HMS Menelaus: Peter Parker's Ship

From Wikipedia.

The HMS Menelaus was a 38-gun fifth-rate frigate of 1,071 tons, 154 feet long, 39.5 foot beam with 285 crew carrying twenty-eight 18-pdr, four 9-pdr and fourteen 32-pdr carronade guns.

It was built at Plymouth Dockyard and launched in 1810, entering service under Captain Peter Parker who commanded it until his death in battle at Caulk's Field on August 30, 1814.  With the article, I was under the impression that Parker was the commander of the Marines on the ship, not the whole ship.

Within a week of being commissioned, it was involved in the suppression of a mutiny on the HMS Africaine, then later in 1810 was stationed in the Indian Ocean.  In 1812, it was blockading the French port of Toulon in the Mediterranean during the Napoleonic Wars.  It cruised the south France coast keeping an eye out for privateers.

In 1813, it started escorting convoys across the Atlantic to Canada during the War of 1812.  Later that year, it raided positions along the Maryland coast and destroyed an American convoy.

In 1814, it was ordered to operate against French ships in the Atlantic.  After the French surrender, it returned to the U.S., where the captain was killed in Maryland and just after that, the ship took part in the Battle of Baltimore (Fort McHenry).

Edward Dix took command of the Menelaus and continued in that position until the ship was laid up in 1818.  In 1832, it became a hospital ship and later a quarantine ship.  It was finally scrapped in 1897, 87 years after its launch.

The Story of a Ship and a Busy One at That.  --Brock-Perry