HMS Emerald (1795)

Original profile plan of Emerald and her sister ship, Amazon, built to the same lines and dimensions.
History
Great Britain
Name	HMS Emerald
Ordered	24 May 1794
Builder	Thomas Pitcher
Cost	£14,419
Laid down	June 1794
Launched	31 July 1795
Commissioned	August 1795
Fate	Broken up, January 1836
General characteristics [1]
Class and type	Amazon-class frigate
Tons burthen	933 67⁄94 (bm)
Length	143 ft 2+1⁄2 in (43.6 m) (gundeck) 119 ft 5+1⁄2 in (36.4 m) (keel)
Beam	38 ft 4 in (11.7 m)
Depth of hold	13 ft 6 in (4.1 m)
Propulsion	Sails
Complement	264
Armament	Gundeck: 26 × 18-pounder guns QD: 8 × 9-pounder guns + 6 × 32-pounder carronades Fc: 2 × 9-pounder guns + 2 × 32-pounder carronades

HMS Emerald was a 36-gun Amazon-class fifth rate frigate that Sir William Rule (Surveyor of the Navy) designed in 1794 for the Royal Navy. The Admiralty ordered her construction towards the end of May 1794 and work began the following month at Northfleet dockyard. She was completed on 12 October 1795 and joined Admiral John Jervis's fleet in the Mediterranean.

In 1797, Emerald was one of several vessels sent to hunt down and capture the crippled Santisima Trinidad, which had escaped from the British at the Battle of Cape St Vincent. Emerald was supposed to have been present at the Battle of the Nile but in May 1798 a storm separated her from Horatio Nelson's squadron and she arrived in Aboukir Bay nine days too late. She was part of Rear-Admiral John Thomas Duckworth's squadron during the action of 7 April 1800 off Cádiz.

Emerald served in the Caribbean throughout 1803 in Samuel Hood's fleet, then took part in the invasion of St Lucia in July, and of Surinam the following spring. Returning to home waters for repairs in 1806, she served in the Western Approaches before joining a fleet under Admiral James Gambier in 1809, and taking part in the Battle of the Basque Roads. In November 1811 she sailed to Portsmouth where she was laid up in ordinary. Fitted out as a receiving ship in 1822, she was eventually broken up in January 1836.