HMS Galatea was a fifth-rate 32-gun sailing frigate of the British Royal Navy that George Parsons built at Bursledon and launched in 1794.

Before she was broken up in 1809 she captured numerous prizes and participated in a number of actions, first in the Channel and off Ireland (1794–1803), and then in the Caribbean (1802–1809), including one that earned her crew the Naval General Service Medal.

On 23 August, the squadron ran the French ships Volontaire, Espion, and Alerte on to the shore along the coast of France and destroyed them.

[4] Galatea, Arethusa, Artois, Diamond and Diana shared in the capture of the French cutter Quartidi on 7 September.

[5] Galatea was among the vessels in sight when Artois captured the frigate Révolutionnaire of 40 guns and 370 men at the action of 21 October 1794.

The frigates Artois, Galatea and Anson, and the hired armed lugger Duke of York assisted Pomone in the capture.

[11][a] Galatea, Anson, Artois and Pomone shared in the capture of Jean Amie, François Bernard and Lune on 15 and 27 February 1795.

[12] Between 13 February and 2 March, the same four British ships shared in the capture of the Petit Jean, Adélaïde, and Aimalie.

She was part of a convoy that Pellew's squadron had chased and was one of several small vessels they captured that day.

[15] Galatea, Artois, Anson and Pomone, which was under the command of Sir John Borlase Warren, who commanded the squadron, attacked a French convoy of some 60 vessels, including its escort of four frigates, a corvette, the armed store ship Étoile and a gun-brig, on 20 March 1796.

In the engagement Galatea lost two men killed and six wounded and her losses represented the only British casualties.

Then Galatea, Pomone, Artois and Anson shared in the capture of the chasse marees Charlotte and Véronique on 16 August.

Notwithstanding the difficulty of the navigation in shoal waters Captain Richard Goodwin Keats and Galatea pursued the frigate.

The French pilot on board declared himself incapable of piloting the ship in the shoal waters, but Keats persevered taking responsibility for conning his ship and chased the enemy through the night in squally winds, rain and lightning, passing between the Chevrier bank and the lighthouse before making all sail in pursuit right over the shoals of Arcachon on which the French frigate struck and was immediately wrecked.

such was the widespread public expectation that the gallant western frigate squadron would continue its well publicised harassment of the enemy the admiralty wrote they were 'intending by and by to release you from the fleet and send you cruising again on your old ground.

[9] Pomone, Galatea, Anson and Artois recaptured the whaler Mary South on 25 April 1797.

[30] On 19 July, Doris and Galatea recaptured the Portuguese ship Nostra Senora de Patrocinio e Santa Anna.

On a stormy night, Lieutenant Donald Campbell and six men took a boat to take possession of a Spanish letter of marque that Galatea had caught.

Hibernia was a linen ship worth £100,000, and was carrying as a passenger Mr. J. Dalway, Member of Parliament from Belfast.

[45] A month later, on 25 June, she recaptured the English ship Beaver, which was carrying a cargo of slaves and ivory.

On 14 August Galatea attempted to cut out the French privateer Général Ernouf, which had been the British sloop-of-war Lilly.

The French also captured Galatea's barge, which the other three boats of the cutting out party could not retrieve as they made their escape.

On 11 September she shared with Circe, Africaine, Hippomenes, Amelia, and the schooner Maria in the proceeds of the capture of the brig Hiram .

[50] On 18 August 1806 Lieutenant M'Culloch used Galatea's barge to pursue a schooner several miles up a river near Puerto Cabello, Venezuela.

The schooner resisted the boarding party until she lost her commander and a crew member, at which time she surrendered.

[51] Then between 9 and 11 October a cutting-out party in three boats under the command of Richard Gittins, the first lieutenant, brought out four Spanish schooners that were sheltering under three batteries at Barcelona (Colombia).

[53] On the morning of 21 January 1807 Galatea was off the coast of Venezuela when she sighted a sail steering for La Guaira.

Galatea approached and identified the vessel as a man-of-war; she then change her course, heading for Barcelona, Anzoátegui, which lay some 160 miles to the east.

The boats then pulled back and poured musket and small arms fire through the stern and quarter ports.

She was armed with fourteen 24-pounder carronades, two 9-pounder chase guns and carried a crew of 161 men under the command of Mons.