HMS Cholmondely

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History
Naval Ensign of Great Britain (1707-1800).svg Great Britain
Name: HMS Cholmondely
Launched: 1748
Commissioned: April 1763
Decommissioned: May 1771
Out of service: 20 August 1771
Fate: Sold out of service
General characteristics
Class and type: 4-gun cutter
Tons burthen: 79 ​82⁄94 (bm)
Length:
  • 57 ft 4 in (17.5 m) (overall)
  • 44 ft 1 in (13.4 m) (keel)
Beam: 18 ft 5 in (5.6 m)
Sail plan: fore-and-aft rig
Complement: 24
Armament:
  • 8 × 3-pounder guns (prior to Navy purchase in 1763)
  • 4 × 3-pounder guns, 10 x ​1⁄2-pounder swivels (1763–71)

HMS Cholmondely was a 4-gun single-masted cutter of the Royal Navy, purchased in the last days of the Seven Years' War with France. She was stationed off the Port of Liverpool for eight years from 1763, and was briefly under the command of Lieutenant (and future Admiral) Skeffington Lutwidge.

Royal Navy Maritime warfare branch of the United Kingdoms military

The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by the English kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years War against the Kingdom of France. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century; the oldest of the UK's armed services, it is known as the Senior Service.

Seven Years War Global conflict between 1756 and 1763

The Seven Years' War was a global conflict fought between 1756 and 1763. It involved every European great power of the time and spanned five continents, affecting Europe, the Americas, West Africa, India, and the Philippines. The conflict split Europe into two coalitions, led by the Kingdom of Great Britain on one side and the Kingdom of France, the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Spain, and the Swedish Empire on the other. Meanwhile, in India, some regional polities within the increasingly fragmented Mughal Empire, with the support of the French, tried to crush a British attempt to conquer Bengal. The war's extent has led some historians to describe it as World War Zero, similar in scale to other world wars.

Port of Liverpool port

The Port of Liverpool is the enclosed 7.5 miles (12.1 km) dock system that runs from Brunswick Dock in Liverpool to Seaforth Dock, Seaforth, on the east side of the River Mersey and the Birkenhead Docks between Birkenhead and Wallasey on the west side of the river. The port was extended in 2016 by the building of an in-river container terminal at Seaforth Dock, name Liverpool2. The terminal can berth two 14,000 container Post-Panamax ships.

Contents

Cholmondely was sold back into private hands in 1771.

Construction

Waterfront at Deptford, where Cholmondely was commissioned in 1763. Deptford Dockyard 1775.jpg
Waterfront at Deptford, where Cholmondely was commissioned in 1763.

Cholmondely was one of thirty cutters purchased by the Royal Navy in a three-month period from December 1762 to February 1763, for coastal patrol duties off English ports. [1] The function of these purchased cutters included convoy and patrol, the carrying of messages between Naval vessels in port, and assisting the press gang in the interception of coastal craft. [2] [lower-alpha 1]

Impressment Forced naval service with or without notice

Impressment, colloquially "the press" or the "press gang", is the taking of men into a military or naval force by compulsion, with or without notice. Navies of several nations used forced recruitment by various means. The large size of the British Royal Navy in the Age of Sail meant impressment was most commonly associated with Britain. It was used by the Royal Navy in wartime, beginning in 1664 and during the 18th and early 19th centuries as a means of crewing warships, although legal sanction for the practice can be traced back to the time of Edward I of England. The Royal Navy impressed many merchant sailors, as well as some sailors from other, mostly European, nations. People liable to impressment were "eligible men of seafaring habits between the ages of 18 and 55 years". Non-seamen were impressed as well, though rarely.

Admiralty Orders for her purchase were issued on 29 December 1762, and the transaction was completed on 8 February 1763 at a cost of ₤650. [1] [lower-alpha 2] She was a small craft, single-masted and with an overall length of 57 ft 4 in (17.5 m) including bowsprit, a 44 ft 1 in (13.4 m) keel, and measuring 79 ​82⁄94 tons burthen. Her beam was 18 ft 5 in (5.6 m). At the time she was purchased by the Navy, she had been at sea as a merchant vessel for at least fifteen years. [1]

In mid-February 1763 the newly purchased cutter was sailed to Deptford Dockyard for refitting. Works ran for two months until the end of April, at a cost of £817. [1] [lower-alpha 3] Prior to purchase she had been fitted for merchant voyaging including eight three-pounder guns. In recognition of her future operations within the safer confines of a major seaport, the Navy reduced the number of cannons to four and supported them with ten ​1⁄2-pounder swivel guns for anti-personnel use. [1]

Deptford Dockyard former naval dockyard and base at Deptford on the River Thames

Deptford Dockyard was an important naval dockyard and base at Deptford on the River Thames, in what is now the London Borough of Lewisham, operated by the Royal Navy from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. It built and maintained warships for 350 years, and many significant events and ships have been associated with it.

As rebuilt for Navy service, Cholmondely had a crewing complement of 24 men. [1]

War with France ended on 10 February 1763, after Cholmondely's purchase but before completion of her fitout or assembling of her crew. Despite this, commissioning went ahead in April 1763 and the vessel entered the Navy as a coastal cutter for the Port of Liverpool. Her first commander was 26-year-old Lieutenant Skeffington Lutwidge who would later go on to reach the Navy's most senior rank, Admiral of the Red. [1] [6]

In 1766 Lutwidge was replaced as Cholmondely's commander by Lieutenant Robert Edgcombe, who served aboard for two years. In 1769 he was superseded by Lieutenant Hally Borwick, who served for a single year before passing command to Thomas Cunningham. Lieutenant Cunningham remained with Cholmondely until May 1771 when the cutter was retired from sea service and her crew paid off. Surplus to requirements, she was sold to a Plymouth merchant for £225 and removed from Navy service on 20 August 1771. [1] [lower-alpha 4]

Notes

  1. ↑ Merchant seamen were eligible for Navy impressment if they were aboard merchant vessels returning to English ports after trading overseas. To avoid being pressed, seamen would routinely board small coastal craft sent out to their ships before they made port. These small craft would then land the seamen on beaches outside the port proper. During the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War, Navy cutters like Cholmondely were stationed in major seaports in order to intercept these craft and deliver those on board to the press gang in the port. [3]
  2. ↑ This equates to a relative value of £85,100 in 2014 terms. [4]
  3. ↑ This equates to a relative value of £107,000 in 2014 terms. [5]
  4. ↑ This equates to a relative value of £26,300 in 2014 terms, less than one-third of her purchase price in 1763. [7]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Winfield 2007, pp. 322–323
  2. ↑ Greene, Carol D. (November 1996). "The Lurcher Cutter in the Seven Years' War 1761–1763". The Mariner's Mirror. United Kingdom: Society for Nautical Research. 87 (4): 417. doi:10.1080/00253359.1996.10656615.
  3. ↑ Baugh 1965, pp. 157–158
  4. ↑ "Purchasing Power of British Pounds from 1264 to Present". MeasuringWorth. 2015. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  5. ↑ "Purchasing Power of British Pounds from 1264 to Present". MeasuringWorth. 2015. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  6. ↑ "No. 16391". The London Gazette . 28 July 1810. p. 1117.
  7. ↑ "Purchasing Power of British Pounds from 1264 to Present". MeasuringWorth. 2015. Retrieved 4 October 2015.

Bibliography

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