Windsor Castle | |
History | |
---|---|
Great Britain | |
Name | HMS Windsor Castle |
Ordered | 10 December 1782 |
Builder | Deptford Dockyard |
Laid down | 19 August 1784 |
Launched | 3 May 1790 |
Honours and awards |
|
Fate | Broken up, 1839 |
General characteristics [1] | |
Class and type | London-class ship of the line |
Tons burthen | 1871 (bm) |
Length | 177 ft 6 in (54.10 m) (gundeck) |
Beam | 49 ft (15 m) |
Depth of hold | 21 ft (6.4 m) |
Propulsion | Sails |
Sail plan | Full-rigged ship |
Armament |
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HMS Windsor Castle was a 98-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 3 May 1790 at Deptford Dockyard. [1]
Windsor Castle was part of Robert Calder's fleet at the Battle of Cape Finisterre in 1805. She shared in the prize and head money for San Rafael and Firme captured on that day. [Note 1]
On 25 September a French squadron of five frigates and two corvettes under Commodore Eleonore-Jean-Nicolas Soleil was escorting a convoy ferrying supplies and troops to the French West Indies. A British squadron intercepted the convoy, which led to the action of 25 September 1806, where the British captured four of the frigates: Armeide, Minerva, Indefatigable, and Gloire. The frigate Thétis and the corvette Sylphe escaped, with Lynx managing to outrun Windsor Castle. [Note 2]
While in the Mediterranean she served during Vice Admiral Sir John Duckworth's unsuccessful 1807 Dardanelles Operation. [4] On 19 February, Windsor Castle suffered seven men wounded while forcing the Dardanelles. Near a redoubt on Point Pesquies the British encountered a Turkish squadron of one ship of 64 guns, four frigates and eight other vessels, most of which they ran aground. Marines from Pompee spiked the 31 guns on the redoubt. On 27 February Windsor Castle had one man killed assisting a Royal Marine landing party on the island of Prota. [5]
On the way out, the Turkish castle at Abydos fired on the British squadron. Granite cannonballs weighing 7-800 pounds and measuring 6'6" in circumference hit Windsor Castle, Standard and Active. Windsor Castle was badly damaged when an 800-pound stone shot from a Turkish cannon sheared off her main mast. [6] Windsor Castle had four men killed and 20 wounded in the withdrawal. In all, the British lost 29 killed and 138 wounded. No ship was lost. [5]
Windsor Castle accompanied Duckworth on the Alexandria expedition of 1807, and in May left Alexandria and sailed to Malta.
She was reduced to a 74-gun ship in 1814, and was eventually broken up in 1839. [1]
Admiral Sir John Thomas Duckworth, 1st Baronet, GCB was an English officer of the Royal Navy, serving during the Seven Years' War, the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, as the Governor of Newfoundland during the War of 1812, and a member of the British House of Commons during his semi-retirement. Duckworth, a vicar's son, achieved much in a naval career that began at the age of 11.
HMS Ajax was an Ajax-class 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the British Royal Navy. She was built by John Randall & Co of Rotherhithe and launched on the Thames on 3 March 1798. Ajax participated in the Egyptian operation of 1801, the Battle of Cape Finisterre in 1805 and the Battle of Trafalgar, before she was lost to a disastrous fire in 1807 during the Dardanelles Operation.
HMS Polyphemus, a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 27 April 1782 at Sheerness. She participated in the 1801 Battle of Copenhagen, the Battle of Trafalgar, and the Siege of Santo Domingo. In 1813 she became a powder hulk and was broken up in 1827.
The Dardanelles operation was a failed assault in 1807 by the British Royal Navy against the coastal fortifications of Constantinople. The operation was part of the Anglo-Turkish War.
HMS Swiftsure was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the British Royal Navy. She spent most of her career serving with the British, except for a brief period when she was captured by the French during the Napoleonic Wars in the action of 24 June 1801. She fought in several of the most famous engagements of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, fighting for the British at the Battle of the Nile, and the French at the Battle of Trafalgar.
Tigre was a 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy. Later it was captured by the British and, as HMS Tigre, operated as part of the Royal Navy throughout the Napoleonic Wars.
HMS Northumberland was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at the yards of Barnard, Deptford and launched on 2 February 1798. She carried Napoleon to his final exile on St Helena.
HMS Hector was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 27 May 1774 at Deptford.
HMS Standard was a 64-gun Royal Navy third-rate ship of the line, launched on 8 October 1782 at Deptford. She was the last of the 15 Intrepid-class vessels, which were built to a design by John Williams.
HMS Dictator was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 6 January 1783 at Limehouse. She was converted into a troopship in 1798, and broken up in 1817.
HMS Courageux was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 26 March 1800 at Deptford. She was designed by Sir John Henslow as one of the large class 74-gun ships, and was the only ship built to her draught. Unlike the middling and common class 74-gun ships, which carried 18-pounder long guns, as a large 74-gun ship, Courageux carried 24-pounders on her upper gun deck.
HMS Kent was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 17 January 1798 at Blackwall Yard.
HMS Active was a Royal Navy fifth-rate frigate launched on 14 December 1799 at Chatham Dockyard. Sir John Henslow designed her as an improvement on the Artois-class frigates. She served during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, capturing numerous enemy vessels. Her crews participated in one campaign and three actions that would later qualify them for the Naval General Service Medal. She returned to service after the wars and finally was broken up in 1860.
HMS Melampus was a Royal Navy fifth-rate frigate that served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. She captured numerous prizes before the British sold her to the Royal Netherlands Navy in 1815. With the Dutch, she participated in a major action at Algiers and, then, in a number of colonial punitive expeditions in the Dutch East Indies.
Bonne Citoyenne was a 20-gun corvette of the French Navy launched in 1794, the name ship of a four-vessel class. She was part of the French fleet active in the Bay of Biscay and English Channel. The Royal Navy captured her in 1796, commissioning her as the sloop-of-war HMS Bonne Citoyenne.
Furieuse was a 38-gun frigate of the French Navy. The Royal Navy captured her in 1809 and took her into service as the fifth rate HMS Furieuse. She spent most of her British career in the Mediterranean Sea, though towards the end of the War of 1812 she served briefly on the North American station. She was laid up in 1815 and sold for breaking up in 1816.
HMS Nemesis was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. The French captured her in 1795 at Smyrna, but in 1796 a squadron led by Barfleur brought her out of the neutral port of Tunis. Throughout her career she served under a number of commanders who would go on to have distinguished careers. She was converted to a troopship in 1812 and was sold in 1814.
HMS Peterel was a 16-gun Pylades-class ship-sloop of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1794 and was in active service until 1811. Her most famous action was the capture of the French brig Ligurienne when shortly after Peterel captured two merchant ships and sent them off with prize crews, three French ships attacked her. She drove two on shore and captured the largest, the 14-gun Ligurienne. The Navy converted Peterel to a receiving ship at Plymouth in 1811 and sold her in 1827.
HMS Swallow was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop launched in December 1805, nine months late. She served the Royal Navy through the Napoleonic Wars, capturing numerous privateers. After the end of the wars she was broken up in 1815.
HMS Florentina, was the Spanish frigate Santa Florentina, built in 1786 at Cartagena, Spain to a design completed on 17 October 1785 by José Romero Fernández de Landa, modified from his earlier design for the Santa Casilda. The British Royal Navy captured her on 6 April 1800 and took her into service as HMS Florentina. She served in the Mediterranean until she returned to Britain in 1802 after the Treaty of Amiens. There the Admiralty had her laid-up in ordinary and she was sold in 1803.