10.24 m)
Depth of hold11 ft 0 in (3.35 m)
Sail planFull-rigged ship
Complement200 officers and men
Armament
  • Upper deck: 24 × 9-pounder guns
  • QD: 4 × 6-pounder guns + 4 × 18-pounder carronade
  • Fc: 2 × 18-pounder carronades

HMS Dido was one of the twenty-seven Enterprise class of 28-gun sixth-rate frigates in service with the Royal Navy during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Dido was commissioned in September 1787 under the command of Captain Charles Sandys. She participated in a notable action for which her crew would later be awarded the Naval General Service Medal; her participation in a campaign resulted in the award of another. Dido was sold for breaking up in 1817.

  1. ^ "No. 21077". The London Gazette. 15 March 1850. pp. 791–792.