His Majesty's hired armed ship Harlequin served the British Royal Navy from 2 July 1804 until she was wrecked on 7 December 1809.
Her master was John Dyer and her description on the warrant gave her burthen as 180 tons, her armament as twenty 6 and 12-pounder cannons, and her crew as consisting of 70 men.
[2] In late May the privateer Harlequin, under the command of Captain Jenkins, arrived at Fowey from Oporto.
Then in April, while she was off Cape Finisterre, she had repelled a French vessel but only after losing one man killed and nine wounded.
[4] Harlequin was under the command of Lieutenant Phillip C. Anstruther when she captured four Prussian vessels on 3 April: Petronelle, Vrow Maria, Jonge Roelf Polman, and Iris.
[8] That same month Harlequin detained Catharina, of and for Hambro, Slieboom, master, which had sailed from Lisbon.
On 5 December 1809 Harlequin, still under Anstruther's command, left Plymouth Sound with a convoy of 22 vessels that she was escorting through the English Channel.
Apparently, in the darkness, the vessels had mistakenly believed they had passed Beachy Head and so prematurely changed course, with the result that they ran ashore west of Seaford.