in 1795, reynolds was called out of half-pay in penair near truro and given command of the frigate hms "druid". a year later he moved to hms "amazon", in which he served under sir edward pellew in hms "indefatigable". in pellew's squadron, reynolds participated in the capture of the french frigate "unité". he was still under pellew in the action of 13 january 1797 when "amazon", in company with hms "indefatigable", engaged and drove ashore the much larger french ship of the line "droits de l'homme". in the heavy storm in which the battle was fought, "amazon" became unmanageable and was also wrecked, although the frigate was beached and all but six of her men survived, unlike her larger opponent which was run on a sandbar and destroyed with hundreds of lives lost.