HMS Erebus (1807)

HMS Erebus body plan
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Erebus
Ordered	1 October 1805
Builder	Thomas Owen, Topsham
Laid down	January 1806
Launched	20 August 1807
Honours and awards	Naval General Service Medal with clasp "The Potomac 17 Augt. 1814"[1]
Fate	Broken up 22 July 1819
General characteristics [2]
Class and type	Thais-class fireship
Tons burthen	424 (bm)
Length	Overall: 108 ft 9 in (33.1 m) Keel: 90 ft 6 in (27.6 m)
Beam	29 ft 8 in (9.0 m)
Depth of hold	9 ft 0 in (2.7 m)
Sail plan	Sloop
Complement	121
Armament	Upper deck: 16 × 24-pounder carronades QD: 6 × 18-pounder carronades Fc: 2 × 18-pounder carronades + 2 × 9-pounder guns Lower deck: 32-pound Congreve rockets

HMS Erebus was originally built as a Royal Navy fireship, but served as a sloop and was re-rated as such in March 1808. She served in the Baltic during the Gunboat and Anglo-Russian Wars, where in 1809 she was briefly converted to a fireship, and then served in the War of 1812. In 1814 she was converted to a rocket vessel to fire Congreve rockets. While serving off America, Erebus participated in the sack of Alexandria, Virginia, and launched the rockets that bombarded Fort McHenry in Baltimore on 13 September 1814. In March 1815, off Georgia, she fired the second-to-the-last-shot of the war. She was laid up in 1816 and sold for breaking up in 1819.