page_title: HMS Clyde (1796)
section_title: First incarnation
hierarchical_section_title: HMS Clyde (1796) / First incarnation
caption_attribution_description: English: HMS 'Clyde' Arriving at Sheerness After the 'Nore' Mutiny, 30 May 1797. The 'Clyde' is shown arriving at sunrise in the Medway, off Sheerness Dockyard. She is in the left middle distance, in port-bow view, on the starboard tack, flying a white ensign but with a red one hanging over her port quarter rail as a signal. Nearer, centre left, is a cutter in starboard-bow view, moored to a buoy and with a boat under her stern. In the left foreground is a large mooring buoy. On the right of the picture, against the rising sun, is a sheer hulk used for masting or de-masting ships, shown in bow and starboard-broadside view, with people waving to the 'Clyde' in her stern. Beyond the hulk is part of Sheerness Dockyard, with buildings, a ship on the stocks and a crowd of people waving on the fortifications. In the distance to the north-east ships of the mutinous fleet lie at anchor. The painting is one of two commemorating the Clyde's escape from the Nore under her captain, Charles Cunningham. The first depicts the daring night time escape.
context_page_description: HMS Clyde was a Royal Navy Artois-class frigate built at Chatham Dockyard of fir, and launched in 1796. In 1797, she was one of only two ships whose captains were able to maintain some control over their vessels during the Nore mutiny. In 1805, HMS Clyde was dismantled and rebuilt at Woolwich Dockyard; she was relaunched on 23 February 1806. She was ultimately sold in August 1814.
context_section_description: Captain Charles Cunningham commissioned Clyde in April 1796. She shared with Venerable, Repulse, Tamar, and the cutters Flora and Princess Royal in the proceeds of the capture on 6 September of Hare.
  Clyde was at the Nore at the time of the mutiny, but escaped to Sheerness on 29/30 May 1797.
  Clyde and St Fiorenzo shared in the capture in November and December 1797 of the French brigs Minerva and Succès (or Success). Success was a privateer from Bayonne that been out 15 days and had only captured one American vessel.
  In addition to the capture of Success on 13 December, St Fiorenzo and Clyde captured the privateer Dorade eight days later. The actual captor of Dorade was Clyde. Dorade was from Bordeaux and was pierced for 18 guns, though she only had 12. She had been out 50 days and had been cruising off the Azores and Madeira, but had captured nothing. She and her crew of 93 men were on their way home when Clyde captured her. Unfortunately, the commander of the prize crew hoisted too much sail with the result that Dorade overturned, drowning all 19 members of the prize crew.
  In March 1798 Clyde captured two merchant vessels. She captured the ship Vrouw Classina on 22 March, and recaptured Anne two days later. Then in May Clyde captured Marie Perotte and in June recaptured Sea Nymphe. Clyde, San Fiorenzo, Phaeton, Anson, Mermaid, and Stag, shared in the capture of the chasse maree Marie Perotte and a sloop of unknown name, as well as the recapture of Sea Nymphe and Mary.
  On 4 January 1799, Clyde recaptured the ship Hiram. Six days later, Clyde captured the letter of marque schooner Aire, which was sailing from Brest to Santo Domingo. Then three days later, Clyde captured the French privateer brig Bon Ordre. Bon Ordre was armed with 16 guns and carried a crew of 65 men. She had sailed on 20 December from Granville and had captured a brig from Newfoundland two weeks before she herself was captured.  On 9 March 1799, St Fiorenzo and Clyde captured the French sloop St Joseph.
  Clyde captured the American ship Nymph on 11 April.
  In August, Clyde was off the coast of France. On 21 August, she was six or seven leagues northwest of the Cordovan Lighthouse near the mouth of the Gironde when she observed two sail. As Clyde approached, they separated, and she pursued the larger. Clyde brought her quarry to action, eventually forcing the French vessel to strike. The French vessel was Vestale, a 32-gun frigate and a crew of 235 men under the command of M. P.M. Gaspard. She had sailed from Cadiz with dispatches for Saint Domingue and was on her return voyage. She carried a number of passengers who she had landed at Passages (Pasajes) two days earlier, and was now on her way to Rochefort. In the engagement, Clyde lost two men killed and three wounded; Vestale had ten men killed and 22 wounded, several of whom died later. Vestale's consort, the 20-gun corvette Sagesse had too large a lead and escaped into the Garonne.
  On 11 and 28 May 1800, Clyde captured a chasse maree of unknown name, and another chasse maree, called Clarre Voyante. In between, on 12 May, Clyde, Thames and the hired armed cutter Suwarrow captured  a French chasse maree, name unknown.
  On 22 October 1800, Clyde arrived in Plymouth Sound with the ship Dick, Guineaman, of Liverpool, in tow. Dick had suffered extensive damage in a fight against a French privateer before Clyde was able to recapture her. When he arrived in the Sound, Cunningham reported the names of the vessels Clyde had captured or recaptured on her last cruise.
  Deux Ami, a Spanish letter of marque, of four guns and 27 men, that had been sailing from Vera Cruz to St Andero, and which Clyde had burnt in the harbour of St. Vincent;
  Beloz (or Belos), a Spanish packet ship, of four guns and 30 men, that had been sailing from Havannah to Corunna when Clyde captured her;
  Rose, a French schooner sailing from Bourdeaux to Guadaloupe; and
  Magicienne, a French schooner, that had been sailing from Senegal to Bordeaux.
  Cunningham also reported that the captor of Dick, Guineaman, had been the French privateer Grande Decide
caption: HMS 'Clyde' Arriving at Sheerness After the 'Nore' Mutiny, 30 May 1797
exif: {}