HMS Daedalus (1811)

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Career (United Kingdom)

Name:	HMS Daedalus
Acquired:	Captured on 13 March 1811
Fate:	Wrecked, and sunk on 2 July 1813
General characteristics as built
Class and type:	38-gun fifth rate frigate
Tons burthen:	1,094 long tons (1,111.6 t)
Length:	153 ft (46.6 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	40 ft (12.2 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	38 guns

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Daedalus.

HMS Daedalus was a Royal Navy fifth rate frigate, captured from the Italian Navy at the Battle of Lissa in 1811.

Daedalus was originally the Italian ship Corona, which served as part of the French squadron operating in the Adriatic in 1811 under Commodore Bernard Dubourdieu. Corona was one of the ships lost by Dubourdieu at Lissa on 13 March 1811 during the battle, at which the French commodore was killed. Following her capture by HMS Active in which Corona's captain was also killed, and the ship was almost destroyed by a fire that destroyed much of her upper works and killed a number of her crew and British prize crew before it was extinguished.

Taken to Malta and the Britain by her captors, Corona was renamed after the ancient Greek inventor Daedalus and commissioned into the Royal Navy, laying in reserve for a year while her battle damage was repaired. In late 1812 she was finally readied for sea under Captain Murray Maxwell, fresh from his own victory in the Adriatic. Six months after her first commission however, on 1 July 1813, Daedalus was escorting a number of East Indiamen off Ceylon when she grounded on a shoal, fatally damaging her bottom. Although Maxwell and his crew attempted numerous remedies, Daedalus could not be saved and the following day the crew were evacuated to the Indiamen. Within five minutes of Maxwell's departure, Daedalus capsized and sank.