HMS Hermione (1782)

A print by Thomas Whitcombe, depicting the Santa Cecilia, the former HMS Hermione, being cut out in Puerto Cabello by boats from Edward Hamilton's HMS Surprise in 1799
History
Great Britain
Name	HMS Hermione
Ordered	20 March 1780
Builder	Sydenham Teast, Bristol
Laid down	June 1780
Launched	9 September 1782
Commissioned	January 1783 (at builder) Between 7 April and 28 June 1783 at Sheerness
Out of service	Taken by mutineers on 21/22 September 1797 Handed over to the Spanish on 27 September
Spain
Name	Santa Cecilia
Acquired	27 September 1797
Captured	By the Royal Navy on 25 October 1799
Great Britain
Name	HMS Retaliation
Acquired	Recaptured on 25 October 1799
Commissioned	September 1800
In service	1782-1805
Renamed	HMS Retribution on 31 January 1800
Fate	Broken up in June 1805
General characteristics [1]
Class and type	32-gun Hermione-class fifth rate
Tons burthen	714 70/94(bm)
Length	129 ft 0 in (39.3 m) (gun deck) 106 ft 10+1⁄2 in (32.6 m) (keel)
Beam	35 ft 5+1⁄2 in (10.8 m)
Draught	9 ft 2 in (2.8 m) 15 ft 3 in (4.6 m) (loaded)
Depth of hold	12 ft 8 in (3.9 m)
Propulsion	Sails
Sail plan	Full-rigged ship
Complement	220
Armament	Upper deck: 26 × 12-pounder guns QD: 4 × 6-pounder guns + 4 × 18-pounder carronades Fc: 2 × 6-pounder guns + 2 × 18-pounder carronades

HMS Hermione was the lead ship of the Hermione class, a six-ship class of 32-gun fifth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy. She was launched on 9 September 1782 at Bristol. Hermione was commissioned and then paid off a number of times during the 1780s. She underwent repairs between October 1790 and June 1792, followed by a period spent refitting at Chatham Dockyard until January 1793. She was recommissioned in December 1792 before sailing to the Jamaica in March 1793. Hermione served in the West Indies during the early years of the French Revolutionary Wars, participating in the British attack on Port-au-Prince, where she led a small squadron that accompanied troop transports.

In February 1797 — the year of the Spithead and Nore mutinies — Captain Hugh Pigot took command of Hermione. She saw action in 1797 under Pigot including leading a squadron that cut out nine ships at the Battle of Jean-Rabel without suffering any casualties. Pigot was a cruel officer who meted out severe and arbitrary punishments to his crew. This treatment of the crew led to the bloodiest mutiny in British naval history in September 1797 which saw Pigot and most of the officers killed. The mutineers then handed the ship over to the Spanish Empire on 27 September 1797 and the Spanish renamed her Santa Cecilia. On 25 October 1799, Captain Edward Hamilton, aboard HMS Surprise, cut her out of Puerto Cabello harbour. She was returned to Royal Navy service under the name Retaliation and the British Admiralty later renamed her Retribution on 31 January 1800. She returned to Portsmouth in 1802, and in October 1803 she was fitted for service for Trinity House. She was broken up at Deptford in June 1805.