HMS Wilhelmina (1798)

Capture of the Furie & Waakzamheid, 23 October 1798 Thomas Whitcombe, 1816
History
Batavian Republic
Name	Wilhelmina
Builder	Flushing
Launched	1787
Renamed	Furie in 1795
Captured	By the Royal Navy on 24 October 1798
Great Britain
Name	HMS Wilhelmina
Acquired	24 October 1798
Honours and awards	Naval General Service Medal (NGSM) with clasp "Egypt"[1]
Fate	Sold in January 1813
General characteristics [2]
Class and type	32-gun fifth-rate frigate
Tons burthen	82681⁄94 (bm)
Length	133 ft (40.5 m) (overall) 109 ft 1 in (33.2 m) (keel)
Beam	37 ft 9 in (11.5 m)
Depth of hold	12 ft 4 in (3.76 m)
Propulsion	Sails
Sail plan	Full-rigged ship
Complement	244 (121 as troopship)
Armament	As frigate: Upper deck: 26 × 12-pounder guns QD: 4 × 6-pounder guns Fc: 2 × 6-pounder guns + 4 × 24-pounder carronades As troopship: Upper deck: 18 × 9-pounder guns QD/Fc: 2 × 6-pounder guns + 1 × 12-pounder carronades

HMS Wilhelmina was a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was previously a Dutch ship and had been built in 1787 for the Dutch Republic as the Wilhelmina. She was renamed Furie in 1795, after the establishment of the Batavian Republic as a client state of the First French Empire. Like other Dutch ships at that time, she was pressed into service as part of French plans to support the Irish Rebellion of 1798 in the hope of destabilising Britain. The British captured her and the Dutch corvette Waakzaamheid in 1798 while the two were supporting French and Irish forces involved in the Irish Rebellion. The Royal Navy took both into service, with Furie regaining her original name. Sailing as HMS Wilhelmina, she spent the bulk of her later career in the East Indies, serving mostly as a troopship. Here she fought an unequal battle against a large French privateer, and succeeded in driving her off and protecting a merchant she was escorting. Wilhelmina was almost the ship that faced a superior French squadron at the Battle of Vizagapatam, but she was replaced beforehand by the larger HMS Centurion. She spent the rest of her days as a guardship in Penang, and was sold there in 1813.