HMS St Fiorenzo (1794)

HMS St Fiorenzo and Piémontaise on 9 March 1808
History
France
Name	Minerve
Builder	Toulon
Laid down	January 1782
Launched	31 July 1782
Completed	By October 1782
Captured	Sunk on 18 February 1794 Salvaged on 19 February 1794 by the Royal Navy
Great Britain
Name	HMS St Fiorenzo
Acquired	19 February 1794
Honours and awards	Naval General Service Medal clasps "San Fiorenzo 8 March 1797"[1] "San Fiorenzo 14 Feby. 1805"[2] "San Fiorenzo 8 March 1808"[3]
Fate	Broken up in September 1837
General characteristics
Class and type	38-gun fifth rate
Tons burthen	1,03186⁄94 (bm)
Length	148 ft 8 in (45.3 m) (overall) 124 ft 8 in (38.0 m) (keel)
Beam	39 ft 6 in (12.0 m)
Depth of hold	13 ft 3 in (4.0 m)
Propulsion	Sails
Sail plan	Full-rigged ship
Complement	274 (British service)
Armament	Upper deck (UD): 26 × 18-pounder guns QD: 6 × 6-pounder guns + 6 × 32-pounder carronades Fc: 2 × 9-pounder guns + 2 × 32-pounder carronades

Minerve was a 40-gun frigate of the French Navy, lead ship of her class. She operated in the Mediterranean during the French Revolutionary Wars. Her crew scuttled her at Saint-Florent to avoid capture when the British invaded Corsica in 1794, but the British managed to raise her and recommissioned her in the Royal Navy as the 38-gun fifth rate HMS St Fiorenzo (also San Fiorenzo).

She went on to serve under a number of the most distinguished naval commanders of her age, in theatres ranging from the English Channel to the East Indies. During this time she was active against enemy privateers, and on several occasions she engaged ships larger than herself, being rewarded with victory on each occasion. She captured the 40-gun Résistance and the 22-gun Constance in 1797, the 36-gun Psyché in 1805, and the 40-gun Piémontaise in 1808. (These actions would earn the crew members involved clasps to the Naval General Service Medal.) After she became too old for frigate duties, the Admiralty had her converted for successively less active roles. She initially became a troopship and then a receiving ship. Finally she was broken up in 1837 after a long period as a lazarette.