Lord Cochrane's frigate HMS Pallas - Roy Cross RSMA

Pallas entered service in January 1805, under the command of Lord Thomas Cochrane, and proceeded to cruise in the vicinity of the Azores.

The Thames class frigates of 1803 were an update of an older design when the need for more frigates was urgent. Pallas was fir-built (normally of 32 guns) but obviously a capable sailor especially when taken over by the redoubtable Lord Cochrane, who continued a dazzling series of exploits beginning with the capture in February 1805 of a Spanish ship laden with sugar and logwood and a second a week later with a more valuable cargo of gold and silver.

In all the first voyage of the Pallas netted Cochrane a small fortune worth at least £40,000.00 then. Cochrane was then given orders to cruise off the Normandy coast in 1806. During the evening of 5 April 1806, Cochrane sailed the Pallas into the Gironde estuary captured the French 14-gun corvette Tapageuse, and drove ashore and wrecked three other corvettes.

By August 1806, Cochrane was appointed to the much larger IMPERIEUSE (38 guns) and eventually managed to transfer the crew of Pallas to his new command. A 'boy' volunteer 1st class aboard was none other than the future maritime writer Captain Frederick Maaayat who used his adventures with Cochrane in his novels.

Original painting, oil on canvas

Image size: 20 x 26 inches