HMS Doris (1808)

HMS Doris was a 36-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy that served between 1808 and 1829. She was the second ship of the Royal Navy to be named after the mythical Greek sea nymphe Doris.

Doris was built for the Royal Navy in the East India Company Dockyard in Bombay in 1807. She was launched as Salsette, and was renamed locally as Pitt later that year. However because the Royal Navy already had an HMS Pitt in service, the Admiralty renamed her again as HMS Doris.

HMS Doris initially saw service in the Malacca Straits and the South China Sea, and was involved in the Mauritius campaign of 1810, and the invasion of Java in 1811. Put in reserve in 1815, she was recommissioned in 1821 and served two tours of duty on the South America station during the Chilean and Brazilian wars of independence and the Brazil-Argentine war 1826-8.

During her 21 years in the Royal Navy she had eight captains. One of them was Barrington Reynolds, who commanded her for a short period in 1812, between his commands of HMS Sir Francis Drake and HMS Bucephalus. Another was Thomas Graham, who died en route to Chile in 1822, with his wife, the travel writer Maria Graham, on board.

By the late 1820s, decayed timbers in her bow made her unfit for further service, and she was sold at Valparaiso in April 1829.