HMS Newcastle (1813)

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For other ships with the same name, see HMS Newcastle.

Newcastle
History
Royal Navy EnsignUnited Kingdom
NameHMS Newcastle
Ordered6 May 1813
BuilderWigram, Wells & Green, Blackwall
Laid downJune 1813
Launched10 November 1813
CompletedBy 23 March 1814
FateBroken up in June 1850
General characteristics
Class and type50-gun
fourth rate
Tons burthen1,556 bm
Length
  • 176 ft 5 in (53.8 m) (gundeck)
  • 149 ft 5+3⁄4 in (45.6 m) (keel)
Beam44 ft 8 in (13.6 m)
Depth of hold15 ft 1+1⁄2 in (4.6 m)
Sail planFull-rigged ship
Crew450
Armament
  • Upper deck: 30 × 24-pounder guns
  • Spar deck: 24 × 42-pounder carronades
  • Fc: 4 × 24-pounder guns

HMS Newcastle was a 50-gun

fourth rate of the Royal Navy which saw service in the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812
.

A new type of warship, a large

North American Station before returning to Britain in 1822 and being laid up. She was later converted to a lazarette
. She spent the rest of her career in this role, until she was sold in 1850 for breaking up.

Construction

HMS Newcastle was ordered from the

spar-decked frigates, like USS Constitution and USS President.[1] Ordered alongside Newcastle was the similar 50-gun HMS Leander.[a]

Newcastle was a spar-deck frigate, designed to carry thirty 24-pounders on her main deck, and twenty-four 42-pounder carronades on her spar deck (two fewer carronades than her half-sister), with four 24-pounders on her forecastle.[1] In 1815, after the War of 1812 and Napoleonic Wars, Newcastle and Leander were fitted with accommodation for a flag officer with a poop deck built over the quarterdeck, and were mostly used as flagships on foreign stations, replacing older 50-gun ships that had previously filled this role.[1][3] Both ships were re-rated as 60-gun fourth rates in February 1817.[1][4]

Career

George Collier, Newcastle's first commander, by William Beechey. A star frigate captain with distinguished service off the Spanish coast to his credit, Collier's failure to catch a fleeing American frigate during his time in command of Leander was ultimately his downfall.

Newcastle was commissioned under her first commander, Captain

Captain Lord George Stuart.[1]

On 23 May 1814 Newcastle ran down Diligence, Grant, master, which was sailing from Southampton to Guernsey with 40 passengers. The passengers were all saved but the mate on Diligence drowned. Diligence was towed back to Southampton and Newcastle had to put back to Portsmouth for repairs.[5]

Newcastle, Leander, and Acasta shared the proceeds of the capture on 28 December 1814 of the notorious American privateer Prince de Neufchatel.[6] Her most famous captain, John Ordronaux, who was also one of her three owners and who had inflicted massive casualties on the boats of Endymion, was apparently not her captain at the time; her commander was Nicholas Millin.[7] At the time of her capture, Prince de Neufchatel was armed with 18 guns and had a crew of 129 men. She was eight days out of Boston.[8][b]

On 4 January 1815, Acasta, Leander and Newcastle recaptured John.[c]

Chasing the USS Constitution

Leander, under

Porto Praya on 11 March 1815. She was proceeding with two prizes, the sloops Levant and Cyane
. Due to the weather and some confusion, Constitution eluded the British.

Fire from Newcastle led Levant's crew to run her ashore, where Acasta then captured her.[10][d] Collier eventually left Acasta and Newcastle windward of Barbados while he searched for Constitution. However, she had returned to port, thus avoiding an engagement.

Fate

Newcastle was paid off at Portsmouth in January 1822. Between April and June 1824 she underwent fitting there as a lazaretto. She then moved to Liverpool in September 1827. The Navy sold her on 12 June 1850 to John Brown for £2,500.[1]

External links

Notes

  1. ^ Though similar in concept, Newcastle and Leander were not sister ships, Newcastle having been designed by émigré shipwright Jean-Louis Barrallier.[1]
  2. ^ A first-class share of the prize money was £108 7s 1d; a sixth-class share was 12s 9¾d.[6]
  3. ^ A first-class share was worth £32 11s 6d; a sixth-class share was worth 4s 4¾d.[9]
  4. ^ A first-class share of the prize money for Levant was worth £496 15s 4d, or several years' pay; a sixth-class share was worth £3 5s 4¼d, or about three months' pay.[11]

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Winfield (2008), p. 123.
  2. ^ Colledge & Warlow (2006), p. 196.
  3. ^ a b Gardiner (2006), pp. 53–5.
  4. ^ Gardiner (2006), p. 67.
  5. ^ "The Marine List". Lloyd's List. 31 May 1814. Retrieved 17 January 2021.
  6. ^ a b "No. 17136". The London Gazette. 14 May 1816. p. 911.
  7. ^ [1] Muster Roll of Prince of Neufchatel
  8. ^ [2] HMS Leander – Captain's Log
  9. ^ "No. 17290". The London Gazette. 30 September 1817. p. 2043.
  10. ^ Gossett (1986), p. 95.
  11. ^ "No. 17200". The London Gazette. 14 December 1816. p. 2366.

References

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