HMS Amazon (1799)

Construction and commissioning

One of two ships built to a design by Sir William Rule, Amazon was ordered from Woolwich Dockyard on 27 April 1796 and laid down there that month. She was launched on 18 May 1799 and quickly put into service, having cost £33,972 to build, including fitting her out. She was commissioned in May 1799 under her first commander, Captain Edward Riou.

British waters and the Baltic

Riou and the Amazon served initially in the English Channel, capturing the French privateer Bougainville on 14 February 1800. She was out of Saint Malo, mounted eighteen 6-pounder guns, and had a crew of 82 men under the command of Pierre Dupont. The next day, she collided with Amazon and eventually sank, with the loss of one man drowned.

Amazon sailed from Portsmouth for Jamaica with Severn and Scorpion on 26 April 1800 as escorts for a large convoy. Amazon would only accompany the convoy to "a certain latitude."

On 15 June, Amazon captured the French letter of marque Julie. In November 1827 head money was paid for 21 men. Julie was on her way from Bordeaux to Cayenne when Amazon captured her at 32°30′N 16°30′W. Amazon also recaptured Amelia, late Donaldson, master, which the French privateer Minerve had captured. Amazon sent Amelia into Plymouth, which she reached in early July.

Riou and Amazon were then assigned to Sir Hyde Parker's expedition to the Baltic in 1801, to compel the Danes to abandon the League of Armed Neutrality.

Riou worked closely with Parker's second-in-command, Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson, and Captain Thomas Foley in the lead-up to the Battle of Copenhagen, and Nelson duly appointed Riou commander of the frigates and smaller vessels, instructing Rious to deploy his ships in support of the main fleet. As the battle began, several of Nelson's ships of the line ran aground on shoals in the harbour, forcing the improvisation of a new plan of attack. As Nelson's ships engaged their Danish counterparts, Riou took his frigates in to harass the Trekroner Fort and blockships. Although the frigates were heavily outmatched and dangerously exposed, they maintained the engagement for several hours. The ships suffered heavy casualties, and a splinter hit Riou on the head.

At 1.15 pm, Parker was waiting outside the harbour with the reserve and raised a signal ordering Nelson to withdraw. Nelson acknowledged the signal but ignored it, while Nelson's second in command, Rear-Admiral Thomas Graves, repeated the signal but too did not obey it. Riou now found himself in a difficult position. Too junior an officer to risk disobeying a direct order, he remained in action for a further half an hour before reluctantly giving the order for his small squadron to withdraw.

Withdrawing forced his ships to turn their sterns to the Danish guns, thereby exposing their most vulnerable area. When HMS Alcmene and then HMS Blanche withdrew, this reduced the thick cloud of gunsmoke that was helping to obscure the British ships and left Amazon exposed to the full force of the Danish guns. Lieutenant-Colonel William Stuart, commanding the soldiers of the 48th Regiment, recorded that Riou was killed:

[He] was sitting on a gun, was encouraging his men, and had been wounded in the head by a splinter. He had expressed himself grieved at being thus obliged to retreat, and nobly observed, 'What will Nelson think of us?' His clerk was killed by his side; and by another shot, several marines, while hauling on the main-brace, shared the same fate. Riou then exclaimed, 'Come, then, my boys, let us all die together!' The words were scarcely uttered, when the fatal shot severed him in two.

Command of Amazon devolved to her first lieutenant, John Quilliam, who completed the withdrawal. Nelson went aboard the badly damaged Amazon after the battle and asked Quilliam how he was doing. Quilliam replied 'Middlin', a response that apparently amused Nelson and may have contributed to Nelson's subsequent appointment of Quilliam as first lieutenant aboard HMS Victory.

Mediterranean

Command of the Amazon then passed to Captain Samuel Sutton, who was succeeded the following year by Captain William Parker. Under Parker, Amazon captured the 16-gun privateer Felix on 26 July 1803, and survived a brush with a French fleet off Cape Capet on 2 May 1804. Amazon was one of the ships to take part in the Trafalgar Campaign the following year, serving with Nelson in the Mediterranean. On one occasion in December 1804 Nelson ordered Parker to bring a consignment of live bullocks to supply the fleet off Toulon. The Amazon was a notably smart ship, and had just been repainted, so presumably the instruction to convert his ship into a floating farmyard was not received with much enthusiasm. Parker duly returned with a shipment, prompting Nelson to enquire with gentle humour 'Well, Parker, of course you would not dirty the Amazon for much for anything; have you brought a dozen and a half, or a dozen?' Parker had in fact brought sixty bullocks and thirty sheep, prompting Nelson to promise a reward for his good service.

Parker and the Amazon remained with Nelson after the division of the Mediterranean commands left the Spanish coasts under the supervision of Sir John Orde. Nelson suspected that Orde was intercepting his despatches and commandeering Nelson's frigates to use himself. Nelson therefore ordered Parker not to stop for any of Orde's ships if this was possible. Parker attempted this but was intercepted by HMS Eurydice. He was however able to convince the Eurydice's commander, William Hoste, to turn a blind eye and having delivered his despatches to Lisbon, acted on Nelson's hint that he was not expected back until February by carrying out a cruise that netted him several prizes worth a total of £20,000. Orde complained about the 'poaching' taking place on his station, but the prize money went to Parker and Nelson.

West Indies and Atlantic

Amazon went on to join Nelson in the chase to the West Indies and back during the Trafalgar Campaign. During the voyage across the Atlantic, Nelson wanted to pass on specific instructions to his captains about how he wished to engage the French, but did not want to lose time by ordering his ships to heave to. Instead he gave the plans to Parker, who was described by Pulteney Malcolm as the 'best frigate captain in the service', and Parker sped along the line in Amazon, delivering the instructions so efficiently that the fleet lost 'hardly a yard of ground'. Once more in European waters after the fleet's return, Amazon captured the Spanish privateer Principe de la Paz off Ushant on 17 September 1805. Principe was armed with twenty-four 9-pounder guns and four swivels. Her crew of 160 men, under the command of Captain François Beck, were principally French. She had been out five weeks and had captured the packet Prince of Wales from Lisbon, and the letter of marque Lady Nelson, which had been sailing from Virginia to Glasgow. A number of Lady Nelson's crew were aboard Principe, as was a considerable amount of specie.

Amazon was back in the Atlantic in 1806, this time as part of Sir John Borlase Warren’s pursuit of Jean-Baptiste Philibert Willaumez. When Warren's fleet unexpectedly encountered a separate French fleet under Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand Linois, Amazon became involved in the resulting Action of 13 March 1806. During the battle she hunted down and captured the 40-gun frigate Belle Poule in a running engagement. Amazon lost four killed and five wounded during the engagement, while Belle Poule lost six killed and 24 wounded.

On 28 August 1807 Amazon and Cockatrice were in company at the capture of the Danish ship Speculaton and so shared in the prize money for her.

Amazon captured the 14-gun privateer Général Pérignon on 21 January 1810.

Captain John Joyce succeeded Parker as captain in May. Joyce captured the 14-gun privateer Cupidon on 23 March 1811.

Fate

In December 1811 Amazon was laid up at Plymouth. She paid off the following year and saw out the remainder of the Napoleonic Wars in Ordinary. HMS Amazon was finally broken up at Plymouth in May 1817.