HMS Cynthia was a ship sloop of unusual design, launched in 1796. She took part in one medal-worthy boat action and participated in captures of a number of merchant vessels, was present at two notable occasions, the surrender of the Dutch fleet in the Vlieter Incident

Vlieter Incident

The Vlieter incident was the surrender without a fight of a squadron of the navy of the Batavian Republic, commanded by Rear-Admiral Samuel Story, during the Anglo-Russian Invasion of Holland to the British navy on a sandbank near the Channel known as De Vlieter, near Wieringen, on August 30,...

 and the capture of Alexandria, and her crew participated in two land attacks on forts. She was broken up in 1809.

Design

Wells & Co. of Rotherhithe

Rotherhithe

Rotherhithe is a residential district in inner southeast London, England and part of the London Borough of Southwark. It is located on a peninsula on the south bank of the Thames, facing Wapping and the Isle of Dogs on the north bank, and is a part of the Docklands area...

 built Cynthia with a shallow draught and three daggerboard

Daggerboard

A daggerboard is a retractable centreboard used by various sailing craft. While other types of centreboard may pivot to retract, a daggerboard slides in a casing. The shape of the daggerboard converts the forward motion into a windward lift, countering the leeward push of the...

s (John Schank

John Schank

Admiral John Schank was an officer of the British Royal Navy known for his skill in ship construction and mechanical design.-Biography:...

's sliding keels) for stability. She was rated for 18 guns but during construction her rating was reduced to sixteen 6-pounder guns; she also carried fourteen half-pound swivels

Swivel gun

The term swivel gun usually refers to a small cannon, mounted on a swiveling stand or fork which allows a very wide arc of movement. Another type of firearm referred to as a swivel gun was an early flintlock combination gun with two barrels that rotated along their axes to allow the shooter to...

, although the latter were probably replaced by a much smaller number of carronades during her career.

Service during the French Revolutionary Wars

Cynthia was commissioned in March 1796 under Commander Micajah Malbon. Thirteen months later, Cynthia, in company with , , , and the hired armed cutter Grand Falconer captured the American ship Favourite on 19 April 1797. On 5 October Cynthia was in company with Diamond, and when they captured the Spanish ship Nostra Senora Del Carmen.

Cynthia, and recaptured the American vessel Betty. Then on 24 Nov 1797 she was in company with Cormorant and Grand Falconer when they captured the French merchant sloop Necessaire.

On 15 February 1798 Cynthia was in company with Cormorant when they captured the Prussian galiot

Galiot

Galiots were types of ships from the Age of Sail.In the Mediterranean, galiots were a type of small galley, with one or two masts and about twenty oars, using both sails and oars for propulsion...

 Welwaert. On 28 August 1799, Cynthia was with the British fleet that captured the Dutch hulks Drotchterland and Brooderschap, and the ships Helder, Venus, Minerva, and Hector, in the New Diep, in Holland. A partial pay-out of prize money

Prize money

Prize money has a distinct meaning in warfare, especially naval warfare, where it was a monetary reward paid out to the crew of a ship for capturing an enemy vessel...

 resulted in a payment of 6s 8d to each seaman that had been in the fleet that day. The capture of these vessels was part of the Anglo-Russian Invasion of Holland

Anglo-Russian Invasion of Holland

The Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland refers to the campaign of 27 August to 19 November 1799 during the War of the Second Coalition, in which an expeditionary force of British and Russian troops invaded the North-Holland peninsula in the Batavian Republic...

 and preceded by two days the Vlieter Incident in which a large part of the navy of the Batavian Republic

Batavian Republic

The Batavian Republic was the successor of the Republic of the United Netherlands. It was proclaimed on January 19, 1795, and ended on June 5, 1806, with the accession of Louis Bonaparte to the throne of the Kingdom of Holland....

, commanded by Rear-Admiral Samuel Story

Samuel Story

Samuel Story was a vice-admiral of the navy of the Batavian Republic. He commanded the squadron that surrendered without a fight to the Royal Navy at the Vlieter Incident in 1799.-Early life:...

, surrendered to the British navy on a sandbank near the Channel

Channel (geography)

In physical geography, a channel is the physical confine of a river, slough or ocean strait consisting of a bed and banks.A channel is also the natural or human-made deeper course through a reef, sand bar, bay, or any shallow body of water...

 known as De Vlieter, near Wieringen

Wieringen

Wieringen is a municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It consists of a former island, also named Wieringen, and there are plans to make Wieringen an island again by widening the Amsteldiepkanaal into a lake called the Wieringerrandmeer.-Population centres :The...

. Cynthia was also among the vessels sharing in the prize money from the Dutch vessels of the Vlieter Incident.

On 4 June 1800, Cynthia was part of a squadron under Captain Edward Pellew in Impetueux

French ship America (1788)

America was a Téméraire-class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy. The Royal Navy captured her in 1794 at the Battle of the Glorious First of June. She then served with the British under the name HMS Impetueux until she was broken up in 1813...

. The 32-gun frigate , Captain William Lukin, Cynthia, and some small-craft, attacked the south-west end of Quiberon

Quiberon

Quiberon is a commune in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France.It is situated on the southern part of the Quiberon peninsula, the northern part being the commune of Saint-Pierre-Quiberon...

 and silenced the forts. Troops under Major Ramsey then landed and destroyed the forts. The attack resulted in the British taking several vessels and scuttling others. The only casualties were in Cynthia, which lost two men killed and one wounded.

Because Cynthia was with Pellew's squadron for a time, she benefited from the prize or salvage money for the Vigilant, Menais, Industry, Insolent,Ann and for the wreck of a vessel sold. Vessels of the squadron had made the captures, which they then shared with the remainder. Cynthia also shared in the proceeds from the recapture of the Lancaster on 28 June.

On 25 August Cynthia, now under Commander John Dick, was in a squadron and convoy under the command of Rear-Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren

John Borlase Warren

Sir John Borlase Warren, 1st Baronet , was an English admiral, politician and diplomat. Born in Stapleford, Nottinghamshire, he was the son and heir of John Borlase Warren of Stapleford and Little Marlow...

. She participated in another attack on a fort at the bay of Playa de Dominos (Doniños), outside the port of Ferrol, together with the 74-gun Impétueux, the 28-gun frigate , and the 14-gun hired armed cutter St Vincent

Hired armed cutter Earl St Vincent

Two vessels have been named the Hired armed cutter Earl St Vincent.The name Earl St Vincent comes from John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent.-The first Earl St Vincent:...

. The vessels silenced the battery, which was armed with eight 24-pounders. Then seamen from the ships landed to assist a large force of army troops to haul the guns up to the heights above Ferrol. However, it became apparent that Ferrol was too well fortified. The Navy then reembarked the troops and the whole British force withdrew.

Four days later, in Vigo Bay, Admiral Sir Samuel Hood assembled a cutting-out party from the vessels under his command consisting of two boats each from Cynthia, , , and , four boats from , as well as the boats from , and Impetueux The party went in and after a 15-minute fight captured the French privateer Guêpe, of Bordeaux and towed her out. She was of 300 tons burthen and had a flush deck. Pierced for 20 guns, she carried eighteen 9-pounders, and she and her crew of 161 men were under the command of Citizen Dupan. In the attack she lost 25 men killed, including Dupan, and 40 wounded. British casualties amounted to four killed, 23 wounded and one missing. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "29 Aug. Boat Service 1800" to all surviving claimants from the action.

On 5 December Cynthia and the gunvessel were in company with the 36-gun frigate when Florentina captured the French polacre Union, bound from Alexandria to France with a cargo of rice and coffee. Two days later, the same three vessels captured the French brig Bon Pasteur Retrouve on the same route with rice, coffee and sugar. Six days after that, the same three vessels captured the French brig Heureuse Clairon and her cargo of rice and coffee.

On 19 February 1801, Cynthia and Florentina were among the vessels sharing in the capture of the Rosa. On 9 June Cynthia was among the vessels participating in the capture of the Felicite and Josephine, off Alexandria. Then on 28 July she shared in the capture of the Almas di Purgatoria, also off Alexandria.

In August 1801, Cynthia participated in the Egyptian operations. In the morning of 17 August, after the Battle of Alexandria

Battle of Alexandria

The Battle of Alexandria or Battle of Canope, fought on March 21, 1801 between the French army under General Menou and the British expeditionary corps under Sir Ralph Abercrombie, took place near the ruins of Nicopolis, on the narrow spit of land between the sea and Lake Abukir, along which the...

 and the subsequent siege

Siege of Alexandria

The Siege of Alexandria was fought between 17 August and 2 September 1801, during the French Revolutionary Wars, between French and British forces and was the last action of the Egyptian Campaign. The French garrison at Alexandria surrendered on 2nd September...

, Captain Alexander Cochrane

Alexander Cochrane

Admiral Sir Alexander Forrester Inglis Cochrane GCB RN was a senior Royal Navy commander during the Napoleonic Wars.-Naval career:...

 in the 74-gun Ajax

HMS Ajax (1798)

HMS Ajax was an Ajax class 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was built by John Randall & Co of Rotherhithe and launched on the Thames on 3 March 1798...

, with the sixth-rate

Sixth-rate

Sixth rate was the designation used by the Royal Navy for small warships mounting between 20 and 24 nine-pounder guns on a single deck, sometimes with guns on the upper works and sometimes without.-Rating:...

 Bonne Citoyenne

HMS Bonne Citoyenne (1796)

Bonne Citoyenne was a 20-gun corvette of the French Navy, which the Royal Navy captured and recommissioned as the sloop-of-war HMS Bonne Citoyenne. Her most famous action was her capture of the French frigate Furieuse on 6 July 1809 for which her crew would earn the Naval General Service Medal. Her...

, Cynthia, the brig-sloops Port Mahon and Victorieuse, and three Turkish corvettes, were the first vessels to enter the harbour.

In 1801 or 1802, Lord Elgin

Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin

Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin and 11th Earl of Kincardine was a Scottish nobleman and diplomat, known for the removal of marble sculptures from the Parthenon in Athens. Elgin was the second son of Charles Bruce, 5th Earl of Elgin and his wife Martha Whyte...

 requested that Cynthia help transport some cases of the so-called Elgin marbles

Elgin Marbles

The Parthenon Marbles, forming a part of the collection known as the Elgin Marbles , are a collection of classical Greek marble sculptures , inscriptions and architectural members that originally were part of the Parthenon and other buildings on the Acropolis of Athens...

, but her captain, Commander Wright, declined. One of Cynthias last tasks was to transport ten Army mutineers from Gibraltar

Gibraltar

Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...

 on 12 January 1803 to Portsmouth, where seven were transferred to Calcutta

HMS Calcutta (1795)

HMS Calcutta was an East Indiaman converted to a Royal Navy 56-gun fourth rate. This ship of the line served for a time as an armed transport. She also transported convicts to Australia in a voyage that became a circumnavigation of the world. The French 74-gun Magnanime captured Calcutta in 1805...

 on 21 April for transport to Australia.

Fate

In February 1803 Cynthia was laid up in ordinary

Reserve fleet

A reserve fleet is a collection of naval vessels of all types that are fully equipped for service but are not currently needed, and thus partially or fully decommissioned. A reserve fleet is informally said to be "in mothballs" or "mothballed"; an equivalent expression in unofficial modern U.S....

 at Chatham

Chatham Dockyard

Chatham Dockyard, located on the River Medway and of which two-thirds is in Gillingham and one third in Chatham, Kent, England, came into existence at the time when, following the Reformation, relations with the Catholic countries of Europe had worsened, leading to a requirement for additional...

. She broken up in 1809.