HMS Lively was a 20-gun post ship

Post ship

Post ship was a designation used in the Royal Navy during the Age of Sail to describe a ship of the sixth-rate that was smaller than a frigate , but by virtue of being a rated ship , had to have as its captain a post captain rather than a lieutenant or commander...

 of the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

, launched at Bursledon

Bursledon

Bursledon is a village on the River Hamble in Hampshire, England. It is located within the borough of Eastleigh. Close to the city of Southampton, Bursledon has a railway station, a marina, dockyards and the Bursledon Windmill. Nearby villages include Swanwick, Hamble-le-Rice, Netley and Sarisbury...

, Hampshire

Hampshire

Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...

 on 10 August 1756.

At war with France

Lively was commissioned in August 1756 under Captain Francis Wyatt, and after completion sailed for Jamaica

Jamaica

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

 on 31 January 1757. On 11 November 1757 she captured the French privateer Intrépide. In March 1759 she was under the command of Captain Frederick Maitland

Frederick Lewis Maitland (Captain)

Frederick Lewis Maitland was a distinguished officer of the Royal Navy.Maitland was born the sixth son of Charles Maitland, the sixth earl of Lauderdale, and his Godfather was Frederick, Prince of Wales. He entered the Navy, rising to the rank of captain and commanding HMS Lively with distinction...

, at Jamaica. By late 1759 she was in the Mediterranean as part of Edward Boscawen

Edward Boscawen

Admiral Edward Boscawen, PC was an Admiral in the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament for the borough of Truro, Cornwall. He is known principally for his various naval commands throughout the 18th Century and the engagements that he won, including the Siege of Louisburg in 1758 and Battle of Lagos...

's fleet, and on 18 October she helped to capture the 28-gun corvette

Corvette

A corvette is a small, maneuverable, lightly armed warship, originally smaller than a frigate and larger than a coastal patrol craft or fast attack craft , although many recent designs resemble frigates in size and role...

 Valeur, which entered service as . On 18 October—19 October 1760 she and two other Royal Navy vessels ( and ) were in action against five French vessels in the Windward Passage

Windward Passage

The Windward Passage is a strait in the Caribbean Sea, between the islands of Cuba and Hispaniola. The strait specifically lies between the easternmost region of Cuba and the northwest of Haiti.80km wide, the Windward Passage has a threshold depth of 1,700m...

, where she captured a French 20-gun corvette, coincidentally also named Valeur.

American Revolutionary War

On 13 May 1774, Lively arrived in Boston after having set sail from Great Britain. She brought with her General Thomas Gage

Thomas Gage

Thomas Gage was a British general, best known for his many years of service in North America, including his role as military commander in the early days of the American War of Independence....

, and thus ushered in the military governorship of New England.

In 1775, Lively was part of the British fleet that blockaded the port of Boston to enforce the Boston Port Act

Boston Port Act

The Boston Port Act is an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain which became law on March 30, 1774, and is one of the measures that were designed to secure Great Britain's jurisdictions over her American dominions.A response to the Boston Tea Party, it outlawed the use...

, a punishment of that city for the Boston Tea Party

Boston Tea Party

The Boston Tea Party was a direct action by colonists in Boston, a town in the British colony of Massachusetts, against the British government and the monopolistic East India Company that controlled all the tea imported into the colonies...

. She was present during the Siege of Boston

Siege of Boston

The Siege of Boston was the opening phase of the American Revolutionary War, in which New England militiamen—who later became part of the Continental Army—surrounded the town of Boston, Massachusetts, to prevent movement by the British Army garrisoned within...

, and was the first ship to fire at the fortifications erected by the American colonial militia that sparked the Battle of Bunker Hill

Battle of Bunker Hill

The Battle of Bunker Hill took place on June 17, 1775, mostly on and around Breed's Hill, during the Siege of Boston early in the American Revolutionary War...

.

In 1776 she cruised of Marblehead

Marblehead

-Places:United States*Marblehead, Illinois*Marblehead, Massachusetts*Marblehead, Ohio*Marblehead, Wisconsin-Other uses:*Marblehead to Halifax Ocean Race, a biannual sailing race on the North Atlantic...

. She captured a number of vessels off Cape Ann

Cape Ann

Cape Ann is a rocky cape in northeastern Massachusetts on the Atlantic Ocean. The cape is located approximately 30 miles northeast of Boston and forms the northern edge of Massachusetts Bay. Cape Ann includes the city of Gloucester, and the towns of Essex, Manchester-by-the-Sea, and...

: in February the schooner

Schooner

A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....

 Tartar; in May an unknown sloop

Sloop

A sloop is a sail boat with a fore-and-aft rig and a single mast farther forward than the mast of a cutter....

 (unknown because the crew abandoned her and fled, taking all her papers with them); on 26 June, Lively, Milford

HMS Milford (1759)

HMS Milford was a 28-gun Coventry-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy.-References:* Robert Gardiner, The First Frigates, Conway Maritime Press, London 1992. ISBN 0-85177-601-9....

 and Hope took the schooner Lydia, bound for the West Indies. The Vice-Admiralty Court at City of Halifax

City of Halifax

Halifax is a city in Canada, which was the capital of the province of Nova Scotia and shire town of Halifax County. It was the largest city in Atlantic Canada until it was amalgamated into Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996...

, Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...

 ruled all three to be prizes.

Capture and re-capture

On 8 July 1778 Lively was stationed off the French

Kingdom of France

The Kingdom of France was one of the most powerful states to exist in Europe during the second millennium.It originated from the Western portion of the Frankish empire, and consolidated significant power and influence over the next thousand years. Louis XIV, also known as the Sun King, developed a...

 coast near Brest

Brest, France

Brest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon...

 to watch for enemy movements; the French fleet left port and soon thereafter a fog developed. Lively, finding herself in the midst of the French fleet on 10 July, struck to the 32-gun Iphigénie

French frigate Iphigénie (1777)

Iphigénie was a 32-gun Iphigénie-class frigate of the French Navy, and the lead ship of her class.In April 1778, she captured the 18-gun sloop off Saint Lucia. She captured during the same year...

.

Lively was re-captured on 29 July 1781 by Captain Skeffington Lutwidge

Skeffington Lutwidge

Skeffington Lutwidge was an officer of the Royal Navy, who saw service during the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars...

's .