HMS Spider was formerly the French privateer Victoire, built at Dunkirk in 1782, that the Royal Navy captured that same year.

[4] Spider brought into Plymouth around 15 March 1793 the French privateer Sans-Culottes, as well as her prize, Susan, Cheater, master.

Spider captured Sans Culotte and recaptured Susan some seven leagues west of Guernsey on 5 March.

After a chase of three hours, punctuated by fire from the quarry's stern chasers, Spider caught up with the brig just under the Lizard.

[8] Lieutenant Digby Dent, in his after-action letter, described her as having 14 guns (four of which she threw overboard during the chase), and a crew of 70 men under the command of Henry Capel.

The American reported that on 27 February 12 French frigates, transports, and supply ships, together with a number of troops, had sailed from Bordeaux for Brest.

She was a Cornish vessel, from Polperro, and was returning to Britain with 900 ankers of brandy, as well as tobacco and other smuggled goods.

Consequently, her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal, which the Admiralty issued in 1847 to all surviving claimants.

[17] Nelson deferred a judgement on the correctness of Shaw's action to Sir Alexander Ball, the chief commissioner at Malta.

[18] (Later (i.e., by June 1804), Nelson fully endorsed Shaw's action, complaining that the Sicilian Government and that of the Republic of the Seven Islands were too free in letting French privateers use their ports.

[22] On 9 July 1804, Shaw and Spider captured the Ragusan brig Madonna del Rosario.

"[24] On 11 September, Lieutenant Harding Shaw and Spider were about three leagues from Alicante when they captured the French privateer Conception, of two brass guns and 47 men.

Nelson had received a letter from Mr. Langdon alleging that Shaw had issued him certificates for pilot services (payment instructions), and demanded back half the pilotage charge.

Nelson asked for an accounting of all such certificates in order to decide whether to open a public inquiry into Shaw's conduct.

[27] Spider captured the French privateer Andromeda, of four guns and 43 men on 10 December 1805,[28] cutting her out of the port of Reggio.

This article includes data released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported UK: England & Wales Licence, by the National Maritime Museum, as part of the Warship Histories project.