HMS Trent (1796)

Profile plan of Trent
History
Great Britain
Name	HMS Trent
Ordered	24 January 1795
Builder	John Tovery, Woolwich
Cost	£25,915
Laid down	March 1795
Launched	24 February 1796
Completed	25 May 1796
Commissioned	March 1796
General characteristics
Type	Fifth-rate frigate
Tons burthen	925 87/94 bm
Length	143 ft 0 in (43.59 m) (gundeck) 119 ft 6 in (36.42 m) (keel)
Beam	38 ft 2 in (11.63 m)
Depth of hold	13 ft 6 in (4.11 m)
Propulsion	Sails
Complement	264
Armament	36 guns

HMS Trent was a fifth-rate sailing frigate of 36 guns, built for the Royal Navy and launched in February 1796. She carried a main battery of twenty-six 18-pounder (8.2-kilogram) long guns. She and her sister ship HMS Glenmore were constructed from pitch pine rather than oak.

First commissioned in March 1796 for service in the North Sea, Trent was briefly involved in the fleet mutinies of 1797 but returned to duty when Admiral Adam Duncan's flagship came alongside and threatened to open fire. When Duncan sailed to meet the Dutch fleet, Trent was one of only four loyal ships that went with him, and kept the enemy in port by making signals to a fleet that did not exist. In November, Trent sailed for the Leeward Islands where, on 30 March 1799, she and the armed cutter, HMS Sparrow, captured a Spanish ship and a schooner in a cutting out expedition off Puerto Rico. Two other schooners were scuttled by their Spanish crews during the battle. In October 1800, while serving in the English Channel, Trent's crew took part in another boat action when they boarded a cutter and a lugger off the Ile de Brehat.

Trent spent her last years of active service, in the West Indies. She returned home in June 1803, to be fitted as a hospital ship. Stationed at Cork, she served as flagship to the Commanders-in-chief on the Coast of Ireland Station. In November 1815, she was converted to a receiving ship. She remained at Cork until February 1823, when she was taken to Haulbowline and broken up.