Laid down March 1785 Acquired By gift | Launched 20 August 1785 | |
Name Kronprindsens Lystfregat ("Crown Prince's Pleasure Yacht") Builder M/Shipwright Adam Hayes, Deptford Dockyard Commissioned 4 October 1785 (sailed for Denmark) | ||
HDMS Kronprindsens Lystfregat (literally, "the crown prince's pleasure frigate") was a yacht launched in Britain in 1785. George III gave it to his nephew Frederick, the Crown Prince of Denmark. Kronprindsens Lystfregat cost £10,347 to build and furnish.
Then in 1807 Britain attacked Copenhagen. After their victory, the British took whatever vessels they hadn't destroyed, but made a conscious and conspicuous exception of Kronprindsens Lystfregat. In a gesture of contempt, the Danes manned her with a crew of 17 captured British sailors, put one of them in command and sent her back to Britain.
The Royal Navy took her into service as the royal yacht, HMS Prince Frederick, succeeding a previous ship of that name - it is unclear whether in the yacht's case this was after George's nephew, father or second son, all called Frederick. On 25 July 1816 the Admiralty registered her as a third rate and renamed the yacht HMS Princess Augusta after Augusta, George's second daughter. Captain Thomas Hardy commanded Prince Frederick/Princess Augusta for three years prior to her sale.
The Admiralty put her and her predecessor, also named Princess Augusta, up for sale and sold her to Thomas Pittman on 13 August 1818 for £500. It is not clear that she got much use, either in Denmark or the United Kingdom.