HMS Duke of Wellington (1852)
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Keyham, Devonport Dockyard, in England on 5 March 1854.
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | HMS Duke of Wellington |
| Ordered | 1841 |
| Builder | Pembroke Royal Dockyard |
| Laid down | May 1849 |
| Launched | 1852 |
| Completed | 4 February 1853 |
| Fate | Broken up at Charlton, 1904 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage | 3,749 GRT[1] |
| Displacement | 5,892 / 6071 tons |
| Length | 240 ft (73 m) |
| Propulsion | Sails and 780 hp steam powered screw propeller |
| Speed | 10.15 kt |
| Armament | 131 guns of various weights of shot |
HMS Duke of Wellington was a 131-gun
Design and construction
Service history
When completed on 4 February 1853, HMS Duke of Wellington was, on paper at least, the most powerful warship in the world (and would remain so until the completion of the French
After service in the
Under trials on 11 April 1853 she had made 10.15 knots under steam, but the second-hand engines turned out distinctly unsatisfactory, and the hurried conversion had compromised her structural strength; she thus saw no active service after the
Fate
The personnel stationed on her eventually moved into RN Barracks Portsmouth in 1903 and she was finally sold to be broken up in 1904.
Ship's timbers discovered on the
Sister ships
Of her three sisters, all of which received more powerful machinery specially designed for them:
- Mediterranean Fleetfrom 1858–64; thereafter she too was a receiving ship at Portsmouth, renamed Vernon II, surviving until broken up in 1924.
- HMS Prince of Wales was completed to the same design as Marlborough in 1860 but saw no sea service; in 1869 she was renamed Britannia and became the stationary training ship for officer cadets on the River Dart.
- HMS Royal Sovereign was completed to the same design as the Duke of Wellington but was cut down to the lower deck and converted in 1862-4 into the first British turret ship to try out the ideas of Captain Cowper Phipps Coles. She was fitted with four turrets mounting 9 inch muzzle-loading rifled guns. She was regarded as primarily experimental and her longest voyage was to Cherbourg in 1865 before becoming the tender to the gunnery school HMS Excellent. She was scrapped in 1885.
The Imperial Russian Navy built a ship of its own based on the Duke of Wellington, the Imperator Nikolai I.
References
- ^ Journal of the Franklin Institute, Volume 57. Pergamon Press. 1854. p. 212.
- ^ "Fire on Board H.M.S. The Duke of Wellington". Nottinghamshire Guardian. No. 1750. Nottingham. 7 February 1879. p. 8.
- ^ "London's lost warships rediscovered". University College London. 27 July 2009. Archived from the original on 2 June 2011. Retrieved 8 February 2010.
Bibliography
- Jones, Colin (1996). "Entente Cordiale, 1865". In McLean, David & ISBN 0-85177-685-X.
External links
