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NYMPHE (36) Taken by Capt. William WILLIAMS in FLORA off Ushant on 10 August 1780.
Wrecked in 1810.

  • 1793 Capt. Edward PELLEW.
    At daybreak on 18 June 1793 Capt. PELLEW sighted the French frigate CLEOPATRA (40), Capt. Jean Mullon, three days out of St. Malo.
    As they came within hail he ordered his crew from their quarters to the shrouds to cheer "Long Live King George III".
    The French cheered back "Vive la Nation".
    Capt. Pellew putting on his hat was the signal for the action to start with the sails and rigging of the two ships intermixed.
    A shot from NYMPHE carried away the Frenchman's mizzen mast and another the steering wheel so he became unmanageable and fell aboard NYMPHE.
    Capt. PELLEW blinded by the smoke assumed CLEOPATRA was about to board but finding that the French did not advance, he ordered his crew to board the enemy.
    The first party was led by Mr Amherst MORRIS, the first lieutenant, the second by Lieut. George LAKE, who struck the French flag.
  • The French lost the captain and about 60 men killed.
    Three lieutenants were wounded and 150 prisoners were taken on board NYMPHE.
    NYMPHE lost 23 killed including Tobias JAMES, boatswain, Richard PEARSE, master's mate, John DAVIE and Samuel EDSALL, midshipmen.
    27 were wounded including Lieut. George LAKE and midshipmen John NORWAY and John Plaine.
  • The Captain offered ten guineas to anyone who would go up and cut away the rigging holding the two ships together.
    Two seamen, ignoring the danger, swarmed up the shrouds and carried it out.
  • NYMPHE arrived in Portsmouth Harbour with her prize on Friday 21st.
    On Sunday 23rd. Capt. PELLEW and his officers buried the French captain Portsmouth Church Yard.
    The Frenchman was 42 years old.
  • During June NYMPHE also captured the French privateer SANS CULOTTES (12) and sent her in to Falmouth
  • Capt. MURRAY, 03/1794.
    Capt. COOKE (1), 06/1796.
    Capt. LANE, 11/1796.
    Capt. COOKE again January 1797.
    Capt. Percy FRAZER, 06/1797.
    On 24 February 1800 NYMPHE, in company with AMETHYST, captured the French letter of marque MODEST off Bordeaux.
    0f about 600 tons and laden with cotton, coffee, tea, sugar and indigo she had left the Isle of France nine weeks earlier.
    NYMPHE brought the prize into Plymouth on 3 March.
    During April she retook the CAROLINE of Jersey which had been captured by the French privateer LE DIABLE QUATRE (14) while on passage to Quebec with brandy and wine.
    CAROLINE arrived in Plymouth on the 21st.
    During the night of 16 May it blew a gale from the S. W. and NYMPHE, at anchor in the Sound, parted her cables and drove under Withy Hedge but brought up safely after letting go her best bower anchor.
  • On 23 May one POLLARD, lately a seamen on NYMPHE and an active ringleader in the Spithead mutiny of 1797, was sent to Exeter goal for sedition.
    NYMPHE sailed from Plymouth on a cruise off Corunna on the 25th.
    and returned on 7 October bringing with her the BRITANNIA of Glasgow, which had been taken by the notorious privateer BRAAVE of Bordeaux while on passage to Charlestown, and recaptured by NYMPHE.
    NYMPHE then went into dock for a refit.
    Prize money was paid to the officers and crews of NYMPHE and AMETHYST on 17 October when the great sales of of prize goods captured in enemy vessels began at Plymouth.
  • On 5 November an inquest was held on three seamen who were killed on board NYMPHE while she was in Barnpool.
    A hawser slipped allowing the main-top-mast to fall with a jerk through the main-cap jamming two seamen to death.
    The shock threw another seamen on deck with such force that he rebounded several feet before falling lifeless on the deck.
    NYMPHE went into the Sound on 20 December under the command of Capt. DOUGLAS, Capt. FRAZER being absent on leave.
    In the afternoon she received nearly 30,000 in prize money for a French East Indiaman taken by her and AMETHYST, and sailed directly on a cruise.
  • On 23 January 1801 NYMPHE counted twenty-eight sail of the line and nine frigates at single anchor in the outer roads at Brest Two days later not a ship was to be seen.
    Capt. DOUGLAS reported that although a squadron may have escaped the rest had probably gone into the inner roads to deceive the watching ships.
    He returned to Plymouth on 20 February and sailed again on 29 April for a long cruise of 16 weeks off Coruna which lasted until 31 August.
    Her next cruise was off Brest and, although news of the Peace of Amiens reached Plymouth on 4 October, she did not return until 15 November.
    On 29 December she was in Portsmouth.
  • At the end of January 1802 NYMPHE intercepted a a smuggling cutter, the FLORA of Fowey, Capt. Dunn, being chased by FISGARD.
    the cutter struck after her her mizzen shrouds got entangled with NYMPHE's bowsprit.
    Unfortunately in the accident a midshipman had his hand so badly injured that it had to be amputated and a seaman was washed overboard.
  • On 13 February 1802 she sailed from Plymouth on a six day cruise against smugglers, whose numbers had increased since the peace.
    NYMPHE was paid off at Portsmouth on 30 April.
  • 1803 Capt. SOMERVILLE.
    During the night of Thursday 29 December a tremendous gale wrecked a number of ships in Plymouth Sound.
    The men from a Prussian galliot which was wrecked under Stadder's Height, Baresand Bay, were rescued by NYMPHE after several hours of rowing round the Sound in the dark not knowing where to land.
    (On the following Sunday nine out of fifteen men were drowned as they tried to salvage some of the wreck of the galliot and their three boats were overturned)
  • 1807 Capt. Conway SHIPLEY, Spithead.
    On Saturday 25 July she joined the fleet assembling at Yarmouth for the expedition to Copenhagen. She sailed with the first division under Lord GAMBIER in the PRINCE OF WALES on the Sunday evening.
    On 23 April 1808 the boats of NYMPHE and BLOSSOM, Cdr. George PIGOT, attempted to carry the Portuguese GARROTA, a 20-gun vessel which had been captured by the French and was anchored under the guns of Belem Castle and a floating battery at Lisbon.
    The boat's crews were exhausted after rowing against a 7 knot tide and Capt. SHIPLEY was shot dead as he attempted to board.
    Three of the boats collided while attempting to recover the body so the attack was abandoned with one man killed and two wounded.
  • 1808 Capt. Hon. Jocelyn PERCY, coast of Spain.
  • 1810 Capt. Edward Sneyd CLAY.
    NYMPHE was wrecked off the Firth of Forth during the night of 18 December 1810.
    All the crew except nine were saved.
    Capt. CLAY and his officers were cleared of blame at the subsequent court martial with the exception of Mr G. SCOTT, the master, and C. GASCOIGNE, the pilot, who were judged to be incautious in asserting that the flame from a lime kiln was the light on May Island.
    PALLAS, though not in company, was wrecked nearby for the same reason.


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