HMS Experiment (1784)

Work on Experiment continued slowly after her completion; she received her copper sheathing in September 1790. The ship was eventually put into commission seven years after her completion.^[1] With the wartime necessity of using the obsolete ships as frontline warships now at an end, most ships of Experiment's type were taken out of service. While lacking modern fighting capabilities, the design still provided a fast ship, and so the Comptroller of the Navy, Sir Charles Middleton, pressed them into service as troop ships.^[5] She was commissioned as an en flute troop ship under the command of Commander Simon Miller in January 1793.^[1][8] As a troop ship, vessels of the Roebuck class had their crew decreased to 155.^[4]

Experiment was then fitted as a troop ship at Portsmouth, completed on 12 February. The ship sailed for the Leeward Islands Station on 26 February as part of a convoy. She carried on board 300 members of the Royal Artillery, stopping first at Gibraltar before arriving in the West Indies on 26 November. There she served as an armed store ship.^[1][9][10] In this role, in 1794 Experiment participated in operations to capture Martinique and Guadeloupe.^[8] She continued to transport troops as well, taking soldiers from Guadeloupe to Jamaica on 28 May.^[11]

The Guadeloupe expedition was unsuccessful after several months of fighting. As part of the withdrawal, on 19 June Experiment and a transport ship took the greatly depleted British garrison of St Lucia away from the embattled island.^[9][12] The historian William Laird Clowes picks out Lieutenant John Barrett, the commander of Experiment at the time, as one of the naval officers who distinguished themselves during this period.^[12] The naval historian Rif Winfield, however, only records Barrett as joining the ship in August the following year. Winfield says that Experiment's next commanding officer was Commander Lancelot Skynner in January 1795, only then followed by Barrett.^[1]

On 11 March 1797 Experiment escorted ten vessels carrying 2,348 deported Caribbeans from St Vincent to the Spanish island of Roatan. Arriving thirty-one days later, the small Spanish garrison was attacked and subdued, but one of the ships protected by Experiment was sunk during the engagement. The deportees were then landed on the island.^[13] Having finished at Roatan, Experiment sailed for Halifax, Nova Scotia. While en route she came across a Spanish fleet of merchant ships sailing from Cartagena, capturing eight of nine. Barrett unloaded three of these into the other vessels, and took the remaining five on to Halifax. Barrett's share of the prize money for these was estimated to be £800,000. Having reached Halifax by 8 July, Experiment's masts were all condemned and the ship underwent considerable repairs.^[14][15]

The ship returned to Britain as escort to a convoy in November, where at Deptford Dockyard she was again refitted as a troop ship.^[1][15] At this time she was also re-armed, receiving instead sixteen 9-pounders on the upper deck and four 6-pounders on the quarterdeck. This work was completed in May 1798, prior to which the ship was recommissioned under the command of Commander John Saville in February.^[1] Experiment was one of three troop ships that conveyed the Royal Lancashire Militia from Plymouth to Ireland on 6 September.^[16] After the British victory at the Battle of Tory Island, Experiment was then employed in taking 2,000 French prisoners of war from Plymouth to Portsmouth on 31 October.^[17] On 21 July the following year the ship was part of a squadron that arrived at Elsinore in preparation to sail to Reval to take on board Russian troops for the Anglo-Russian Invasion of Holland.^[18]

Experiment sailed to the Mediterranean Sea in February 1801, where she participated in operations of the Egypt Campaign as part of Admiral Lord Keith's fleet.^[1][19] Experiment carried part of the expeditionary army, but was not one of the ships involved in the initial landings at the Battle of Abukir on 8 March. Several of Experiment's small boats were however used as landing craft for the operation, embarking soldiers from another troop ship.^[20] Saville served on land with the army during these operations.^[21] Continuing in the Mediterranean, Commander George Mackenzie took over from Saville in January 1802, and in November 1803 sailed Experiment back to Britain.^[1]

From December Experiment served, still en flute, as the guard ship at Lymington. She continued in that role until January 1805.^[22] In May Lieutenant Robert Yule assumed command of Experiment, which was then refitted as a harbour store ship between July and October for service at Falmouth. Yule did not staying long with the ship, being replaced by Lieutenant William Stewart in August, before the end of the work.^[23]

While serving at Falmouth Experiment underwent several more changes in command, with Lieutenant Bennett Fellowes arriving in November, before being replaced by Lieutenant James Fegen in April the following year. Fegen was the longest serving commander of Experiment, staying with the ship until 1810 when Commander James Slade came on board. Slade commanded Experiment until 1814, when her term at Falmouth ended and she was put in ordinary at Portsmouth. In July the following year the ship underwent another change, being converted into a lazarette. In this new role she was stationed at Liverpool from 1817 until 1834. Finally out of service, Experiment was sold for £1,420 on 8 September 1836.^[23]

• Clowes, William Laird (1899). The Royal Navy: A History from the Earliest Times to the Present. Vol. 4. London: Sampson Low, Marston and Company. OCLC 13028028.
• Gardiner, Robert (2001). "Ships of the Royal Navy: the 44-gun two-decker". In Robert Gardiner (ed.). Nelson against Napoleon. London: Caxton Editions. ISBN 978-1-84067-361-6.
• Mackesy, Piers (2010). British Victory in Egypt: The End of Napoleon's Conquest. London: Tauris Parke. ISBN 978-1-84885-472-7.
• Manning, T. D.; Walker, C. F. (1959). British Warship Names. London: Putnam. OCLC 213798232.
• Marshall, John (1824). "Miller, Simon" . Royal Naval Biography. Vol. 2, part 1. London: Longman and Company. p. 28.
• Martin, Tony (2012). Caribbean History: From Pre-Colonial Origins to the Present. London: Pearson. ISBN 978-0-13-220860-4.
• Tracy, Nicholas (1996). "Part II: War on Trade". In Gardiner, Robert (ed.). Fleet Battle and Blockade: The French Revolutionary War 1793 – 1797. London: Caxton Editions. ISBN 184067-363X.
• Winfield, Rif (2007). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714–1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. London: Pen & Sword. ISBN 978-1-84415-700-6.
• Winfield, Rif (2001). The 50-Gun Ship. London: Caxton Editions. ISBN 978-1-84067-365-4.