page_title: HMS Melampus (1785)
section_title: HNLMS Melampus
hierarchical_section_title: HMS Melampus (1785) / HNLMS Melampus
caption_attribution_description: English: In the foreground of the painting is a barge with a howitzer in the bows and a lieutenant standing at her tiller. To the left of her are two boats, one sunk and the other with sailors rescuing the crew. In the right foreground is a fallen spar and another barge with a carronade in her bow. Beyond her more boats are sheltering under the 'Impregnable', 98 guns, the fore part of whose bow is in the picture. In the left middle distance there are three more boats under the stern of the 'Minden', 74 guns, one of which is about to fire a Congreve rocket. The 'Minden', in port-quarter view, is firing her starboard guns, and partly masks the 'Superb' also in port-quarter view. More boats are sheltering under the port side of their hulls. In the left background can be seen the forepart of the Dutch flagship 'Melampus', 40 guns, in starboard-broadside view and ahead of her the stern of a British frigate. In the middle and right background is the 'Queen Charlotte', 100 guns, in port-quarter view, flying Pellew's blue admiral's flag at the main, and a glimpse of the 'Leander', 50 guns, ahead of her. They are engaged with the batteries of the harbour, engulfed in flame, and the ships burning within it. Above the smoke Algiers can be seen rising up the hills behind.
context_page_description: HMS Melampus was a Royal Navy fifth-rate frigate that served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. She captured numerous prizes before the British sold her to the Royal Netherlands Navy in 1815. With the Dutch, she participated in a major action at Algiers and, then, in a number of colonial punitive expeditions in the Dutch East Indies.
context_section_description: On 27 August 1816 Melampus was the flagship of the Dutch squadron under Vice-Admiral Baron T.F. van de Capellen that joined a British fleet under the command of Admiral Lord Exmouth in the bombardment of Algiers. Her captain was Antony-Willem De-Man. In the action Melampus lost three men killed and 15 wounded. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Algiers" to the 1328 surviving British claimants from the action.
  The bombardment was an attempt by Britain to end the slavery practices of the Dey of Algiers. The Anglo-Dutch fleet bombarded ships and the harbour defences of Algiers.
  By 1822 Melampus was in the Dutch East Indies. In that year she led a squadron of five transports and 24 local vessels carrying Dutch marines and local auxiliaries in a punitive expedition against the Iranun of Sulawesi.
caption: The Bombardment of Algiers, 27 August 1816, painting by George Chambers Sr.
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