The fifth-rate H.M.S. Nymphe, 36 guns, was built at Brest in 1777 and served in the French navy as La Nymphe until captured by H.M.S. Flora off Ushant on 10 August 1780. During an active career with the Royal Navy, she achieved considerable fame when she captured the French frigate Cleopatra in a celebrated duel on 18 June 1793, the first major single-ship action of the Revolutionary Wars. On the Channel Station from 1795, she took part in the blockading of Brest during the first half of 1799 and was instrumental in locating the French fleet under Vice-Admiral Bruix which had slipped through the blockade on 25 April even though contact was subsequently lost again. Later service included various operations off the coast of Portugal in 1807-09, but on 18 December 1810 Nymphe was wrecked in the Firth of Forth, as was the frigate Pallas with whom she was in company.
Additional information from various sources is sold with this lot.