HMS Pluto (1782)

History
Great Britain
Name	HMS Pluto
Ordered	4 December 1780
Builder	Joshua Stewart, Sandgate
Laid down	January 1781
Launched	1 February 1782
Fate	Sold 19 July 1817
United Kingdom
Acquired	1817 by purchase
Fate	Wrecked September 1817
General characteristics [1]
Class and type	Tisiphone-class fire ship
Tons burthen	42642⁄94 (bm)
Length	Overall: 108 ft 10+1⁄2 in (33.19 m) Keel: 90 ft 7 in (27.61 m)
Beam	29 ft 9 in (9.07 m)
Depth of hold	9 ft 0 in (2.74 m)
Complement	Fireship: 55 Sloop: 121
Armament	Fireship: 8 × 12-pounder guns Sloop (originally): 12 guns Sloop (later): 14 × 12-pounder carronades + 2 × 6-pounder chase guns + 4 swivel guns

HMS Pluto was a 14-gun fire ship of the Royal Navy launched in 1782. Pluto was converted to a sloop in 1793. She spent the period of the French Revolutionary Wars on the Newfoundland station where she captured a French naval vessel. During the Napoleonic Wars Pluto was stationed in the Channel. There she detained numerous merchant vessels trading with France or elsewhere. Pluto was laid up in 1809 and sold in 1817 into mercantile service. The mercantile Pluto ran aground near Margate on 31 August 1817 and filled with water.