HMS Meleager was a 32-gun Amazon-class frigate' that Greaves and Nickolson built in 1785 at the Quarry House yard in Frindsbury, Kent, England. She served during the French Revolutionary Wars until 1801, when she was wrecked in the Gulf of Mexico. Career Captain Charles Tyler took command of Meleager in 1790. In 1793 Lieutenant Thomas Masterman Hardy served aboard her. Meleager was among the vessels that shared in the capture, on 5 August 1793, cf the Prince Royal of Sweden. Meleager was part of the fleet under Lord Hood that occupied Toulon in August 1793. With , Robust, and , she covered the landing, on 27 August, of 1500 troops sent to remove the republicans occupying the forts guarding the port. Once the forts were secure, the remainder of Hood's fleet, accompanied by 17 Spanish ships-of-the-line that had just arrived, sailed into the harbour. On 16 November she and captured the French gunboat Ca Ira. In 1794 Sir George Cockburn commanded her. In early 1794 she was among the British vessels present when Sir David Dundas captured the town of San Fiorenzo (San Fiurenzu) in the Gulf of St. Florent in Corsica. There the British found the French frigate Minerve on 19 February 1794, and were able to refloat her. They then took her into service as a 38-gun frigate under the name . Meleager shared in the prize money for both St Fiorenzo and for the naval stores captured in the town. In April captured the Mars (3 April) and Aurora (15 April) in the presence of Courageux, , , and Meleager. Next, she took part in the Battle of Genoa (14 March 1795), and the fight at Hyeres (12 May 1795). Meleager was among the vessels that shared in the prize money for the , Censeur, and Expedition (formerly ), captured during or after the raid on Genoa. The British returned Speedy to service. Around this time Meleager was among the vessels that shared in the capture of the Genoese vessel Fortuna and the tartane Concezione. They also captured the Genoese and Venetian polacres and luggers Madona del Grazzie e Consolazione, Volante de Dio, Madona del Grazzie de Padua, Buena Forte and another small vessel. In 1796, Meleager was part of a squadron off the coast of Genoa under the command of Captain Horatio Nelson. Nelson, in , led Meleager, (32 guns), (64 guns) and the 16-gun brig-sloop