French frigate Sibylle ( 1792 ) Sibylle was an 38 - gun " Hébé " class frigate of the French Navy . She was launched in 1791 at the dockyards in Toulon and placed in service in 1792 . After the 50 - gun Fourth Rate HMS " Romney " captured her in 1794 , the British took her into service as HMS " Sybille " . She served in the Royal Navy until disposed of in 1833 . While in British service " Sybille " participated in three notable single ship actions , in each case capturing a French vessel . On anti - slavery duties off West Africa from July 1827 to June 1830 , " Sybille " captured numerous slavers and freed some 3 , 500 slaves . She was finally sold in 1833 in Portsmouth . French service . From 23 April 1790 to October – December 1792 , " Sibylle " escorted a convoy and transferred funds from Toulon to Smyrna , first under Capitaine de vaisseau ( CV ) Grasse - Briançon and then CV de Venel . From March 1793 to January 1794 , under CV Rondeau , she escorted convoys between Toulon and Marseilles and then she moved to the Levant station . She cruised the Aegean Sea , and in June 1794 she was escorting a convoy from Candia to Mykonos . On 17 June , as " Sybille " was anchored in Miconi along with three merchantmen bound for Cadie , she was met with a British convy escorted by HMS " Romney " , under Capt . Paget , and three frigates . " Romney " approached and demanded that " Sybille " hoist a white flag , to which Rondeau retorted that he could not fly another flag than that of the Republic ; " Romney " opened fire , and after a one hour and a half of gunnery exchanges , " Sybille " struck to her much more powerful opponent . Paget took possession of " Sibylle " and the merchantmen , but left the crew and Rondeau ashore . " Sibylle " was taken into British service as HMS " Sybille " . British service in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars . In 1798 , she served off the Philippines . In December , she gave chase to the privateer " Clarisse " , under Robert Surcouf . " Clarisse " escaped by throwing eight guns overboard . In February 1799 , while under the command of Captain Edward Cooke , " Sybille " patrolled the Indian Ocean in a hunt for the French frigate " Forte " , under captain Beaulieu - Leloup . The ships met on 28 February in the Balasore Roads in the Bay of Bengal . " Sybille " took " Forte " by surprise and captured her , as " Forte " s captain mistook " Sybille " for a merchantman . Cooke was wounded in the action and died at Calcutta 23 May , aged 26 . Though his grave is in Calcutta , the East India Company erected a monument to him in Westminster Abbey in appreciation of the benefit to British trade of his capture of " Forte " . In all , " Sybille " lost five dead and 17 wounded . In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the issuance of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp " Sybille 28 Feby . 1799 " to all remaining survivors of the action . In June 1799 , " Sybille " came under the command of Captain Charles Adam . On 23 August 1800 , " Sybille " , with " Daedalus " , " Centurion " and " Braave " captured a Dutch brig . The Royal Navy took her into service as " Admiral Rainier " . The British ships had entered Batavia Roads and captured five Dutch armed vessels in all and destroyed 22 other vessels . " Sybille " alone apparently captured one brig of six guns , four proa s armed with swivels , four proas armed , between with three 8 - pounder and three 4 - pounder guns , and some 21 unarmed proas , of which five were lost . How many of these , if any , are among the vessels reported as being taken in the Batavia Roads is not clear . On 19 – 20 August 1801 , in the Roads of Mahé , Seychelles , " Sybille " captured the French frigate " Chiffonne " , under the command of Capitaine de Vaisseau Guieyesse . " Chiffone " had captured the Portuguese corvette " Andorinha " off the coasts of Brazil on 5 May , and the East Indiaman " Bellona " in the Madagascar Channel on 16 June . ( Later , from 23 May 1803 to 1805 , Charles Adams would command " Chiffonne " . ) On 3 May 1807 , under Capt . Robert Winthrop , " Sybille " captured the French 4 - gun privateer " Oiseau " in the Channel . " Sybille " , under the command of Capt . Clotworthy Upton , participated in Battle of Copenhagen ( 1807 ) , where she bombarded the city . The battle resulted in the British capturing the Danish Fleet . On 25 January 1808 , while on the Home station , " Sibylle " captured the French privateer lugger " Grand Argus " . " Grand Argus " was pierced for 12 guns but carried only four . She and her crew of 41 men were under the command of Michael Daguinet . She was on her first cruise from Granville but had made no captures in three days she had been out . Then on 16 August , " Sybille " captured the French brig - corvette " Espiègle " , later recommissioned in the Royal Navy as " Electra " . " Espiègle " arrived in Cork on the evening of 31 August . In the summer of 1809 " Sybille " cruised off the Greenland ice . Her role was to protect the whalers from privateers and then to escort them back to Britain . In subsequent years she captured several privateers . In October 1810 she captured the French privateer " Edouard " on the coast of Ireland . " Edouard " , under Guillaume Moreau , was armed with 14 guns and had a crew of 90 men . She was eight days out of Abrevarake . On 28 January 1812 " Sybille " was in company with " Surveillante " and " Spitfire " , when " Surveillante " captured the American ship " Zone " . In 10 May " Sybille " captured the French 14 - gun privateer " Aigle " at sea . On 2 August she detained and sent into Cork the " Perseverance " of New York . Lastly , on 5 February 1813 " Sybille " captured the French 14 - gun privateer " Brestois " at sea . Post - war service . Captain Sir John Pechell took command of " Sybille " on 1 July 1823 and fitted her out for service in the Mediterranean . She sailed in October and proceeded to spend three years protecting the Ionian Islands and suppressing piracy . A year later , " Sybille " enforced an indemnity on the government of the First Hellenic Republic for an attack on a Turkish vessel in violation of the neutrality of the United States of the Ionian Islands . Pechell seized a number of Greek ships until the indemnity of 40 , 000 dollars was forthcoming . On 5 October 1824 , her boats succeeded in cutting out three Greek schooners : " Polyxenes " of 8 guns and 69 men ; " San Niccolo " of 10 guns and 73 men ; and " Bella Poula " of 8 guns and 37 men . " Sybille " took the prizes to Zante and the prisoners to Corfu . In October 1825 , boats from " Sybille " and " Medina " , Captain Timothy Curtis , found a Greek pirate mistico and her prize at anchor in a cove at Catacolo . The British handed the Ionian prize over to the authorities in Zante and sent the mistico to Corfu . " Sybille " s next notable action occurred when she attacked a pirate lair at Kaloi Limenes at the end of June 1826 . " Sybille " sent in her boats but they were unsuccessful , suffering some 13 dead and 31 wounded , five of whom died subsequently . Gunfire from " Sybille " killed many pirates until the pirates traded a Royal Marine they had captured from one of the boats for a cease - fire . " Sybille " left the island though some time later a Turkish brig chased the pirates ' remaining boat ashore in Anatolia thus ending that threat . Suppressing the slave trade . From 4 December 1826 until 1830 , " Sybille " was part of the West Africa Squadron , which sought to suppress the slave trade . There she was under the command of Commodore Francis Augustus Collier . On 6 September 1827 , " Sybille " captured the Brazilian ship " Henriqueta " ( also " Henri Quatre " ) , with 569 slaves on board , of whom 546 survived to be liberated in Sierra Leone . In December the Admiralty purchased " Henriquetta " for £900 as a tender to " Sybille " and renamed her " Black Joke " . " Black Joke " would go on to be one of the most successful anti - slavery vessels in the squadron . On 14 March 1828 " Sybille " was reported to have captured three slave vessels : possibly a Dutch schooner with 272 slaves ; a Spanish schooner with 282 slaves ; and the " Hope " , former tender to the " Maidstone " , with a cargo on board for the purchase of slaves . When " Sybille " arrived at Sierra Leone on 17 May for refitting in preparation for a passage to Ascension Island , she reported that since she arrived on the station in July 1827 she had freed over 1100 slaves . In 1829 , 204 men died on board " Eden " from yellow fever . To convince the crew of " Sybille " that the fever was not contagious , her surgeon , Robert McKinnal , drank a glassful of black vomit from an ailing crew member . Between February and March 1829 " Sybille " captured a Brazilian brig , and her tenders captured the slave schooner " Donna Barbara " . By 11 April 1829 , " Sybille " claimed to have released over 3 , 900 slaves in the previous 22 months . On 29 April she captured a Spanish schooner with 291 slaves on board . Then on 12 May she sent in to the prize court a schooner with 185 slaves on board . " Sybille " also seized and condemned a number of vessels for illicitly trafficking in slaves . On 11 October it was the brigantine " Tentadora " and on 1 November the brigantine " Nossa Senhora da Guia " , with 310 slaves , of whom 238 survived . On 30 January 1830 " Sybille " seized and condemned a third , unnamed vessel . Then on 15 January she took the " Umbelino " , 377 slaves of whom only 163 survived , and eight days later , the " Primera Rosalia " , with 282 slaves , of whom 242 survived . She also captured a brigantine from Lagos after a 27 hour chase ; the vessel turned out to have 282 slaves on board . Her last capture occurred on 1 April when she captured " Manzanares " . " Sybille " finally returned to Portsmouth from the coast of Africa on 26 June and was paid off . Fate . Between January 1830 and July 1831 she was fitted as a lazaretto for Dundee . She was eventually sold to Mr . Henry for ₤2 , 460 on 7 August 1833 .