HMS Ariel ( 1777 ) HMS " Ariel " was a 20 - gun " Sphinx " - class sixth - rate post ship of the Royal Navy . The French captured her in 1779 , and she served during the American Revolutionary War for them and the Americans as well as the British . She was scuttled in 1793 . British career . She was ordered from John Perry & Co . ' s Blackwall Yard on 3 July 1776 , was laid down that month and was launched on 7 July 1777 . She was commissioned under Captain John Jackson , and cruised in the North Sea in August 1777 . After a brief spell off the Norwegian and Danish coasts , she sailed for North America on 7 November . In 1778 she captured several American vessels . While " Ariel " was under the command of John Becher on 31 March , she shared in the capture of the frigate USS " Virginia " . ( The Royal Navy took " Virginia " into service as HMS " Virginia " . ) On 4 June " Ariel " captured the sloop " Fanny " . Then on 27 August 1778 she captured the 16 - gun " Congress " brig USS " Resistance " . " Resistance " had sailed from Boston armed for war and in quest of the French fleet . " Ariel " burnt her . " Ariel " also shared in the prize money for a number of vessels captured between 2 January and 14 September . These were the sloops " Betsy " and " Polly " , brigs " MCleary " , " Reprizal " , " Argyle " . and " Postillion " , the schooner " Chelsea " , and the snow " David " . " Ariel " then passed under the command of Captain Charles Phipps . Phipps and " Ariel " captured the American privateer " New Broom " on 22 October 1778 , as well as the schooners " Lark " and " Three Friends " . " New Broom " was armed with 16 guns and had sailed from New London when " Ariel " and stopped her off Nantucket shoals . The next year , in February , Captain Thomas Mackenzie replaced Phipps . Capture . On 11 September 1779 , whilst the " Ariel " was cruising off Charles Town , she sighted a strange sail and approached to investigate , unaware that the French fleet under Admiral d ' Estaing had entered the theatre . As Mackenzie got closer he realized that the stranger was actually a frigate , accompanied by two brigs and a schooner , and that she was not responding to his signals , he decided to sail for the Georgia shore . The frigate gradually overhauled " Ariel " and Mackenzie finally decided to stand and fight . The enemy vessel was the 32 - gun French " Amazone " . After a ninety - minute flight in which " Ariel " lost her mizzen - mast and all her rigging and sustained casualties of four men dead and another 20 wounded , Mackenzie surrendered " Ariel " . d ' Estaing immediately exchanged the crew of " Ariel " and , which he had captured the year before , for French prisoners . The crews of these two vessels then went to man a variety of British vessels on the station . The French took the captured ship into service as " Ariel " . " Ariel " underwent repair and refitting at Lorient between March and October 1780 . The French lent her to the American Continental Navy in October , where she served briefly as USS " Ariel " . USS " Ariel " . John Paul Jones assumed command of " Ariel " in France . He changed her rigging to improve her sailing qualities and removed 10 of her 26 guns to make room for more cargo . However , loading the ship and the need to obtain other vessels to carry the surplus cargo which " Ariel " could not hold delayed her departure . " Ariel " — accompanied by merchantmen " Luke " and " Duke of Leinster " , which Benjamin Franklin had chartered to take care of the surplus supplies — departed L ' Orient on 5 September , but contrary winds held them up in Groix Roads for over a month . The trio finally put to sea on 7 October . However , the next day one of the most severe storms in the history of the French coast broke and wreaked great havoc in the area , destroying many ships . " Ariel " lost all of her masts , sprang leaks , and suffered much other damage . Only Jones ' superb seamanship enabled her to stay afloat and then to limp back into Groix Roads under a jury rig on the morning of 12 October . " Luke " — faster and less damaged than " Ariel " — also managed to get back to port , but sailed independently before " Ariel " s repairs could be completed ; a British warship then captured " Luke " . No record has been found of " Duke of Leinster " after her departure on 7 October , so it is quite possible that she foundered during the hurricane . More than two months passed before " Ariel " was again seaworthy . She finally got underway again on 18 October . Jones left much of " Ariel " s armament in France so he followed a southern route in the hope of avoiding encountering the Royal Navy . Still , when " Ariel " had reached a point some 200 miles north of the Leeward Islands , a lookout reported a large ship which soon began to approach " Ariel " . Rather than risk his only partially armed ship and the vital cargo and dispatches which she was carrying , Jones reluctantly had " Ariel " take to her heels . Jones hoped that she would shake off her pursuer during the night , but the stranger was in full sight when daylight returned the following morning , closer than she had been when last seen the previous evening . Jones then decided to try to pass " Ariel " off as a British warship . When his pursuer reached hailing distance , Jones demanded that her captain identify himself and his ship . The stranger was the 20 - gun British privateer " Triumph " commanded by John Pindar . Jones then ordered Pindar to come on board " Ariel " with documents to verify his statements . When Pindar did not do so , Jones opened fire and forced his surprised enemy to surrender following a short and one - sided struggle . However , after " Triumph " had struck her colors , Pindar maneuvered his ship to " Ariel " s weather bow while the latter was lowering a boat for a prize crew and then quickly sailed away . This engagement was John Paul Jones ' last battle in the cause of American freedom , but he soon had to deal with trouble of another sort , a budding mutiny . After uncovering a plot to take over the ship by the English seamen whom he had enlisted from among British prisoners of war in France to fill out a crew built around survivors from " Bonhomme Richard " , he put the troublemakers in irons . The rest of her voyage was uneventful ; " Ariel " finally reached Philadelphia with her badly needed military stores — which included 437 barrels of gunpowder , 146 chests of arms , a large quantity of shot , sheet lead , and much medicine — on 18 February 1781 . At the beginning of March , " Ariel " — still in port discharging her cargo — fired a salute to celebrate Maryland ' s ratification of the Articles of Confederation activating the new nation ' s first central government . Early in June 1781 , Jones turned " Ariel " over to Anne - César , Chevalier de la Luzerne - the French minister to the United States — who manned her with a French crew for the voyage back to France . " Ariel " . In September 1782 " Ariel " and " Surveillante " captured the merchant vessel " Grand Duc " off the coast of Spain . The French navy briefly took " Grand Duc " into service before decommissioning , striking off and selling her for £t 72 , 489 at Brest in 1783 . Fate . After the French defeat at Neerwinden , her crew scuttled " Ariel " on the Scheldt in March 1793 . The citizens of Bruges carried off her armament and stores . < / div >