A fact from HMS Wilhelmina (1798) appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 28 May 2009 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that despite being armed en flûte as a troopship, HMS Wilhelmina still engaged and drove off a more heavily armed privateer to protect the merchant she was escorting?
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Nothing crystal ball about it at all. Wilhelmina was assigned to the convoy. Linois knew this, and decided he liked those odds and decided to make a grab for it. Unbeknownst to him a concerned Admiral Rainier worried that Linois might do just that, and replaced Wilhelmina with the rather bigger HMS Centurion. Linois turned up at Vizagapatam expecting to make an easy grab, but instead of Wilhelmina he found the rather more difficult proposition of Centurion. Instead of an easy raid against a 32-gun single decker fifth rate frigate, it turned into a hard fought engagement against a 50 gun two decker fourth rate. It seems pertinent to note here that Wilhelmina's absence in favour of Centurion played a role in bringing about a hard fought battle. Benea (talk) 19:13, 28 May 2009 (UTC)Reply