Built as a 5th Rate by John Baker, Howden Dock, New Castle for the Royal Navy.
26 February 1779 ordered.
18 August 1779 keel laid down
07 June 1781 launched under the name HMS ARGO. One of the Roebuck class.
Tonnage 892 ton (bm), dim. 140.8 x 38 x 16.4ft.
Armament 44 guns. gundeck 20 – 18 pdrs., under deck 22 – 12 pdrs., 2 – 6 pdrs. on foc’sel, which during her lifetime many time has changed.
She was built to a Slade design.
Crew 300
March 1781 commissioned.
1782 She was under command of Capt. Butchert and stationed in the West Indies.
23 April 1782 she captured the French DAUPHIN, normally armed with 64 guns, but at that time had only an armament of 26 guns.
16 February 1783 while on a passage from Tortola to Antigua, under command of Captain John Butchart, whilst replacing a sprung main topmast, she was surprised and chased by two French frigates the NYMPHE (36 guns) under Capt. Vicomte de Mortemart and the Amphitrite (32 guns) under command of Capt. de St Ours. Due to heavy swell and the fact that her lower gun ports were set low in her hull they could not be opened and she was reduced to her upper deck guns alone. The action commenced at 10.30 a.m. and did not finish till 5 p.m. when badly damaged aloft and holed in her hull she was forced to strike her colours.
Three days later on 19 Feb. 1783 and still accompanied by the NYMPHE and AMPHITRITE she was retaken by HMS INVINCIBLE (74 guns), the French frigates escaped.
The officers of the HMS ARGO after a court material were acquitted, and re-appointed by admiral Pigot.
Returned to England after the peace of 1783, and put out of commission.
1791 She saw service as a troopship under command of Capt. Richard Rundle Burgess.
1793 Under command of Captain William Clarke in the North Sea, and providing protection to the Baltic trade.
.
Feb. 1795 under command of Capt. R.R. Burgess, June 1796 under command of Capt. J.S.Hall.
1796 She was part of an independent Channel cruiser squadron that was commanded by Sir Edward Pellew
March 1798 under command of Capt James Bowen and with the squadron of Commodore Duckworth in the Mediterranean. On 13 November 1798 she retook the sloop HMS PETEREL (16 guns), which had been taken by four Spanish frigates and was trying to escape around Majorca. The frigates outsailed their pursuers back to Carthagena, each Spanish frigate throwing overboard 50.000 dollars to prevent it falling into British hands.
The ARGO took part in the reduction of Minorca in November.
The ARGO and LEVIATHAN chased the Spanish frigate SANTA TERESA armed with 34 guns off Majorca on 06 February 1799 in a violent westerly gale. LEVIATHAN’s main top-sail gave way and she fell behind but had nearly caught up when ARGO got alongside the enemy about midnight. She did not surrender until she had received ARGO’s broadside which wounded two men and did much damage to the rigging. She was carrying 42 guns plus swivels and had 530 seamen and soldiers on board.
On 16 February 1799 the CENTAUR, ARGO and LEVIATHAN attacked the town of Cambrelles and after the Spaniards had abandoned their battery, the boats went in, dismounted the guns, burnt five settees (Mediterranean three mast vessel) and brought out another five laden with wine and wheat.
In May of that year the ARGO went to Algiers to arrange with the Bey for a supply of fresh provision for the army and navy in Minorca. While there they managed to arrange the release of six British subjects who had been held in slavery for more than 14 years.
A Spanish royal packet INFANTA AMELIA armed with ten 6 pounder guns, was captured on 06 August 1799, off the coast of Portugal, she was taken into the Royal Navy as HMS PORPOISE. (In 1803 lost on the Australian coast. Matthew Flinders was a passenger on the PORPOISE when she was lost.)
1800 Convoy to Lisbon on 14 February, on 19 August she captured the Spanish lugger ST. ANTONIA in ballast and sent her into Plymouth were she arrived on 10 September.
On 21 October, after a 15-hour chase, ARGO captured the Spanish letter of marque SAN FERNANDO with twelve long 6 pounders guns. She was five days out of Santander bound for Vera Cruz with iron bars and a valuable cargo of silks belonging to the Royal Philippine Company. The government dispatches she carried had been sunk before she was captured. ARGO brought her in Portsmouth on 3 November. During the same cruise ARGO sent in the French brig MARIA LOUISA, in ballast and the Spanish barque SEL VICENTO. With iron ore. Two Spanish barques, loaded with iron ore were sunk by the ARGO.
At the beginning of July 1801 ARGO and CARYSFORT escorted five transports with the 85th regiment and forty of the artillery on board through the English Channel. They sailed from Cowes on 24 June and put into Torbay on 11 July. In January 1802 the British merchants of Madeira for his defence of British property presented a sword and a testimonial to Capt. Bowen. ARGO returned to Portsmouth from the coast of Guinea on 19 March 1802.
In the ensuing peace Capt. Benjamin Hallowell was appointed commander of the ARGO, and he was appointed to chief command on the coast of Africa, he sailed on board the ARGO and made a call at Barbados on his homeward voyage. And at that port he heard the news that hostilities between France and England most likely to be renewed.
Together with Sir Samuel Hood, the Commander-in-Chief on the West Indies station made an expedition against St Lucia and Tobago.
The ARGO sailed from Tobago early July and she arrived at Portsmouth on 14 August. At the end of November she was also in that port for repair after a West Indiamen ran foul of her.
The next year Captain Hallowell preceded with the ARGO to Aboukir, with Elfi Bey a friend of England. She returned to England with a homebound convoy of merchant traders.
1804 When Capt. Edward Codrington declined an appointment to ARGO, in the spring of that year, Capt. Thomas Le Marchant Gosselyn was appointed in his stead. The next summer he was relieved and appointed to the HMS LATONA
1805 The ARGO in ordinary at Deptford.
1806 Under command of Capt. S.T.Digby on the African coast. In 1808 at Jamaica.
At the end of 1809 Capt Frederick Warren was appointed to her and in 1810 he sailed for St Helena to convoy home a large fleet of East Indiamen.
On 28 November 1810 a court martial was held on board GLADIATOR at Portsmouth to try Capt Warren for not following orders to proceed to Quebec to bring home a convoy. The court accepted his evidence that it was late in the year and that the weather was bad as sufficient reason for not sailing and he was acquitted.
Early in 1811 she came under orders of Capt. Sir Joseph Yorke who was sailing with reinforcement for the British Army in Portugal. She subsequently took out an Algerian Ambassador and carried Sir Robert Liston and his suite to Constantinople. Capt. Warren resigned his command in October 1812.
1814 Under command of Capt William Fothergill at Jamaica, flagship of rear Admiral W.Brown.
1815 was she guardship at Plymouth.
Sold 11 Jan. 1816 for £2.600. Fate unknown.
British Virgin Islands 2002 20c sg?, scott?
Source: Copied mostly from http://www.cronab.demon.co.uk/A4.htm Ships of the Royal Navy by Colledge. Log Book Vol. 32 page 186.