HMS Minotaur was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 15 April 1816 at Chatham Dockyard.

She was never commissioned for sea service; on completion of construction the new vessel was immediately placed in reserve at Sheerness Dockyard until 1842 when she was fitted as a receiving ship for naval conscripts. By 1859 she had become a guardship in Sheerness harbour, and in 1861 was converted into a floating lazarette for passengers from merchant vessels who were suspected by the Customs Service of bringing in disease. Five years later she was sailed to Gravesend to serve as a hospital for cholera patients.^[1]

In July 1866 she was renamed Hermes, but was broken up at Sheerness Dockyard in 1869.^[1]

• Winfield, Rif (2014). British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1793-1817. London: Seaforth. ISBN 9781844157174.