 TheWarspite returning toSpithead from her voyage round the World, 28 July 1827 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | HMSWarspite |
| Ordered | 13 January 1798 |
| Builder | Chatham Dockyard |
| Laid down | 3 December 1805 |
| Launched | 16 November 1807 |
| Decommissioned | 1815 |
| Notes | original construction cost £59,725 |
| Recommissioned | As a 76-gun ship, 1817 |
| Recommissioned | As a 50-gun frigate, 1840 |
| Decommissioned | 1846 |
| Reclassified | Boys' training ship, 1862 |
| Fate | Burnt, 3 January 1876 |
| General characteristics as built[1] | |
| Class & type | 74-gunthird-rateship of the line |
| Tons burthen | 1890bm |
| Length | 179 ft 10 in (54.8 m) (gundeck) |
| Beam | 49 ft (14.9 m) |
| Draught | Underside of keel to uppermost point of taffrail 16.5m |
| Depth of hold | 21 ft (6.4 m) |
| Sail plan | Full-rigged ship |
| Complement | 600 |
| Armament |
|
| Notes | One of the earliest to be refitted with diagonal framing trusses |
| General characteristics 1840 razee[2] | |
| Class & type | 50-gunfrigate |
| Length | 179 ft 10 in (54.8 m) (gundeck) |
| Beam | 49 ft (14.9 m) |
| Depth of hold | 13 ft 10 in (4.2 m) |
| Sail plan | Full-rigged ship |
| Complement | 475 |
| Armament |
|
HMSWarspite was a 74-gunthird-rateship of the line of theRoyal Navy, launched in 1807. She served in the Napoleonic Wars and was decommissioned in 1815. She was re-rated as a 76-gun ship in 1817 and then circumnavigated the world from 1826 to 1827, visiting Australia. She was cut down to a single decker 50-gun frigate in 1840 and was decommissioned in 1846. She was lent as a boys' training ship to the Marine Society and was lost to fire in 1876.
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After a long delay due to shortage of timber,Warspite was launched on 16 November 1807 atChatham and commissioned by SirHenry Blackwood, Admiral LordNelson's 'favourite frigate captain'. She was designed by SirJohn Henslow as one of the large class 74s, and was the second, and last, ship of a class of two (the other beingColossus).[3] As a large '74', she carried 24-pounder guns on her upper gun deck instead of the 18 pdrs found on the middling and common class 74s.[1]
Warspite spent three years between 1807 and 1810 playing a supporting role in thePeninsular War.[4] She took part in the long blockade ofToulon in 1810.[4] She then joined theChannel Fleet, protecting British trade while intercepting French and American ships. During early 1813Warspite took a couple of lucrative ‘prizes’ including a USschooner bound forPhiladelphia ‘with brandy, wine, silks, etc.,’ fromFrance. In June 1814 her name appears for the first time on theNorth American and West Indies Station, when she carried reinforcements toQuebec; the first 74-gun ship to go so far up theSaint Lawrence River, under CaptainLord James O'Brien.[5]
She was paid off in 1815 only to be recommissioned in 1817 when she was modified to carry 76 guns.[4] At the same time her stern was altered and she was given diagonal bracing on the framing introduced by SirRobert Seppings. In 1825 she sailed from Portsmouth with Rear Admiral Philip Woodehouse as the new commanding officer of the West Indies station. During 1826–27 shecircumnavigated the world underCaptain William Parker,[6] but bearing the flag of Rear-AdmiralGage, departing from Spithead for India. At Trincomalee Rear-Admiral Gage was replaced by Commodore SirJames Brisbane as the new South Atlantic (Rio de Janeiro) Station commander-in-chief. However, following Commodore Brisbane's death from a contracted tropical disease, CaptainRichard Saunders Dundas of the accompanyingsixth-rate survey shipHMS Volage took command for the rest of the voyage which sawWarspite as the first ship of the line to visitPort Jackson in the colony of New South Wales in Australia.[7] Returning to the station with the Malta squadron late in 1828 she was detached to transportCount Capo d'Istria, President of the Greek republic, to various locations around the Eastern Mediterranean while blockading Navarino, Modon and Coron in coordination with the French and Russian allied squadrons. In this capacity it helped to interdict two Egyptian corvettes at Navarino, one suffering substantial damage when it ignored warning shots and was engaged with the main battery. Captain Parker then participated in several conferences withIbrahim Pasha to negotiate thewithdrawal of Egyptian troops from Greece.[8] In 1831 she was at the South American (Rio de Janeiro) station as the flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Thomas Baker, Captain Charles Talbot, at one time contribution towards salvage ofHMS Thetis cargo off Cape Frio in 1830.
Warspite wasreduced to a one-decker 50-gunfrigate in 1840,[1] for service on the Home station under Lord John Hay, and is recorded to have visited the United States in 1842, exchanging salutes withUSS North Carolina and the frigateColumbia in the New York harbor. She was then used for anti-piracy patrols in theMediterranean,[4] including the blockade of the mouth of the riverXanthus in 1844. Her last senior officer was Captain Wallis, serving at the Gibraltar station before she was paid off in 1846.[9]
In 1862 she was loaned toThe Marine Society as a boys' training ship,[4] for which she was permanently moored on the Thames between Woolwich and Charlton. Training for about 150 boys at a time was conducted over about 10 months to provide basic seaman knowledge, including of ship lore, rigging and discipline, sufficient to be employed asBoy Seaman in either the Royal Navy or the merchant marine. On 6 August 1863 she was struck by theRussian ironclad Pervenets while the latter was undergoing sea trials.
She was destroyed by fire (arson was suspected but never proven) on 3 January 1876, while still on loan.[1][10] Of the 458 people on board, only three or four were drowned.[11] The wreck was sold to McArthur and Co on 2 February 1876.[2]
Media related toHMS Warspite (1807) at Wikimedia Commons