HMS Castor (1785)

Print by Thomas Whitcombe depicting HMS Carysfort retaking Castor from the French on 29 May 1794
History
Great Britain
Name	HMS Castor
Ordered	30 January 1782
Builder	Joseph Graham, Harwich
Laid down	January 1783
Launched	26 May 1785
Completed	11 July 1786
Fate	Sold on 22 July 1819
General characteristics
Class and type	32-gun Amazon-class fifth-rate frigate
Tons burthen	680 (bm)
Length	126 ft (38.4 m) (overall) 104 ft (31.7 m) (keel)
Beam	35 ft 1 in (10.7 m)
Draught	9 ft (2.74 m)
Depth of hold	12 ft 2 in (3.71 m)
Sail plan	Full-rigged ship
Complement	220
Armament	As built: UD: 26 × 12-pounder guns QD: 4 × 6-pounder guns + 4 × 18-pounder carronades Fc: 2 × 6-pounder guns + 2 × 18-pounder carronades After 1809: UD: 22 × 32-pounder carronades QD: 2 × 6-pounder guns + 4 × 32-pounder carronades Fc: 2 × 12-pounder guns + 2 × 32-pounder carronades

HMS Castor was a 32-gun Amazon-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The French briefly captured her during the Atlantic Campaign of May 1794 but she spent just 20 days in French hands as a British ship retook her before her prize crew could reach a French port. Castor eventually saw service in many of the theatres of the wars, spending time in the waters off the British Isles, in the Mediterranean and Atlantic, as well as the Caribbean.