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MELAMPUS (36) Built in 1785, Bristol.
Sold in 1815.

  • 1800 Capt. MOORE, Cork for the West Indies.
  • 1803 Out of commission but serviceable at Deptford.
  • 1805 Capt. Stephen POYNTZ, Channel fleet.
    On the morning of 13 February MELAMPUS fell in with and captured two gun-brigs and four luggers off Ushant.
    They were part of 27 vessels sailing from Bordeaux to Brest; two more of which were captured by RHODA and FRISK armed cutters.
    The gun-brigs carried two long 24-pounders and one 18-pounder each with 50 men mostly soldiers.
    The luggers were armed with one long 18-pounder each.
  • The Spanish private Ship-of-War HYDRA was captured on 13 July about 200 miles S. W. of Cape Clear. She carried twenty-two long 9-pounders on the main deck and six 6-pounders on the quarter-deck.
    Three of her crew of 192 men were killed and several wounded. She was in the seventeenth day of a four month's cruise without having made any captures.
  • BELLISLE, BELLONA and MELAMPUS were seeking Rear Ad. Sir Richard STRACHAN off Cape Henry on 14 September 1806 when a line-of-battle ship under jury rig was sighted to leeward standing in for the Chesapeake.
    They immediately gave chase and forced her to run aground.
    The three anchored within a mile in about five fathoms and boats went in to take possession of her. She was the 74-gun IMPETUEUX, Capt. le Veyer, which had been separated from a French squadron of four of the line and a frigate during a gale on 18 and 19 August.
    MELAMPUS took all the prisoners aboard and then burnt the prize.
  • 1807 Capt. Edward HAWKER of TARTAR exchanged ships with Capt. POYNTZ when the TARTAR was ordered to England after being damaged in a gale.
    During March MELAMPUS was watching a large 48-gun French frigate which was sheltering in the Chesapeake. She had on board the crew of of a French 34-gun ship which had been wrecked a few months before.
  • At the beginning of 1809 MELAMPUS convoyed a fleet of transports from Halifax to Barbados and while on her return to the northward she captured the French national brig COLIBRI, Lieut. Deslandes, on 16 January. She was armed with sixteen 24-pounder carronades and carried a crew 92 men, three of whom were killed and twelve others, including a lieutenant, were wounded. She was carrying 570 barrels of flour and a large quantity of gunpowder from Cherbourg to San Domingo and had sunk two English brigs, the HANNIBAL and PRICILLA of Dartmouth, on passage from Newfoundland to Lisbon.
  • On 14 December MELAMPUS, after a chase of 28 hours, captured the brig corvette BEARNAIS taking flour and warlike stores from Bayonne to Guadeloupe. She was armed with sixteen 24-pounder carronades and her crew of 109 men, including 30 soldiers was commanded by Lieut. Montbazen.
    The British losses were two men wounded and the enemy one man killed and several wounded. She was taken into the Royal Navy as CURIEUX.
  • MELAMPUS took part in the capture of Guadeloupe and, in company with DRIVER, on 28 May, took the fine French letter of marque brig corvette FANTOME, of 400 tons, with a ports for twenty heavy carronades and a complement of 74 men. She had made three captures.
    FANTOME was taken into the Royal Navy under the same name.
  • MELAMPUS returned to the Halifax station until 1812 when she was put out of commission at Plymouth.
    Still serviceable, she was sold in June 1815 to the Dutch navy.


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