High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! HMS Latona was a 38-gun, 18-pounder gun armed fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was designed by the senior surveyor John Williams. In this era it was common for each surveyor to produce independent designs for new ship types, and this design was a counterpoint to Edward Hunt`s HMS Minerva; together the two draughts represent the prototype of the thirty-eight gun, 18-pounder armed frigate.