HMS Boscawan in later life as the training ship Wellesley, 1904 | |
History | |
---|---|
United Kingdom | |
Name | HMS Boscawen |
Ordered | 11 May 1817 |
Builder | Woolwich Dockyard |
Laid down | January 1826 |
Launched | 3 April 1844 |
Renamed | Wellesley 1873 |
Fate |
|
General characteristics [1] | |
Class and type | 70-gun third rate ship of the line |
Tons burthen | 2048 tons |
Length | 187 ft 4+1⁄2 in (57.1 m) (gundeck) |
Beam | 50 ft 9 in (15.47 m) |
Depth of hold | 21 ft 6 in (6.55 m) |
Propulsion | Sails |
Sail plan | Full-rigged ship |
Armament |
|
HMS Boscawan was a 70-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 3 April 1844 at Woolwich Dockyard. She was originally ordered in 1812 and begun as a 74-gun Vengeur-class ship of the line, but the order was cancelled and her frames placed instorage; an Admiralty order dated 3 March 1834 required that those frames be reworked to Sir William Symonds' design. [1] She was named for Admiral Edward Boscawen.
Boscawen served at the Cape of Good Hope Station from May 1856 to March 1860. [2]
Returning to England that year, she was fitted out as a training ship, initially being based at Southampton (1862-1865), [3] then at Portland Harbour from 1867. [4] In 1873 she was replaced at Portland by HMS Trafalgar (which was itself renamed HMS Boscawen; afterwards the name Boscawen remained associated with the training establishment at Portland into the 20th century, and was subsequently attached to the Naval Base there from the 1930s until after the Second World War). [5]
In 1873, HMS Boscawen replaced Wellesley – the former HMS Cornwall – as the training ship at Wellesley Nautical School on Tyneside and was herself renamed TS Wellesley. [6]
On the afternoon of 11 March 1914, Wellesley was destroyed by fire and sank at her moorings on the River Tyne at North Shields. A total loss, she was broken up later in 1914. [1] [6]
Admiral of the Blue Edward Boscawen, PC was a British admiral in the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament for the borough of Truro, Cornwall, England. He is known principally for his various naval commands during the 18th century and the engagements that he won, including the siege of Louisburg in 1758 and Battle of Lagos in 1759. He is also remembered as the officer who signed the warrant authorising the execution of Admiral John Byng in 1757, for failing to engage the enemy at the Battle of Minorca (1756). In his political role, he served as a Member of Parliament for Truro from 1742 until his death although due to almost constant naval employment he seems not to have been particularly active. He also served as one of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty on the Board of Admiralty from 1751 and as a member of the Privy Council from 1758 until his death in 1761.
HMS Vanguard was a 70-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 16 April 1748. She was built by Philemon Ewer at his East Cowes yard on the Isle of Wight to the draught specified by the 1745 Establishment, at a cost of £8,009. She was the fourth vessel of the Royal Navy to bear the name Vanguard.
HMS Excellent is a Royal Navy "stone frigate" sited on Whale Island near Portsmouth in Hampshire. HMS Excellent is itself part of the Maritime Warfare School, with a headquarters at HMS Collingwood, although a number of lodger units are resident within the site including the offices of the First Sea Lord.
HMS Ganges was an 84-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 10 November 1821 at Bombay Dockyard, constructed from teak. She was the last sailing ship of the Navy to serve as a flagship, and was the second ship to bear the name.
A training ship is a ship used to train students as sailors. The term is mostly used to describe ships employed by navies to train future officers. Essentially there are two types: those used for training at sea and old hulks used to house classrooms. As with receiving ships or accommodation ships, which were often hulked warships in the 19th Century, when used to bear on their books the shore personnel of a naval station, that were generally replaced by shore facilities commissioned as stone frigates, most "Training Ships" of the British Sea Cadet Corps, by example, are shore facilities.
HMS Cornwall was an 80-gun, third rate, ship of the line built for the Royal Navy in the 1690s. She served in the War of the Grand Alliance, and in her first year took part in the Battle of Barfleur and the action at La Hougue.
HMS Cornwall was a 74-gun third-rate Vengeur-class ship of the line built for the Royal Navy in the 1810s. She spent most of her service in reserve and was converted into a reformatory and a school ship in her later years. The ship was broken up in 1875.
HMS Warspite was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 8 April 1758 at Deptford.
HMS Trafalgar was a 120-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 21 June 1841 at Woolwich Dockyard. HMS Trafalgar was the last ship to complete the successful Caledonia class.
The Vengeur-class ships of the line were a class of forty 74-gun third rates, designed for the Royal Navy as a joint effort between the two Surveyors of the Navy at the time. The Vengeur Class, sometimes referred to as the Surveyors' class of third rates, amongst other names, was the most numerous class of ships of the line ever built for the Royal Navy - forty ships being completed to this design. Due to some dubious practices, primarily in the commercial dockyards used for construction, this class of ships earned itself the nickname of 'Forty Thieves.'
HMS Prince was a 100-gun first rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built by Phineas Pett the Younger at Deptford Dockyard and launched in 1670.
HMS Royal Sovereign was a 100-gun first rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Woolwich Dockyard and launched in July 1701. She had been built using some of the salvageable timbers from the previous Royal Sovereign, which had been destroyed by fire in 1697.
HMS Wellesley was a 74-gun third rate, named after the Duke of Wellington, and launched in 1815. She captured Karachi for the British, and participated in the First Opium War, which resulted in Britain gaining control of Hong Kong. Thereafter she served primarily as a training ship before gaining the almost surely unwanted distinction of being the last British ship of the line to be sunk by enemy action and the only one to have been sunk by an air-raid.
HMS Swiftsure was a 70-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built by Sir Anthony Deane at Harwich, and launched in 1673. By 1685 she had been reduced to a 66-gun ship.
HMS Triumph was a 90-gun second rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Chatham Dockyard on 2 March 1697. She was renamed HMS Prince in 1714.
HMS Swiftsure was a 70-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched in 1755 and in active service during the Seven Years' War. After a distinguished career at sea she was decommissioned in 1763 and sold into private hands ten years later.
HMS Ganges was a training ship and later stone frigate of the Royal Navy. She was established as a boys' training establishment in 1865, and was based aboard a number of hulks before moving ashore. She was based alternately in Falmouth, Harwich and Shotley. She remained in service at RNTE Shotley until October 1976.
Two ships and a shore establishment of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Boscawen, after Admiral Edward Boscawen, whilst another ship was planned:
HMS Dunkirk was a 60-gun fourth-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built by Edward Allin at Woolwich Dockyard to the draught specified by the 1745 Establishment as amended in 1750, and launched on 22 July 1754.
The Wellesley Nautical School was a naval training school first located on the Tyne, and later removed to Blyth.