The Thames-class frigate was a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate class of eight ships of the Royal Navy based on the Richmond-class frigate designed by William Bately. The ships were ordered to the older design, which was of a smaller type of ship compared to more modern designs, so that they could be built quickly and cheaply in time to assist in defending against Napoleon's expected invasion of Britain. The class received several design changes to the Richmond class, being built of fir instead of oak, with these changes making the class generally slower and less weatherly than their predecessors, especially when in heavy weather conditions. The first two ships of the class, Pallas and Circe, were ordered on 16 March 1804 with two more ordered on 1 May and the final four on 12 July. The final ship of the class, Medea, was cancelled on 22 October before construction could begin but the other seven ships of the class were commissioned between 1804 and 1806.
While no ship of the class served for a long period, the last being out of service by 1818, the class still provided important service in a wide variety of locations during the Napoleonic War and War of 1812 including the Mediterranean Sea, English Channel, and the Leith, Leeward Islands, Lisbon, Downs, Jamaica, and North America stations. Key actions of the class include Pallas in the Walcheren Campaign, Jason in the action of 22 January 1809, and Circe in the invasion of Martinique.
Design and construction The Thames class was a revival of William Bately's design of the Richmond class 32-gun frigate from 1756.Winfield, British Warships 1793–1817, p. 494Winfield, British Warships 1714–1792, p. 900 The Richmond design was brought back for the Royal Navy in 1804 for the Thames-class frigates because of a desire by the First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord St Vincent, to reduce the amount of timber being used in ships, as well as building costs. The size of frigates had expanded greatly in the period since the Richmond class had been created, and so ships built to its measurements were significantly smaller than other modern designs. The smaller size of the class did mean that their construction could be completed at a faster pace than with larger ships, but design of the ships was held up despite this because of difficulty in locating the original blueprints of the Richmond class. The wartime Royal Navy required increased numbers of and cheaper ships more than it needed larger ships of higher quality, in order to combat the probable invasion; doctrine expected the superior skills of Royal Navy crews to overcome the deficiencies created with the smaller classes of vessels such as the Thames class.
The new Thames class differed from the fifty year old Richmond class in some subtle ways; they were built of fir instead of the more standard oak, both to save money on construction and because of a shrinking supply of suitable oak, and had raised gangways and strengthened bulwarks.Wareham, The Frigate Captains, pp. 15–16. Richmond-class frigates had a sharply rising deck at the front in order to stop water from entering through the hawseholes when at sea, but a more rounded bow and the moving of cable ports away from sea level meant that this feature was ignored in the Thames class design.Gardiner, First Frigates, p. 56Gardiner, First Frigates, p. 64 The ports of the design were also increased in size to allow the fitting of carronades in locations where 6-pound cannon had been located in the Richmond design.Gardiner, First Frigates, p. 55 As well as this, an order on 10 September 1804 saw the windows of the galleries widened and increased from the five of the Richmond class to six.
Despite these modernising changes some antiquated features from the Richmond class were kept such as sweep ports, holes through which oars could be put to assist in moving the ship, on the lower deck.Gardiner, First Frigates, p. 65 Most importantly the ships of the class kept the 12-pound guns of the Richmond class. By the time of the construction of the Thames class most frigates were being designed with either 18-pound guns or with more guns than the thirty-two stipulated for the class (ships of thirty-six and thirty-eight guns were becoming more common).Lavery, Nelson's Navy, pp. 49–50. This put the class at a statistical disadvantage, being the first new 32-gun 12-pounder frigates built since HMS Triton eight years earlier.Lavery, Nelson's Navy, p. 49.
The class was ballasted more deeply than in the Richmond class and because of this the performance of the ships suffered. Between half and one knot was lost, making the speed of the class between nine and a half and twelve knots (17.6–22 km/h) depending on the weather conditions.Gardiner, First Frigates, p. 101 Despite this the class were still regarded as being quite weatherly, but the excellent heavy weather sailing characteristics of the Richmond class were mostly lost in the Thames class. It was found that the ships were especially hard to handle when stored for long-distance journeys, with six months' provisions creating considerably more difficulty than three month's provisions.
Construction of the class began on 16 March 1804 when the first two ships of a planned eight were ordered, these being Pallas and Circe. The ships of the class were not built at the same location, with construction instead being spread across a variety of naval dockyards in order to increase the speed of production; this saw the first two frigates built at Plymouth Dockyard, with later examples built at Chatham, Woolwich, Deptford, and Portsmouth.Winfield, British Warships 1793–1817, pp. 495–8 All ships of the class were constructed to the following dimensions: along the gun deck, at the keel, with a beam of and a depth in the hold of . They measured 657 tons burthen. They were to have a crew of 215 men, with this later being increased to 220. Initially the armament of the class was set at twenty-six 12-pounders on the gundeck, two 6-pounders and six 24-pound carronades on the quarterdeck, and two 6-pounders and two 24-pound carronades on the forecastle. All 6-pounders planned for the Thames class were replaced with four extra 24-pound carronades before the first ship was completed. No other changes were made to the armament of the class and all completed ships used this unaltered throughout their service.
Ships Ship nameBuilderOrderedLaid downLaunched CommissionedFateRef.Circe Plymouth Dockyard16 March 1804June 180417 November 1804November 1804Sold at Portsmouth 20 August 1814 Winfield, British Warships 1793–1817, p. 496 PallasDecember 1804Wrecked off the Isle of May 18 December 1810Winfield, British Warships 1793–1817, pp. 495–6ThamesChatham Dockyard1 May 1804July 180424 October 1805November 1805Broken up at Plymouth October 1816Winfield, British Warships 1793–1817, pp. 496–7AlexandriaPortsmouth DockyardOctober 180418 February 1806February 1806Broken up at Sheerness July 1818Winfield, British Warships 1793–1817, p. 498JasonWoolwich Dockyard12 July 1804August 180421 November 1804November 1804Broken up at Plymouth July 1815Winfield, British Warships 1793–1817, p. 497HebeDeptford Dockyard31 December 1804February 1805Sold at Deptford 28 April 1813Minerva25 October 1805November 1805Broken up at Sheerness February 1815Winfield, British Warships 1793–1817, pp. 497–8MedeaChatham Dockyardcolspan=3 Cancelled 22 October 1804
Pallas
Pallas was commissioned in December 1804 by Captain Lord Cochrane. She initially served on the Lisbon Station where she took two Spanish ships off the Azores in early February 1805 and on 16 February the Spanish privateer La Preciosa. On 5 April 1806 she cut out the French 14-gun La Tapageuse from the Gironde and then on 6 April she destroyed the 18-gun La Malicieuse, 24-gun La Garonne, and 22-gun La Gloire in the Garonne. Three days after this Pallas took five vessels including two chasse-marées. In May Captain George Miller took command from Lord Cochrane, at which point she would serve in the English Channel based at Plymouth.Phillips, Pallas (32) (1804). Michael Phillips' Ships of the Old Navy. Retrieved 4 June 2021. On 6 May 1807 Pallas took the French privateer L'Alerte and later in the year command of Pallas changed to Captain John Ommanney before Captain George Seymour took over in March 1808, with Pallas still serving in the Channel. In April 1809 she participated in the Battle of the Basque Roads initially by supporting the fire ships of the fleet and then by taking part in the actions of Lord Cochrane's inshore squadron attacking grounded ships of the French fleet.
In June 1809 Captain William Dobbie temporarily assumed command of Pallas; she then participated in the initial stages of the Walcheren Campaign before Captain George Cadogan arrived to replace Dobbie in October. Under Cadogan Pallas participated in the evacuation of the British force after the failure of the Walcheren Campaign, with Pallas assembling and embarking the rearguard of the army. In May 1810 Pallas began serving off the coast of Norway under Captain James Bowen before changing command to Captain Pringle Stoddart, under whom she took two privateers in October, and then finally in November to Captain George Monke. On 13 December the ship's boats took two Danish privateers in Siveragg Fjord. On 18 December Pallas was returning to her base at Leith when her pilot confused the light of a lime kiln on the coast for the Isle of May lighthouse, resulting in Pallas being wrecked near Dunbar.
Circe Circe was commissioned in November 1804 by Captain Jonas Rose to serve off the coast of Portugal.Phillips, Circe (32) (1804). Michael Phillips' Ships of the Old Navy. Retrieved 4 June 2021. On 1 March 1805 Circe took the Spanish 4-gun privateer Fama off Porto and then on 21 June she took the French 10-gun privateer Le Constance. At the end of 1805 Circe sailed for the Leeward Islands Station with command changing to Captain Hugh Pigot at the beginning of 1806. On 5 April 1807 Circe captured the French 18-gun privateer brig Austerlitz off Barbados after a chase of eighteen hours; Austerlitz was the most successful privateer sailing from Guadeloupe and had evaded many attempts to capture her in the past. On 2 March 1808 landing parties from Circe, the frigate HMS Cerberus, and the post ship HMS Camilla attacked and captured the French island of Marie-Galante to stop it being used by privateers. Sailing off Diamond Rock on 31 October, Circe chased and captured the storm damaged French corvette Palineur after an action of fifteen minutes where one man from Circe and seven Frenchmen were killed. She found continued success towards the end of the year, assisting in the destruction of the French 18-gun brig Cygne on 12 December after a failed cutting out expedition from the boats of Circe had resulted in fifty-six casualties.
In February 1809 Circe participated in the invasion of Martinique and in the same month her command was given to Captain Francis Augustus Collier who replaced the acting captaincy of Commander Charles Kerr. In July Captain Edward Woolcombe replaced Collier and on 17 February 1810 Circe sailed for the Mediterranean Sea where she would serve until the end of 1811. By July 1812 she was at Portsmouth, from where she sailed again for the Leeward Islands on 15 November. As part of the War of 1812 she took the American 5-gun privateer Lovely Lass on 14 May 1813 and by 1814 she was to be found in ordinary at Portsmouth, from where she was sold for £1,900 on 20 August.
Thames