HMS Madagascar was a 38-gun Piémontaise-class frigate originally of the French Navy. Her French name had been Néréide, and she had been built to a design by François Pestel. In 1810 as Néréide, she sailed to Guadeloupe but was repelled by the blockade off Basse-Terre, and returned to Brest after a fight with HMS Rainbow (1809) and HMS Avon (1805). The British captured Néréide during the action of 20 May 1811, and commissioned her into the Royal Navy as HMS Madagascar. She took part in the Peninsular War against France, and the War of 1812 with the United States. Madagascar, HMS Vengeur (1810), and HMS Lightning (1806) were in company on 6 March 1814 at the recapture of Diamond. Shortly thereafter, Captain Bentinck Cavendish Doyle of Lightning transferred to take command of Madagascar. In June 1814, Madagascar served in a flotilla under the command of Admiral Lord Cochrane, and carried General William Miller and his troops from Bordeaux to the Chesapeake Bay to reinforce General Ross in the War of 1812.1

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