HMS Brilliant was a 36-gun fifth-rate frigate of the British Royal Navy that saw active service during the Seven Years' War with France. She performed well against the French Navy in the 1760 Battle of Bishops Court and the 1761 Battle of Cape Finisterre, but was less capable when deployed for bombardment duty off enemy ports. She also captured eight French privateers and sank two more during her six years at sea. The Royal Navy decommissioned Brilliant in 1763. The Navy sold her in 1776 and she became an East Indiaman for the British East India Company (EIC). Brilliant was wrecked in August 1782 on the Comoro Islands while transporting troops to India.
Design and construction
Design
Thomas Slade, the Surveyor of the Navy and former Master Shipwright at Deptford Dockyard, was the designer of the Venus-class of 36-gun frigates. Alongside their smaller cousin, the 32-gun Southampton class, the Venus-class represented an experiment in ship design; fast, medium-sized and heavily-armed, capable of overhauling smaller craft and single-handedly engaging enemy cruisers or large privateers. As a further innovation, Slade borrowed from contemporary French ship design by removing the lower deck gun ports and locating the ship's cannons solely on the upper deck. This permitted the carrying of heavier ordinance without the substantial increase in hull size that would have been required to keep the lower gun ports consistently above the waterline. The lower deck carried additional stores, enabling Venus-class frigates to remain at sea for longer periods without resupply.
Designed in 1756 she was built by Thomas Bucknall at Plymouth Dockyard and launched the following year, Venus was one of the first Royal Navy vessels to be built to a classic frigate design with a single gun deck and an emphasis on speed. Her principal role was that of a hunter of French privateers. One naval historian has described the Venus-class frigates, including Brilliant, as "the best British fighting cruisers" of their day. However they remained slightly inferior to her French equivalents in both speed and weight of ordinance.
The Admiralty approved the Venus class design on 13 July 1756 and ordered three ships. Brilliant was the last of these, and the only one to be constructed at Plymouth Dockyard.
Construction
Thomas Bucknall, the Navy's Master Shipwright at Plymouth, oversaw the construction, which commenced with the laying of the keel on 28 August 1756. The vessel was formally named Brilliant on 17 March 1757. A 1755 Admiralty review of Plymouth Dockyard had found it inefficient, poorly staffed, and suffering from "notorious neglect," but work on Brilliant proceeded apace and she was completed by early October 1757.
Crew
Her designated complement was 240 men, comprising four commissioned officers a captain and three lieutenants overseeing 50 warrant and petty officers, 108 naval ratings, 44 Marines, and 34 servants and other ranks. Among these other ranks were five positions reserved for widow's men fictitious crew members whose pay was intended to be reallocated to the families of sailors who died at sea.
Armament
Brilliants principal armament consisted of 26 cast iron twelve-pound cannons, located along her upper deck. The guns were specifically constructed with short barrels, as traditional 12-pounder cannons were too long to fit within the frigate's narrow beam. Each cannon weighed with a gun barrel length of , compared with their equivalent in larger Royal Navy vessels.
The 12-pounder guns were supported by ten 6-pounder guns, eight on the quarterdeck and two on the forecastle, each weighing with a barrel length of . Taken together, the 12-pounder and 6-pounder cannons provided a broadside weight of . She was also equipped with twelve ½-pounder swivel guns for anti-personnel use. These swivel guns were mounted in fixed positions on the quarterdeck and forecastle.
Royal Navy service
Privateer hunter
Brilliant was commissioned in October 1757 under the command of post-captain Hyde Parker and entering Navy service during the early stages of the Seven Years' War against France.