HMS Ariadne (1816)

HMS Ariadne was a 20-gun Hermes-class sixth-rate post ship built for the Royal Navy during the 1810s.

Description
Ariadne had a length at the gundeck of 121 ft and 100 ft at the keel. She had a beam of 30 ft, a draught of 10 ft and a depth of hold of 8 ft. The ship's tonnage was 511 $42⁄94$ tons burthen. Ariadne was armed with eighteen 32-pounder carronades on her gundeck and a pair of 9-pounder cannon as chase guns. The ship had a crew of 135 officers and ratings.

Construction and career
Ariadne, the third ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy, was ordered on 28 November 1812, laid down on April 1815 in Pater Dockyard, Wales, and launched, together with her sister ship, HMS Valorous (1816), on 10 February 1816 by John Campbell, Lord Cawdor. She was completed on 21 March 1816 and placed in ordinary. Ariadne cost £11,936 to built and a further £3,579 to fit out. She was converted into a 26-gun post ship at Plymouth Dockyard in January–May 1820 and fitted for sea in March–August 1822.

The ship's first commission began in April 1823 under the command of Captain Robert Moorsom. He was relieved by Captain Isaac Chapman in December 1824 and Ariadne was assigned to the Cape of Good Hope Station. Chapman was court-martialed and dismissed from the service in June 1826 for having purchased a female slave and brought her aboard, but he had been relieved by Captain Lord Adolphus Fitzclarence earlier in February, by which time the ship was assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet. She was decommissioned at its end in May 1828.