 Earl St Vincent was suffering from an extreme shortage of frigates , and on the arrival of Sensible at the Tagus immediately ordered the frigate to be commissioned as HMS Sensible , stripping six men from each of his ships to man her and turning the frigate into an active warship in just 12 hours . For a year Sensible remained with St. Vincent , until she was sent back to Britain in November 1799 . On arrival the ship was downgraded from frontline service , but did spend several years commissioned as a military transport until wrecked off Ceylon on 3 March 1802 . Among the treasures removed from the ship was a decorated brass cannon captured from the Ottomans in the seventeenth century and presented to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem by King Louis XIV of France , as well as a model of a galley made from gilt silver . These were sold , along with the other cargo and ships fittings at Sheerness in November 1799 , the prize money shares subsequently awarded to the crew of Seahorse . 
