HMS Melampus (1785)

Detail from the painting by Bristol artist Chris Woodhouse of the 36-gun Bristol-built frigate HMS Melampus, commissioned and purchased in 1990 by Bristol City Museum
History
Great Britain
Name	HMS Melampus
Ordered	17 April 1782
Builder	James Martin Hillhouse, Bristol
Laid down	December 1782
Launched	8 June 1785
Honours and awards	Naval General Service Medal with clasps: "12 Octr. 1798"[1] "Guadaloupe"[2]
Fate	Sold to Dutch Navy in June 1815
Netherlands
Name	HNLMS Melampus
Acquired	June 1815 by purchase
General characteristics [3]
Class and type	36-gun fifth-rate frigate
Tons burthen	94724/94 (bm)
Length	141 ft (43.0 m)
Beam	38 ft 10 in (11.8 m)
Draught	13 ft 11 in (4.2 m)
Sail plan	Full-rigged ship
Complement	270
Armament	Upper deck: 26 × 18-pounder guns QD: 8 × 9-pounder guns + 4 × 18-pounder carronades (replaced by 32-pounder carronades in June 1793) Fc: 2 × 9-pounder guns + 4 × 18-pounder carronades (planned but never fitted)

HMS Melampus was a Royal Navy fifth-rate frigate that served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. She captured numerous prizes before the British sold her to the Royal Netherlands Navy in 1815. With the Dutch, she participated in a major action at Algiers and, then, in a number of colonial punitive expeditions in the Dutch East Indies.