| Career (UK) | |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS Lively |
| Ordered: | 15 October 1799 |
| Builder: | Woolwich Royal Dockyard |
| Laid down: | November 1801 |
| Launched: | 23 July 1804 |
| Commissioned: | July 1804 |
| Fate: | Wrecked, 10 August 1810 |
| General characteristics [1] | |
| Class and type: | 38-gun Fifth rate frigate |
| Tons burthen: | 1,075.96 long tons (1,093.2 t) |
| Length: | 154 ft 1 in (47.0 m) (gundeck) |
| Beam: | 39 ft 6 in (12.0 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 13 ft 6 in (4.1 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sails |
| Sail plan: | Full rigged ship |
| Complement: | 284 officers and men (later 300) |
| Armament: |
38 guns:
|
HMS Lively was a 38-gun fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy, launched on 23 July 1804 at Woolwich Dockyard, and commissioned later that month. She was the prototype of the eponymous Lively class of 18-pounder frigates, designed by the Surveyor of the Navy, Sir William Rule. It was probably the most successful British frigate design of the Napoleonic Wars, to which fifteen more sisterships would be ordered between 1803 and 1812.[1]
In October of that year, under the command of Captain (later Vice-Admiral Sir) Graham Eden Hammond, she joined a squadron commanded by Graham Moore consisting of four frigates, which intercepted and captured a treasure fleet of four frigates carrying bullion from South America back to Spain, which was, at that time, neutral. In the action that followed one of the Spanish frigates, Clara struck her colours to Lively.[2]
These events would later be fictionalised in Patrick O'Brian's novel Post Captain, in which Captain Aubrey is in temporary command of Lively.[3]
In March 1805, she was attached to Sir James Craig's military expedition to Italy. Along with HMS Dragon, Craig's flagship, and HMS Ambuscade, Lively escorted the fleet of transports to Malta.[4]
On 26 August 1810, while escorting another convoy to Malta, HMS Lively ran aground on rocks near Point Coura, Malta, and was wrecked; no lives were lost.[2]