HMS Pallas was a 32-gun fifth rate Thames-class frigate

Frigate

A frigate is any of several types of warship, the term having been used for ships of various sizes and roles over the last few centuries.In the 17th century, the term was used for any warship built for speed and maneuverability, the description often used being "frigate-built"...

 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 in 1804 at Plymouth

Plymouth

Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...

.

History

Pallas was one of the seven Thames class frigates ordered for the fleet in early 1804. Her keel was laid at Plymouth Dockyard

HMNB Devonport

Her Majesty's Naval Base Devonport , is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy . HMNB Devonport is located in Devonport, in the west of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England...

 in June 1804 and she was launched on the afternoon of 17 November the same year along with her sister-ship HMS Circe

HMS Circe (1804)

HMS Circe was a Royal Navy 32-gun fifth-rate Thames-class 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 authorized...

. Pallas entered service in January 1805, under the command of Lord Cochrane

Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald

Admiral Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, 1st Marquess of Maranhão, GCB, ODM , styled Lord Cochrane between 1778 and 1831, was a senior British naval flag officer and radical politician....

 and proceeded to cruise in the vicinity of the Azores

Azores

The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...

. Here, Pallas captured three Spanish merchant ships and a Spanish 14-gun privateer

Privateer

A privateer is a private person or ship authorized by a government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping during wartime. Privateering was a way of mobilizing armed ships and sailors without having to spend public money or commit naval officers...

. Cochrane was given orders to cruise off the Normandy

Normandy

Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...

 coast in 1806. During the evening of 5 April 1806, Cochrane sailed the Pallas into the Gironde estuary

Gironde estuary

The Gironde is a navigable estuary , in southwest France and is formed from the meeting of the rivers Dordogne and Garonne just below the centre of Bordeaux...

 and captured the French 14-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...

 Tapageuse, and drove ashore and wrecked three other corvettes.

In 1807, command passed to George Miller. Later that year she passed onto George Cadogan

George Cadogan, 3rd Earl Cadogan

Admiral George Cadogan, 3rd Earl Cadogan KMT, CB was a prominent British Royal Navy officer and politician of the mid-nineteenth century who first gained notoriety for his service in the Adriatic campaign of the Napoleonic Wars in command of...

 and took part in the evacuation of the British army from Walcheren

Walcheren Campaign

The Walcheren Campaign was an unsuccessful British expedition to the Netherlands in 1809 intended to open another front in the Austrian Empire's struggle with France during the War of the Fifth Coalition. Around 40,000 soldiers, 15,000 horses together with field artillery and two siege trains...

. In 1808, George Francis Seymour

George Francis Seymour

Admiral of the Fleet Sir George Francis Seymour, GCB, GCH, PC was a Royal Navy officer.-Naval career:...

 took command and operated in the English Channel

English Channel

The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...

 as part of the Channel Fleet

Channel Fleet

The Channel Fleet was the Royal Navy formation of warships that defended the waters of the English Channel from 1690 to 1909.-History:The Channel Fleet dates back at least to 1690 when its role was to defend England against the French threat under the leadership of Edward Russell, 1st Earl of...

. In 1810, she was ordered to the North Sea

North Sea

In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...

 and was given a cruise off the coast of Norway where she captured four Danish privateer cutters.

Fate

Pallas was under the command of Captain G.P. Monke when she was wrecked in the Firth of Forth

Firth of Forth

The Firth of Forth is the estuary or firth of Scotland's River Forth, where it flows into the North Sea, between Fife to the north, and West Lothian, the City of Edinburgh and East Lothian to the south...

 near Dunbar

Dunbar

Dunbar is a town in East Lothian on the southeast coast of Scotland, approximately 28 miles east of Edinburgh and 28 miles from the English Border at Berwick-upon-Tweed....

 on the night of 18 December 1810. The pilot

Maritime pilot

A pilot is a mariner who guides ships through dangerous or congested waters, such as harbours or river mouths. With the exception of the Panama Canal, the pilot is only an advisor, as the captain remains in legal, overriding command of the vessel....

 mistook the light on a lime kiln at Broxmouth for that kept burning on the Isle of May

Isle of May

The Isle of May is located in the north of the outer Firth of Forth, approximately off the coast of mainland Scotland. It is 1.8 km long and less than half a kilometre wide...

, and the light on the island for that on the Bell Rock. Dunbar Lifeboat

Dunbar Lifeboat

Dunbar Lifeboat Station is a lifeboat station located in Dunbar on the South East coast of Scotland, operated by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. Dunbar Lifeboat Station currently operates a 'Trent' Class All Weather Lifeboat and a 'D' Class Inshore Lifeboat...

 saved 45 men from HMS Pallas in two trips and, in attempting a third, was ‘upset and drowned nearly all’. Pallas lost 11 men in the sinking.

Pallas had been in company with Nymphe, which also wrecked that night, though without loss of life. Nymphe wrecked on a rock called the Devil's Ark near Skethard on Tor Ness Dunbar.