HMS Cyclops (1779)

History
Great Britain
Name:	HMS Cyclops
Ordered:	6 March 1778
Builder:	James Menetone & Son, Limehouse
Laid down:	3 April 1778
Launched:	31 July 1779
Completed:	26 September 1779 (at Deptford Dockyard)
Commissioned:	July 1779
Honours and awards:	Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Egypt"[1]
Fate:	Sold for breaking up 1 September 1814
General characteristics
Class and type:	28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate
Tons burthen:	602 ^80⁄94 (bm)
Length:	120 ft 6 in (36.73 m) (overall) 99 ft 6 in (30.33 m) (keel)
Beam:	33 ft 9 in (10.3 m)
Depth of hold:	11 ft (3.4 m)
Sail plan:	Full-rigged ship
Complement:	200 officers and men
Armament:	Upper deck: 24 × 9-pounder guns QD: 4 x 6-pounder guns + 4 x 18-pounder carronades Fc: 2 x 18-pounder carronades Also:12 x swivel guns

HMS Cyclops was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. The Cyclops was first commissioned in July 1779 under the command of Captain John Robinson.

In January 1783 she captured the French 14-gun brig Railleur on the North American station.^[2]

Because Cyclops served in the navy's Egyptian campaign between 8 March 1801 and 2 September, her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal, which the Admiralty authorised in 1850 to all surviving claimants.^{[Note 1]}

Notes and citations

Notes

1. A first-class share of the prize money awarded in April 1823 was worth £34 2s 4d; a fifth-class share, that of a seaman, was worth 3s 11½d. The amount was small as the total had to be shared between 79 vessels and the entire army contingent.^[3]

Citations

1. The London Gazette: no. 21077. pp. 791–792. 15 March 1850.
2. Demerliac (1996), p.81, #526.
3. The London Gazette: no. 17915. p. 633. 3 April 1823.

References

• Demerliac, Alain (1996) La Marine De Louis XVI: Nomenclature Des Navires Français De 1774 À 1792. (Nice: Éditions OMEGA). ISBN 2-906381-23-3
• Robert Gardiner, The First Frigates, Conway Maritime Press, London 1992. ISBN 0-85177-601-9.
• David Lyon, The Sailing Navy List, Conway Maritime Press, London 1993. ISBN 0-85177-617-5.
• Winfield, Rif (2007) British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714-1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. (Seaforth). ISBN 978-1-84415-700-6.