HMS Starr was a 16-gun Merlin-class ship sloop of the Royal Navy. She was built by Tanner, of Dartmouth, to plans by Sir William Rule, and launched in July 1805. As a sloop she served on convoy duty, though she also participated in the invasion of Martinique in early 1809. She was rebuilt as a bomb vessel in May 1812 and renamed Meteor. As Meteor she served in the Baltic and then off the United States, participating in attacks on up the Potomac and on Baltimore and New Orleans. She was sold in October 1816. Napoleonic Wars She was commissioned in October 1805 under Commander John Simpson. On 3 January 1806 she recaptured the ships Argo and Adventure, and shared in the recapture of the Good Intent. Starr was off Villa de Conde, Portugal, when she intercepted the vessels, which had been taken from a convoy that had been escorting from Newfoundland to Portugal, and both of which had been carrying cargoes of fish. Starr sighted Good Intent and signaled Mercury, which recaptured her too. On 5 February, captured the Baltidore, which was the privateer that had captured Good Intent. Starr escorted a convoy to Newfoundland in August 1807 and another to the Leeward Islands in 1808. While briefly under Commander Francis Augustus Collier, she participated in the capture of Martinique in February 1809 where she landed in command of a detachment of seamen and marines. In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the award of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Martinique" to all surviving claimants from the campaign. Between November 1811 and May 1812, Starr was rebuilt as a bomb vessel. She was then recommissioned, possibly in February 1812, as Meteor under Commander Peter Fisher. Her predecessor under the name , had been a bomb vessel too and had been sold in November. Fisher sailed Meteor to the Baltic. There, she participated in operations against Zuid-Beveland, at the siege of Danzic, and at the blockade of the Scheldt. At Danzig, Meteor joined Swedish and Russian gunboats in an attack on the French garrison. Meteor pressed the attack, coming in close under the shore batteries and the bombardment damaged many houses, both directly and through subsequent fires. The allies succeeded in capturing a point, which would enable them to close the city to resupply by sea even without maintaining a naval blockade. One Russian gunboat was sunk and in all,