Ambuscade fighting Bayonnaise, by Jean-François Hue
History
Great Britain
Name	HMS Ambuscade
Ordered	25 December 1770
Builder	Adams & Barnard, Deptford
Laid down	April 1771
Launched	17 September 1773
Commissioned	January 1776
Captured	14 December 1798
France
Name	Embuscade
Acquired	14 December 1798
Captured	28 May 1803
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Ambuscade
Acquired	28 May 1803
Fate	Broken up in 1810
General characteristics as built
Class and type	32-gun fifth-rate Amazon-class frigate (1773) frigate
Length	126 ft 3 in (38.48 m) (gundeck) 104 ft 1 in (31.72 m) (keel)
Beam	35 ft 1.75 in (10.7125 m)
Draught	8 ft 4 in (2.54 m) (forwards) 13 ft 0 in (3.96 m) (aft)
Depth of hold	12 ft 2 in (3.71 m)
Sail plan	Full-rigged ship
Complement	220
Armament	Upper deck: 26 × 12-pounder guns QD: 4 × 6-pounder guns + 4 × 18-pounder carronades Fc: 2 × 6-pounder guns + 2 × 18-pounder carronades

HMS Ambuscade was a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, built in the Grove Street shipyard of Adams & Barnard at Deptford in 1773. The French captured her in 1798 but the British recaptured her in 1803. She was broken up in 1810.

Sometime in June, 177 she captured the sloops 2 Brothers and Succsess in Massachusetts Bay. On 3 June she captured Swallow in Casco Bay, Massachusetts.^[1] On 18 June, 1777 she captured Hope in Boston Bay.^[2] Sometime in September, 1777 she recaptured Restoration in Boston Bay.^[3] On 1 October, 1777 she captured S. W. Erskine.^[4] On 19 May 1778 she recaptured the brig Mary.^[5] On 31 May 1778 she captured the American brig Charming Sally near Cape Sambro.^[6]

On 22 June 1779, after a short action, Ambuscade captured the French brig Hélene, which was the former Royal Navy 14-gun sloop HMS Helena. The Royal Navy took her back into service under her original name.^[7][8] Six days later Ambuscade captured the French privateer Prince de Montbray.^[8] The privateer was possibly out of Granville and under the command of Captain Boisnard-Maisonneuve.^[9]

HMS Prudente captured the private man of war Américaine on 26 January 1781. She was armed with 32 guns and carried a crew of 245. Ambuscade shared in the proceeds of the capture.^[a]

Circa June 1797, in the Caribbean, Ambuscade captured the 32-ton, 3-gun privateer cutter Buonaparte, from Saint-Malo. She had a crew of 32 men under Captain F. Roussel.^[11]

In August 1798 Ambuscade, commanded by Captain Henry Jenkins,^[12] with Stag and the hired armed cutter Nimrod captured the chasse maree Francine .^[13] Then Ambuscade shared with Phaeton and Stag, in the capture on 20 November of the Hirondelle.^[14]

On 13 December 1798, Ambuscade captured a French merchantman, Faucon, with a cargo of sugar and coffee bound for Bordeaux.^[15]

Disaster struck the following day. Ambuscade was blockading Rochefort, when the smaller French corvette Bayonnaise captured her at the action of 14 December 1798. The court martial exonerated Captain Henry Jenkins of Ambuscade, though a good case could be made that he exhibited poor leadership and ship handling.^[16] The French brought her into service as Embuscade.

On 28 May 1803, HMS Victory recaptured her. She had a crew of 187 men under the command of capitaine de vaisseau Fradin, and was 30 days out of Cap Francais, bound for Rochefort.^[17] The Royal Navy took her back into service as Ambuscade.

In March 1805, she was attached to Sir James Craig's military expedition to Italy. Along with Dragon, Craig's flagship, and Lively, Ambuscade escorted a fleet of transports to Malta.^[18]

On 4 March 1807, Ambuscade captured the ship Istria. Unité, Melpomene, Bittern and Weazel (or Weazle) were in company and shared in the prize money.^[19]

Ambuscade was broken up in 1810.

• Demerliac, Alain (1996). La marine de Louis XVI : nomenclature des navires français de 1774 à 1792 (in French). Omega. OCLC 1254967392.
• Demerliac, Alain (1999). La Marine de la Révolution: Nomenclature des Navires Français de 1792 à 1799 (in French). Éditions Ancre. ISBN 9782906381247. OCLC 492783890.
• Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650-1859. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot. ISBN 0-948864-30-3.
• "The Monthly Register of Naval Events". The Naval Chronicle. 1. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press (reprint). 2010. OCLC 700504496.
• Otto von Pivka (1980). Navies of the Napoleonic Era. David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-7767-1.
• Wareham, Tom (2001) The star captains: frigate command in the Napoleonic Wars. (Annapolis, Md. Naval Inst. Press). ISBN 978-1-55750-871-3
• Michael Phillips' ships of the old Navy
• Naval history of Great Britain Archived 24 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine, by William James

• Media related to HMS Ambuscade (ship, 1773) at Wikimedia Commons