HMS Lively (1804)

In October 1804, Lively was under the command of Captain Graham Eden Hamond. , 1804, John Thomas Serres On 5 October, a British squadron of four frigates, Lively, Medusa, and Amphion and, with Graham Moore as Commodore, Indefatigable, intercepted four Spanish frigates under the command of Rear-Admiral Don Joseph Bustamente, Knight of the Order of St. James, off Cadiz. The Royal Navy took Medea into service as and Clara as . The value of the treasure was very large, and if it had been treated as Prize of War then Moore and his brother captains would have become extremely wealthy. As it was the money (and ships) were declared to be "Droits of Admiralty" on the grounds that war had not been declared, and the captains and crew shared a relatively small ex gratia payment of £160,000 for the bullion, plus the proceeds of the sale of the hull and cargo. ==Action of 7 December 1804==

On 7 December Lively and captured the Spanish frigate off Cape St Mary. The Royal Navy took her into service as Santa Gertruda, but did not commission the 40-year-old ship. Instead it used her as a receiving ship at Plymouth. In March 1805, Lively was attached to Sir James Craig's military expedition to Italy. Along with , Craig's flagship, and HMS Ambuscade, Lively escorted the fleet of transports to Malta. ==Fate==

On 20 August 1810, while escorting another convoy to Malta, HMS Lively ran aground on rocks near Point Coura, Malta, and was wrecked; there were no deaths. Workmen from the dockyard at Valletta attempted unsuccessfully to get her off. Work continued until late September when she was abandoned as a wreck after having been stripped of anything of use or value. The court martial dis-rated the master for having sailed too close to shore, and reprimanded the officer of the watch. ==In popular culture==

Lively appears in Patrick O'Brian's novels Post Captain and HMS Surprise, with O'Brian's fictional naval officer, Jack Aubrey, in temporary command. ==Notes==