HMS Perseus (1776)
Naval service
Launched in 1776, Perseus early duties were as a hunter of American and French privateers which were disrupting British merchant trade off the coast of North America. In this role she secured five victories at sea over enemy vessels. In 1780 she was part of the British naval forces engaged in the six-week Siege of Charleston which culminated in the surrender of the American garrison. Returning to her previous role, Perseus secured another three victories over privateers before she was paid off and decommissioned at the conclusion of the War in 1782.Recommissioned for peacetime service in 1783, Perseus assisted in protecting British merchant vessels in the English Channel and Irish Sea, but was repeatedly forced from service for refit and repair. In the lead up to the French Revolutionary Wars, Perseus was refitted as a bomb vessel capable to conducting naval bombardment of French ports. Despite her change of role, Perseus secured one further vitory at sea over an enemy privateer, capturing the 16-gun San Lion in 1798. A year later she was part of Royal Navy squadrons in action against land-based targets, off Alexandria during the British response to France's Egyptian Campaign, and against the French-aligned Parthenopean Republic in southern Italy. In 1803 she was also engaged in the Royal Navy's blockade and bombardment of the French port of Dieppe.
Decommissioned at the conclusion of the French Revolutionarey Wars, she was broken up for scrap at Sheerness Dockyard in 1805.