HMS Aeolus was a 32-gun Amphion-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1801 and served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and the War of 1812. Ordered during the last years of the French Revolutionary Wars, Aeolus was at first engaged in convoy work, before being sent out to the West Indies, where she took part in operations off Saint-Domingue and blockaded the French ships in the harbours. She was involved in the chase of the 74-gun Duquesne after she put to sea, and assisted in her capture. Aeolus returned to operate off the British coast, and was part of Sir Richard Strachan's squadron in late 1805. The squadron encountered part of the fleeing Franco-Spanish fleet that Nelson had decisively defeated two weeks previously at the Battle of Trafalgar,