HMS Lively was a 38-gun fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy, launched on 23 July 1804 at Woolwich Dockyard, and commissioned later that month.

She was the prototype of the Lively class of 18-pounder frigates, designed by the Surveyor of the Navy, Sir William Rule.

It was probably the most successful British frigate design of the Napoleonic Wars, to which fifteen more sister ships would be ordered between 1803 and 1812.

Spain was at the time a neutral country, but was showing strong signs of declaring war in alliance with Napoleonic France.

[4][Note 1] On 7 December Lively and Polyphemus captured the Spanish frigate Santa Gertruyda off Cape St Mary.

The court martial dis-rated the master for having sailed too close to shore, and reprimanded the officer of the watch.