HMS Circe (1804)

History
United Kingdom
NameHMS Circe
Ordered16 March 1804
BuilderPlymouth Dockyard
Laid downJune 1804
Launched17 November 1804
CommissionedNovember 1804
Honours &
awards
FateSold on 20 August 1814
General characteristics
Class & type32-gun fifth-rate Thames-class frigate
Tons burthen6702594 (bm)
Length
  • 127 ft (38.7 m) (overall)
  • 106 ft 10+78 in (32.6 m) (keel)
Beam34 ft 4 in (10.5 m)
Depth of hold11 ft 9 in (3.6 m)
Complement220
Armament
  • Upper deck: 26 × 12-pounder guns
  • QD: 8 × 24-pounder carronades
  • Fc: 4 × 24-pounder carronades

HMS Circe was a Royal Navy 32-gun fifth-rate frigate, built by Master Shipwright Joseph Tucker at Plymouth Dockyard, and launched in 1804. She served in the Caribbean during the Napoleonic Wars, and participated in an action and a campaign for which in 1847 in the Admiralty authorised the issuance of the Naval General Service Medal with clasps. The action, off the Pearl Rock, near Saint-Pierre, Martinique, was a debacle that cost Circe dearly. However, she also had some success in capturing privateers and a French brig. She was sold in 1814.