HMS Medusa (1801)

Medusa
History
United Kingdom
Name	Medusa
Ordered	28 January 1800
Builder	Pitcher, Northfleet
Laid down	April 1800
Launched	14 April 1801
Commissioned	25 April 1801
Decommissioned	17 November 1813
Fate	Broken up, 1816
General characteristics [1]
Class and type	Amphion-class Fifth-rate frigate
Tons burthen	920 tons bm
Length	144 ft (44 m) (gun deck) 121 ft 6 in (37.03 m) (keel)
Beam	37 ft 8 in (11.48 m)
Depth of hold	12 ft 5 in (3.78 m)
Sail plan	Full-rigged ship
Complement	254
Armament	Main Deck: 26 × 18-pounders 8 × 24-pounder carronades Forecastle: 2 × 6-pounders 2 × 24-pounder carronades
Service record
Commanders:	Captain Sir John Gore (1801-06) Captain the Hon. Duncombe Pleydell-Bouverie (1806-13) Captain William Bowles (pro tem, 1808-1809, 1810) Captain George Bell (1813)
Operations:	Raids on Boulogne, 1801 Action of 5 October 1804 River Plate expedition, 1807

HMS Medusa was a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy that served in the Napoleonic Wars. Launched on 14 April 1801, she took part in the action of 5 October 1804 against a Spanish squadron, in the River Plate Expedition in 1807, and made several captures of enemy ships, before being converted to a hospital ship in 1813. She was broken up in 1816.^[1]