H.M.S. Mediator about to attack an enemy convoy off Cape Ortegal, 12th December 1782

H.M.S. Mediator, a fifth rate of 44-guns, was built at Northam, Southampton, and launched in March 1782. Completed and commissioned under Captain John Luttrell later the same year, when the American War of Independence was still in progress, she was cruising off Cape Ortegal, on the north-west coast of Spain, when she sighted a valuable enemy convoy of five ships on 12th December (1782). Although mostly storeships, all were armed and each shortened sail as they awaited the arrival of the Mediator sensing an easy victory. In the event, Luttrell's bold tactics enabled him to capture three of the enemy, including the 34-gun Menagere, without the loss of a single man. Mediator was renamed Camel in 1788 and survived until broken up in 1810.