HMS Ariel (1777)

History
Great Britain
Name	HMS Ariel
Ordered	3 July 1776
Builder	John Perry & Co, Blackwall Yard
Laid down	July 1776
Launched	7 July 1777
Completed	12 August 1777
Commissioned	July 1777
Captured	By the French Navy on 10 September 1779
France & US
Name	Ariel
Acquired	Captured on 10 September 1779
Out of service	Lent to the Continental Navy between October 1780 and June 1781
Fate	Burnt in March 1793
General characteristics [1]
Class and type	20-gun Sphinx-class sixth-rate post ship
Displacement	650 tons (French)
Tons burthen	43519⁄94 (bm)
Length	108 ft (32.9 m) (gundeck); 89 ft 5 in (27.3 m) (keel)
Beam	30 ft 3 in (9.2 m)
Depth of hold	9 ft 7+1⁄2 in (2.9 m)
Sail plan	Full-rigged ship
Complement	British service: 140 French service: 130 (peace) and 210 (war)
Armament	British service: 20 × 9-pounder guns French service: 2 × 4-pounder + 4 × 3-pounder guns added to the galliards

HMS Ariel was a 20-gun Sphinx-class sixth-rate post ship of the Royal Navy. The French captured her in 1779, and she served during the American Revolutionary War for them, and later for the Americans, before reverting to French control. Her French crew scuttled Ariel in 1793 to prevent the British from recapturing her.