HMS Perseus (1776)

	1796 painting of Perseus' sister ship HMS Camilla by John Thomas Serres}
History
Great Britain
Name	HMS Perseus
Ordered	30 October 1775
Builder	John Randal and Company, Rotherhithe
Laid down	November 1775
Launched	20 March 1776
Completed	26 May 1776 at Deptford Dockyard
Commissioned	March 1776
Decommissioned	September 1805
Reclassified	Bomb vessel in 1798
Honours and; awards	Siege of Charleston, 1780
Fate	Broken up at Sheerness Dockyard, September 1805
General characteristics
Class & type	20-gun sixth-rate Sphinx-class post ship
Tons burthen	43188⁄94 bm
Length	108 ft 1 in (32.9 m) (gun deck); 89 ft 6.5 in (27.3 m) (keel);
Beam	30 ft 1.5 in (9.2 m)
Depth of hold	9 ft 8 in (2.9 m)
Sail plan	Full-rigged ship
Complement	140
Armament	20-26 guns comprising:; Upper deck: 20 × 9-pounder guns; Quarterdeck: 4 × 12-pounder carronades (from 1794); Forecastle: 2 × 12-pounder carronades (from 1794);

HMS Perseus was a 20-gun (later 26-gun) sixth-rate Sphinx-class post ship of the Royal Navy which saw service as a privateer-hunter in the American Revolutionary War between 1776 and 1783, and as a bomb vessel in the French Revolutionary Wars between 1794 and 1801.