HMS Owen Glendower (or Owen Glendour) was a Royal Navy 36-gun fifth-rate Apollo-class frigate launched in 1808 and disposed of in 1884. In between she was instrumental in the seizure of the Danish island of Anholt, captured prizes in the Channel during the Napoleonic Wars, sailed to the East Indies and South America, participated in the suppression of the slave trade, and served as a prison hulk in Gibraltar before she was sold in 1884.
Active duty
Captain William Selby, late of , took command of Owen Glendower in January 1809.
The Gunboat War
Early in May 1809, Vice-admiral Sir James Saumarez, the British commander-in-chief in the Baltic, sent a squadron, consisting of the 64-gun third rate , Owen Glendower, three sloops (, , and ), and the gun-brig . The commander of the squadron was Captain Aiskew Paffard Hollis, captain of Standard. Their objective was to capture the Danish island of Anholt. Anholt was small and essentially barren; its significance rested in the lighthouse that stood on its easternmost point. The Danes had extinguished it at the outbreak of hostilities between Britain and Denmark; the point of capturing the island was to restore the lighthouse to its function to assist British men-of-war and merchantmen in the Kattegat.
The task force landed a party of seamen and marines, under the command of Selby, assisted by Captain Edward Nicolls of the Standard's Royal Marines. The Danes put up a short, ineffective resistance that killed one British marine and wounded two. Still, on 18 May the Danish garrison of 170 men surrendered, giving the British immediate possession of the island.
The Channel
From late 1809 Owen Glendower operated in the Channel. On 10 March 1810, she came upon a French privateer lugger while her crew was boarding a schooner. Selby chased the lugger for one and half hours. The lugger resisted until she was half full of water and had had two men killed and three wounded out of her crew of 58. She turned out to be Camille, armed with only six of the fourteen guns she carried, having stored eight in her hold. She had sailed from Cherbourg only six hours earlier and had already captured the English schooner Fame, of London, William Proper, master, which had been sailing from Lisbon to London with a cargo of fruit. later recaptured Fame.
On 26 March Owen Glendower sailed with a convoy for Quebec. On 27 September she sailed with a convoy for the Cape of Good Hope.
Then on 1 October Owen Glendower, with in company, was escorting a convoy off The Lizard in thick fog. A master and crew from Roden, one of the vessels in the convoy, came aboard and advised Selby that a French privateer cutter had taken his vessel. When the fog lifted, it turned out that the cutter was only a short distance away. The cutter did not surrender until a short cannonade wounded several of her crew. She turned out to be the 16 or 20-gun Indomptable, out of Roscoff, with a crew of 120 or 130 men. She had formerly been the Revenue Cutter Swan, out of Cowes. Selby also retook Roden.
Selby died aboard Owen Glendower on 28 March 1811 whilst at the Cape of Good Hope . Edward Henry A'Court, newly promoted to post-captain on 29 March, took temporary command of Owen Glendower. He then sailed her back to Britain. Captain Bryan Hodgson transferred in July from to replace A'Court as captain.
East Indies
Owen Glendowers next cruise was to the East Indies. She was due to leave Portsmouth on 25 September 1811, but adverse winds detained her. She sailed five days later, only to be driven back to Falmouth. Finally, she sailed for India on 20 October. In 1812 she served as flagship for Vice Admiral Sir Samuel Hood in the East Indies.
In May 1814 off the Nicobar Islands, Owen Glendower captured a U.S. privateer, the 12 or 16-gun vessel , which had a crew of 30. Hyder Ally was out of Portland, Maine and under the command of Captain Israel Thorndike. She carried sixteen cannons: twelve 18-pounder carronades, two 18-pounder guns, and two 9-pounder guns. Hyder Ally had already taken three prizes, which she had sent back to the US. (The British later retook all three. Earlier, Hyder Ally had escaped after being chased for three days by .
Owen Glendower cruised the East Indies, stopping at such places as the Malacca Roads (21 August), Madras (29 August 1815), Penang and China, Trincomalee, and the like. She returned to England in the spring of 1816 and was laid up in May at Chatham.
Post-war
Between March 1817 and May 1819, Owen Glendower underwent major repairs at Chatham. She then was fitted for sea between June and October.