HMS Castor was a 32-gun Amazon-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The French briefly captured her during the Atlantic Campaign of May 1794 but she spent just 20 days in French hands as a British ship retook her before her prize crew could reach a French port. Castor eventually saw service in many of the theatres of the wars, spending time in the waters off the British Isles, in the Mediterranean and Atlantic, as well as the Caribbean.
Print by Thomas Whitcombe depicting HMS Carysfort retaking Castor from the French on 29 May 1794
Atlantic campaign of May 1794
The Atlantic campaign of May 1794 was a series of operations conducted by the British Royal Navy's Channel Fleet against the French Navy's Atlantic Fleet, with the aim of preventing the passage of a strategically important French grain convoy travelling from the United States to France. The campaign involved commerce raiding by detached forces and two minor engagements, eventually culminating in the full fleet action of the Glorious First of June 1794, at which both fleets were badly mauled and both Britain and France claimed victory. The French lost seven ships of the line; the British none, but the battle distracted the British fleet long enough for the French convoy to safely reach port.
HMS Defence at the Battle of the Glorious 1st June 1794, Nicholas Pocock
Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe; mezzotint engraving by R. Dunkarton, after the painting by John Singleton Copley
Louis Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse, 1839 painting by Guérin
A view of the British fleet, in action with the French on 29 May 1794