British Career
She was ordered from John Perry & Co.'s Blackwall Yard on 3 July 1776, was laid down that month and was launched on 7 July 1777. She was commissioned under Captain John Jackson, and cruised in the North Sea in August 1777. After a brief spell off the Norwegian and Danish coasts, she sailed for North America on 7 November.
In 1778 she captured several American vessels. While Ariel was under the command of John Becher on 31 March, she shared in the capture of the frigate USS Virginia. (The Royal Navy took Virginia into service as HMS Virginia.)
On 4 June Ariel captured the sloop Fanny. Then on 27 August 1778 she captured the 16-gun "Congress" brig USS Resistance. Resistance had sailed from Boston armed for war and in quest of the French fleet. Ariel burnt her.
Ariel also shared in the prize money for a number of vessels captured between 2 January and 14 September. These were the sloops Betsy and Polly, brigs M'Cleary, Reprizal, Argyle. and Postillion, the schooner Chelsea, and the snow David.
Ariel then passed under the command of Captain Charles Phipps. Phipps and Ariel captured the American privateer New Broom on 22 October 1778, as well as the schooners Lark and Three Friends. New Broom was armed with 16 guns and had sailed from New London when Ariel and Savage stopped her off Nantucket shoals. The next year, in February, Captain Thomas Mackenzie replaced Phipps.
Read more about this topic: HMS Ariel (1777)
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