HMS Pylades was an 18-gun Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

-built brig-sloop 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...

. She was originally built as the 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...

 Hercules, and was captured by the British in 1781. She went on to serve during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War

Fourth Anglo-Dutch War

The Fourth Anglo–Dutch War was a conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Dutch Republic. The war, tangentially related to the American Revolutionary War, broke out over British and Dutch disagreements on the legality and conduct of Dutch trade with Britain's enemies in that...

 and the subsequent years of peace.

The privateer was one of two captured in 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...

 in November 1781, both of which were taken into the Navy. Pylades went on to serve under several commanders, spending most of her career sailing 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...

. She did not survive to see service in the French Revolutionary Wars

French Revolutionary Wars

The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states...

, having been sold for breaking up in March 1790.

Dutch service

Hercules was built at Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

 in 1781, to prey on British shipping during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War

Fourth Anglo-Dutch War

The Fourth Anglo–Dutch War was a conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Dutch Republic. The war, tangentially related to the American Revolutionary War, broke out over British and Dutch disagreements on the legality and conduct of Dutch trade with Britain's enemies in that...

. On 30 November she sailed from the Texel

Texel

Texel is a municipality and an island in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is the biggest and most populated of the Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea, and also the westernmost of this archipelago, which extends to Denmark...

 with another large privateer, the Mars

HMS Orestes (1781)

HMS Orestes was an 18-gun Dutch-built brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. She was originally built as the privateer Mars, and was captured by the British in 1781. She went on to serve during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War and the French Revolutionary Wars.The privateer was one of two captured in the North...

. The vessels were commanded by a father and son team, by the name of Hogenboome; the father had been active as a privateer operating out of Flushing

Flushing, Netherlands

Vlissingen is a municipality and a city in the southwestern Netherlands on the former island of Walcheren. With its strategic location between the Scheldt river and the North Sea, Vlissingen has been an important harbour for centuries. It was granted city rights in 1315. In the 17th century...

 during the Seven Years' War

Seven Years' War

The Seven Years' War was a global military war between 1756 and 1763, involving most of the great powers of the time and affecting Europe, North America, Central America, the West African coast, India, and the Philippines...

 under the alias John Hardapple. The two vessels were estimated to have cost upwards of ₤20,000. Their career as privateers was short-lived, and they managed to capture only a single British fishing smack

Smack (ship)

A smack was a traditional fishing boat used off the coast of England and the Atlantic coast of America for most of the 19th century, and even in small numbers up to the Second World War. It was originally a cutter rigged sailing boat until about 1865, when the smacks became so large that cutter...

 before the 40-gun 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"...

 , under the command of Captain

Captain (Royal Navy)

Captain is a senior officer rank of the Royal Navy. It ranks above Commander and below Commodore and has a NATO ranking code of OF-5. The rank is equivalent to a Colonel in the British Army or Royal Marines and to a Group Captain in the Royal Air Force. The rank of Group Captain is based on the...

 John MacBride

John MacBride (Royal Navy officer)

John MacBride was an officer of the Royal Navy and a politician who saw service during the Seven Years' War, the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary Wars, eventually rising to the rank of Admiral of the Blue.MacBride entered the navy after serving on merchant vessels and...

, sighted them off Flamborough Head

Flamborough Head

Flamborough Head is a promontory of on the Yorkshire coast of England, between the Filey and Bridlington bays of the North Sea. It is a chalk headland, and the resistance it offers to coastal erosion may be contrasted with the low coast of Holderness to the south...

 at 10 o'clock in the morning on 3 December.

Capture

The two Dutch vessels initially approached Artois, apparently appearing 'confident'. The action began at 2pm, with one privateer standing off Artoiss bow, while the other attacked her quarter. MacBride concentrated his fire on the ship on his quarter, forcing her to break away, while he turned his attention to the ship off his bow. After thirty minutes this ship surrendered, while the other attempted to escape. MacBride wore around and chased her down, at which she struck her colours. MacBride wrote in his report that the two ships mounted '24 nine-pounders and ten cohorns each.' He described them as 'perfectly new, and alike; sail as fast as the Artois, and are the completest privateers I ever saw.' Hercules was described as carrying 164 men, of whom thirteen were killed and twenty were wounded. Artois had one man killed and six wounded in the whole engagement. Impressed by MacBride's report, the Admiralty

Admiralty

The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...

 approved their purchase for service with the Royal Navy, and she was registered as the sloop HMS Pylades on 16 February 1782. MacBride's report, though it convinced the Admiralty to acquire the two ships, was apparently greeted with 'much mirth, on account of the singular manner in which it was worded'.

Royal Navy service

Pylades was fitted out at Deptford

Deptford

Deptford is a district of south London, England, located on the south bank of the River Thames. It is named after a ford of the River Ravensbourne, and from the mid 16th century to the late 19th was home to Deptford Dockyard, the first of the Royal Navy Dockyards.Deptford and the docks are...

 between February and 16 October 1782, with her armament consisting of 18 short nine-pounders and ten ½-pounder swivel gun

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...

s. The cost for her to be fitted and coppered

Copper sheathing

Copper sheathing was the practice of protecting the under-water hull of a ship or boat through the use of copper plates affixed to the outside of the hull. It was pioneered and developed by the Royal Navy during the 18th century.-Development:...

 came to £3,719 5s

Shilling

The shilling is a unit of currency used in some current and former British Commonwealth countries. The word shilling comes from scilling, an accounting term that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times where it was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere. The word is thought to derive...

 7d. Pylades was commissioned in August 1782 under her first captain, Lieutenant John Osborn. Osborn was promoted to the rank of master and commander in January 1783, and remained in command until 1786. During this time Pylades was paid off in May 1783 but recommissioned that same month under Osborn with orders to patrol in the Western Approaches

Western Approaches

The Western Approaches is a rectangular area of the Atlantic ocean lying on the western coast of Great Britain. The rectangle is higher than it is wide, the north and south boundaries defined by the north and south ends of the British Isles, the eastern boundary lying on the western coast, and the...

.

On 6 October 1785, Pyllades stationed a cutter off the Ram Head to intercept
any smuggling boats that might attempt to land. When she discovered a small cutter lying-to, and several boats near the unknown vessel, Pylladess boat rowed alongside. At this point, the smugglers fired a swivel that killed one of Pylladess men, and escaped. The Crown offered a pardon to anyone (other than the actual perpetrator himself) to any of the smugglers that provided information that would result in the arrest of the perpetrator and the other smugglers. The Crown also offered a reward of ₤100 to the same end.

Osborn left Pylades in 1786. Pyllades recommissioned in November that year under her new captain, Commander Davidge Gould

Davidge Gould

Sir Davidge Gould GCB was an officer of the Royal Navy. He served during the American Revolutionary, French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars, eventually rising to the rank of Admiral...

, who was stationed off the Start

Start Bay

Start Bay is the bay in the English Channel in Devon, England between the River Dart's estuary and Start Point. On the coast, from south to north, are Hallsands, Beesands, Torcross, the Slapton Sands, Strete, Blackpool Sands and Stoke Fleming...

.

Fate

Commander John Stevens Hall became Pyladess new captain in or around March 1789, and served as such until the sloop was paid off in December that year. Pylades was then sold for £27 12s 6d and was broken up 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...

by 23 March 1790.