page_title: HMS Active (1799)
section_title: Napoleonic Wars
hierarchical_section_title: HMS Active (1799) / Napoleonic Wars
caption_attribution_description: English: The Battle of Lissa on 13 March 1811; Below the image are tables of French and English forces and the caption reads: TO THE OFFICERS, SEAMEN &amp; MARINES OF HIS MAJESTY'S SHIPS AMPHION, CEREBUS, VOLAGE &amp; ACTIVE., / This Plate represents their Attacking The United French and Italian Squadrons off the Island of Lissa in the Adriatic, on the 13.th March 1811. / This Plate is with great respect dedicated by their most obed.t h.ble Serv.t / London. Published Feb.y 1.st 1812. by R. Lambe. N.o 39. Fleet Street.
context_page_description: HMS Active was a Royal Navy fifth-rate frigate launched on 14 December 1799 at Chatham Dockyard. Sir John Henslow designed her as an improvement on the Artois-class frigates. She served during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, capturing numerous enemy vessels. Her crews participated in one campaign and three actions that would later qualify them for the Naval General Service Medal. She returned to service after the wars and finally was broken up in 1860.
context_section_description: In August 1804, Active was under the command of Captain Richard Mowbray, for the blockade of Toulon, in the Mediterranean. (Captain Davers had resigned his command due to ill-health caused by yellow fever, which he had caught on the Leeward Islands station. He died in 1805.) On 27 April Active captured the French letter of marque schooner Les Amis. Les Amis was armed with four 6-pounder guns, had a crew of 20 men, and was carrying a cargo of wine and merchandise from Bordeaux to her home port of Cayenne.
  At some point Active captured the Prussian vessels Ida Margaretta, Anna Dorothea, and Norberg. On 12 March 1807, Active and Endymion captured the Danish vessel Henrie and Maria. The prize money was remitted from Malta.
  In 1807, Active returned to the Mediterranean. An initial assignment was her participation in Thomas Louis's squadron in Admiral Duckworth's Dardanelles Operation. On the way in on 19 February Active drove a frigate aground and then burnt her, all without suffering any casualties. However, Active had eight men wounded on 3 March during the withdrawal from the Dardanelles, one of whom, the boatswain, later died. During the withdrawal she suffered a hit from an 800-pound stone cannonball, 6'6" in diameter, which did damage but caused no casualties.
  Almost a year later, on 26 March 1808, she and the 64-gun Standard captured the Franco-Italian brig Friedland  off Cape Blanco. Mowbray took possession of Friedland after a chase of several hours. The brig might have escaped had she not lost her topmast. She was one year old and was armed with 16 French 12-pounder guns. Active took her prize to Malta, together with the prisoners, who included  Commodore Don Amilcar Paolucci, commander in chief of the Italian Marine, and Knight of the Iron Crown. The Royal Navy took  Friedland into service as HMS Delight.
  In 1809 Active returned to Britain and was paid off. She was recommissioned in June 1809 under Captain James Alexander Gordon, who sailed for the Adriatic on 4 October.
  In 1810 she participated in a raid on Grao, near Trieste. Together with Cerberus and Amphion she seized a coastal convoy of trabaccolos and other vessels. Active did not report casualties. In 1847 the Admiralty issued the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "28 June Boat Service 1810" to all surviving claimants from the action.
  On 14 June Cerberus, in company with Active and Swallow, captured three gunboats - the Vincentina, Modanese and Elvetica (or Elvetria).
  On 4 February 1811 Active and Cerbrus sent in their boats to raid Pescara. The British destroyed one trabaccalo, after first transferring its cargo to Active, and sent another three to Lissa. All four were from Ancona. Active lost one man wounded.
  Five days later the boats from Active and Cerbrus raided Ortona. Despite facing heavy fire, the British suffered only four men wounded. They captured one trabaccolo and ten Venetian transports that were carrying supplies from Ancona to the French at Corfu. The British sent all the vessels they captured to Lissa, or destroyed them. The vessels were:
  Eugenie, of six guns, commanded by a Lieutenant;
  Transport Fortunée, No. 52, laden with Corn, burnt after her cargo was transferred to another vessel;
  Transport, name unknown, laden with Oil;
  Transport, name unknown, No. 2, laden with plank and corn;
  Transport St. Anongiato, laden with Hemp and Cordage;
  Transport, name unknown, No. 50, laden with Wheat;
  Transport, name unknown, No. 55, partly laden with sundries;
  Transport Anime del Purgatorio, laden with rice, cargo taken on board and vessel burnt;
  Transport, name, unknown, laden with wheat.
  Two transports, names unknown, burnt in the port.
  In addition, the British were able to burn two warehouses  holding oil, soldiers' clothing, ammunition, and naval stores, including cables, blocks, hawsers, hemp, and the like.
  On 14 March Active participated in the Battle of Lissa, where she lost nine men killed and 26 wounded, but together with Cerberus captured the French frigate Corona. Active, Amphion, Cerberus, and Volage encountered a French force consistin
caption: HMS Amphion, Cerberus, Volage, and Active attacking the United French and Italian Squadrons at the Battle of Lissa in the Adriatic, on 13 March 1811
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