HMS Melville guarding Graham Island | |
History | |
---|---|
United Kingdom | |
Name | HMS Melville |
Ordered | 6 September 1813 |
Builder | Bombay Dockyard |
Laid down | July 1815 |
Launched | 17 February 1817 |
Fate | Sold, 1873 |
General characteristics [1] | |
Class and type | Black Prince-class ship of the line |
Tons burthen | 1768 bm |
Length | 176 ft (54 m) (gundeck) |
Beam | 47 ft 6 in (14.48 m) |
Depth of hold | 21 ft (6.4 m) |
Propulsion | Sails |
Sail plan | Full-rigged ship |
Armament |
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HMS Melville was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 17 February 1817 at Bombay Dockyard. [1]
From 19 January 1836 until August 1837 she served in North America and the West Indies as the flagship of Vice-Admiral Peter Halkett and was commanded by Captain Peter John Douglas. From 1 September 1837 to 1841 she was the flagship of Rear-Admiral George Elliot and was captained by Richard Saunders Dundas, during this time she served at the Cape of Good Hope and in the East Indies and was present during the First Opium War with China. [2]
During the Opium War 32 officers, 351 sailors and 75 Royal Marines served aboard her of whom 16 sailors and four marines would be killed in action at the capture of Bocca Tigris on 7 January 1841 and the subsequent campaign along the Pearl River to Canton. [3]
She was converted to serve as a hospital ship in 1857, and was sold out of the navy in 1873. [1] Her sale in Hong Kong raised HK$35,000 which was used to purchase the Royal Naval Hospital at Mount Shadwell. [4]
HMS Minden was a Royal Navy 74-gun Ganges-class third-rate ship of the line, launched on 19 June 1810 from Bombay, India. She was named after the German town Minden and the Battle of Minden of 1759, a decisive victory of British and Prussian forces over France in the Seven Years' War. The town is about 75 km away from Hanover, from where the House of Hanover comes—the dynasty which ruled the United Kingdom from 1714 until 1901.
HMS Victorious was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Blackwall Yard, London on 27 April 1785. She was the first ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name.
HMS Ganges was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched in 1782 at Rotherhithe. She was the first ship of the Navy to bear the name, and was the name ship of her class. She saw active service from 1782 to 1811, in Europe and the West Indies.
Vice-Admiral Sir Richard Saunders Dundas, was a Royal Navy officer. As a captain, he took part in the capture of the Bogue forts in January 1841, during the First Opium War. He was appointed to the command of the Fleet in the Baltic Sea, in succession to Sir Charles Napier, in February 1855 and led the naval support during the latter stages of the Crimean War, enforcing a strict blockade and carrying out the bombardment of Sveaborg in August 1855. He was appointed First Naval Lord in the first Palmerston ministry in November 1857 and then, after stepping down to be Second Naval Lord during the second Derby–Disraeli ministry, he stepped up again to become First Naval Lord in the second Palmerston ministry in June 1859, remaining in office until his death. The prime minister described Dundas as "a most distinguished officer".
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HMS Princess Charlotte was a 104-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built by Nicholas Diddams launched on 14 September 1825 at Portsmouth. The occasion was notable for the fact that the gates of the dry dock into which she was to be placed burst because of the high tide and more than 40 people were drowned.
HMS Calcutta was an 84-gun second-rate ship-of-the-line of the Royal Navy, built in teak to a draught by Sir Robert Seppings and launched on 14 March 1831 in Bombay. She was the only ship ever built to her draught. She carried her complement of smooth-bore, muzzle-loading guns on two gundecks. Her complement was 720 men.
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 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 Nile was a two-deck 90-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 28 June 1839 at Plymouth Dockyard. She was named to commemorate the Battle of the Nile in 1798. After service in the Baltic Sea and the North America and West Indies Station, she was converted to a training ship and renamed HMS Conway, surviving in that role until 1953.
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Admiral Sir Lawrence William Halsted GCB was an officer of the Royal Navy who served during the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
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Admiral Sir Henry Smith was a British officer in the Royal Navy. He commanded the Aden Expedition in 1839 which took Aden as the first colonial acquisition of the reign of Queen Victoria. For this service he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath. Smith was then sent to serve on the China Station, where he fired the first shot of the First Opium War at the Battle of Kowloon. He played an important role at the controversial Battle of Chuenpi later in the year, and as senior naval officer on the south coast of China fought the Battle of the Barrier. He later participated in the Battles of Second Chuenpi, the Bogue, and Canton, before forming part of the Amoy garrison after the Battle of Amoy. Having left China in 1843, he went on to command ships in the Mediterranean and then in the Baltic Sea during the Crimean War. Smith never served at sea again after obtaining flag rank in 1855 but became superintendent of the Royal Hospital Haslar and the Royal Clarence Yard. He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1873, retiring in the same year.
The Royal Navy Burying Ground is part of the Naval Museum of Halifax and was the Naval Hospital cemetery for the North America and West Indies Station at Halifax, Nova Scotia. It is the oldest military burial ground in Canada. The cemetery has grave markers to those who died while serving at Halifax and were treated at the Naval medical facility or died at sea. Often shipmates and officers had the grave markers erected to mark the deaths of the crew members who died while in the port of Halifax.
Rear-Admiral Sir Henry Hart was a British naval officer and diplomat of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. After a brief stint in the East India Company he joined the Royal Navy in 1796 on Sir Edward Pellew's frigate HMS Indefatigable, participating in the action of 13 January 1797 before following Pellew to the ship of the line HMS Impetueux where he experienced a mutiny before taking part in a number of cutting out expeditions and the Ferrol Expedition. At the Peace of Amiens Hart transferred to the ship of the line HMS Foudroyant in the Mediterranean Sea where he was promoted to lieutenant and joined Sir John Gore's frigate HMS Medusa, in which he participated in the action of 5 October 1804 before sailing to India in 1805. There he was reunited with Pellew who made him his flag lieutenant and appointed him to a succession of acting commands, including to that of the frigate HMS Caroline in which he played an important role in the Raid on Griessie in 1807.