HMS Exuberant 50

H.M.S. Exuberant:
Rating: 5th-rate

Class: Trincomalee

Date of Commission: May 5th, 1816

Guns: 50

Crew: 338

Status: On the La Mona Station.

History:
The Exuberant is a flush-decked, slab-sided, and heavy 18-pounder frigate. Terribly slow in stays, labouring under her weight in turns, and having a prodigious heel on her windward broadside, she can not be said to be a nimble or sprightly ship. Additionally, due to oak shortages she is built built in fir, making her timbers prone to crack and splinter horribly when hit by roundshot. Her three foremost advantages, however, are her impressive speed when sailing large or at beam reach, her considerable broadside weight of metal, and her four long 9-pounder bow chasers.

She was first commissioned to Lord Nathaniel Blatchford on May 5th, 1816. Captain Blatchford was expressly ordered to cruise the sea lanes between Honduras and Yucatan, there to intercept and sink or seize any foreign ships and vessels. In the period directly following this commission, the Exuberant mainly anchored at Truxillo when in port, and sailed on short distance cruises and patrols. Although she fought a single-ship action against a Spanish ship of comparable force, and took some smaller prizes, she saw little action during her first commmission. When Lord Blatchford was commissioned the Banterer later that same year, the Exuberant was sold to the Royal Netherlands Navy.

Through a set of various circumstances, she was captured by the French in 1818. Primarily plying up and down the French coastal colonies of northern Hispanola, few details are known of her missions, as her logbook was thrown overboard upon her capture by Captain Sir Samuel Hood in July 1819. She was then commissioned to Lord Blatchford once again, upon his return to the West Indies. Now stationed at La Mona, her main task would be to harass the shipping of the Scandinavian countries off Hispanola, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

During her first month, Captain Blatchford spent most of his time improving the gunnery and handling of his command. Through techniques, drills or physical changes, considerable effort was made to ameliorate the Exuberant's intrusive heel and slow turning. As soon as her ship's company were ready, Captain Blatchford set to cruising the trade routes off Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. By the end of July, the Exuberant had taken and sunk over a dozen enemy merchantment, most off the coastline of Puerto Rico. Though little was earned from the enemy cargo, the accumulated head- and gun money made the crew enough money to spend on merriment when in port. The crew's wealth was significantly increased in August, when two deeply laden Dano-Norwegian Indiamen were seized along the Exuberant's cruising grounds. On August 17, she fell in with a Dano-Norwegian 34-gun frigate in the Mona Passage, sinking her after some close maneuvering.

British Captains:
1816-1817: Captain the Lord Trentham

1817-1818: Sold to and sailed by the Royal Netherlands Navy.

1818-1819: Captured and sailed by the French Navy.

1819: Captured by Captain Sir Samuel Hood.

1819-present: Captain the Lord Stafford

Excerpts from the Logbook (Player Versus Player):

 * September 1819


 * August 1819


 * July 1819


 * May 1816