SIMON’S TOWN HISTORICAL SOCIETY
FOUNDED IN 1960
TO PRESERVE AND PROTECT OUR HERITAGE
REGISTERED AS A CONSERVATION BODY
Copyright © Simon’s Town Historical Society
HMS BOSCAWEN : FLAGSHIP OF THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE STATION IN 1857
HMS Boscawen was ordered as a 74 gun Third Rate Ship from the Royal Dockyard at Woolwich on 11 May 1817, some two years after the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The Royal Navy had many ships laid up at that time and although timber was procured and set aside for her construction, Boscawen, named after Admiral Edward Boscawen (1711 -1761) was not laid down until January 1826. Work proceeded slowly and on 3 March 1834 the Dockyard Officers received instructions that the ship was to be completed to a revised design prepared by Sir William Symonds, the Surveyor to the Navy, who was responsible for the design of British warships from 1832 to 1848.
Boscawen was eventually launched on 3 April 1844 as a 70 gun Third Rate Ship of the Line with a tonnage of 2048 and a length on the gun deck of 57,1 metres.
Completed during the Pax Britannica, which followed the Napoleonic Wars, she was employed from January 1851 as Guardship in Ordinary in the River Medway, charged with protecting the Naval Base and Dockyard at Chatham from seaborne attack. During this period she was commanded by Captain Peter Richards RN. Two years later she was deployed to the Baltic during the Crimean War (1853 – 1856).
On 1 May 1857 she became the flagship of R. Adm. Frederick. Wm. Grey, Commander-in-Chief at the Cape of Good Hope from 1857 to 1860. Admiral Grey, the son of the second Earl Grey, a former British Prime Minister, was born two months before the Battle of Trafalgar and joined the Royal Navy in 1819. He was the first Commander in Chief of the Cape of Good Hope Station, which was formed in 1857 to protect British interests in the South Atlantic.
Four years later Admiral Grey was appointed First Naval Lord, a post later designated First Sea Lord.
Unlike his predecessors he did not seek a seat in the House of Commons and strove, during his tenure from 1861 to 1866 to make the appointment a professional one rather than a political one.
In 1862 the completely obsolete Boscawen was reduced to a hulk and fitted out for service as a training ship in Southampton Water. In 1867 she was transferred to Portland, the naval base in Dorset, and served there as a training ship until 1873 when she was placed on the disposal list.
In 1874 the ship was purchased by the Wellesley Nautical School, based at North Shields on the River Tyne, an institution which had been founded in 1868 by a group of philanthropists headed by James Hall, a Newcastle Shipowner. Hall was a progressive owner who was concerned with the wellbeing of the community in general and seafarers in particular and was one of a group of ship owners who proposed that merchant ships should have a load line marked on their sides to indicate the maximum safe draught at which they could operate. He told a politician named Samuel Plimsoll of his ideas and Plimsoll managed to persuade Parliament to enforce the load line which today bears his name.
Completed during the Pax Britannica, which followed the Napoleonic Wars, she was employed from January 1851 as Guardship in Ordinary in the River Medway, charged with protecting the Naval Base and Dockyard at Chatham from seaborne attack. During this period she was commanded by Captain Peter Richards RN. Two years later she was deployed to the Baltic during the Crimean War (1853 – 1856).
On 1 May 1857 she became the flagship of R. Adm. Frederick. Wm. Grey, Commander-
Unlike his predecessors he did not seek a seat in the House of Commons and strove, during his tenure from 1861 to 1866 to make the appointment a professional one rather than a political one.
In 1862 the completely obsolete Boscawen was reduced to a hulk and fitted out for service as a training ship in Southampton Water. In 1867 she was transferred to Portland, the naval base in Dorset, and served there as a training ship until 1873 when she was placed on the disposal list.
In 1874 the ship was purchased by the Wellesley Nautical School, based at North Shields on the River Tyne, an institution which had been founded in 1868 by a group of philanthropists headed by James Hall, a Newcastle Shipowner. Hall was a progressive owner who was concerned with the wellbeing of the community in general and seafarers in particular and was one of a group of ship owners who proposed that merchant ships should have a load line marked on their sides to indicate the maximum safe draught at which they could operate. He told a politician named Samuel Plimsoll of his ideas and Plimsoll managed to persuade Parliament to enforce the load line which today bears his name.
THE FORMER CAPE OF GOOD HOPE FLAGSHIP T S WELLESLEY EX HMS BOSCAWEN WAS
MOORED IN THE RIVER TYNE OFF NORTH SHIELDS FROM 1874 UNTIL HER DESTRUCTION
BY FIRE IN 1914.
MOORED IN THE RIVER TYNE OFF NORTH SHIELDS FROM 1874 UNTIL HER DESTRUCTION
BY FIRE IN 1914.
Moored in the River Tyne at North Shields, Boscawen was renamed T S Wellesley, the family name of the Duke of Wellington, and served to “provide shelter for Tyneside waifs and to train young men for service in the Royal Navy and the Merchant Service.”
In 1914, ninety seven years after the order for her construction was issued, T S Wellesley burnt out and was subsequently demolished. With acknowledgements to Wikipedia,
In 1914, ninety seven years after the order for her construction was issued, T S Wellesley burnt out and was subsequently demolished. With acknowledgements to Wikipedia,
FLAGSHIPS OF THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE
HMS Boscawen & HMS Winchester: Submitted by Capt. Bill Rice
HMS Boscawen & HMS Winchester: Submitted by Capt. Bill Rice
HMS WINCHESTER : FLAGSHIP AT THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE IN 1842
HMS WINCHESTER was ordered from H. M. Dockyard at Woolwich on 23 may 1816 as a 60 gun frigate of the SOUTHAMPTON Class. Her sisters were SOUTHAMPTON, PORTLAND, LANCASTER, CHICHESTER and WORCESTER Two other ships of the Class, LIVERPOOOL and JAMAICA were cancelled.
She was laid down in November 1818 and launched into the River Thames on 21 June 1822. Whilst under construction the complement of guns carried by the SOUTHAMPTON Class was reduced from 60 to 52 and HMS WINCHESTER commissioned on 16 September 1822 as a 52-gun frigate.
HMS WINCHESTER was ordered from H. M. Dockyard at Woolwich on 23 may 1816 as a 60 gun frigate of the SOUTHAMPTON Class. Her sisters were SOUTHAMPTON, PORTLAND, LANCASTER, CHICHESTER and WORCESTER Two other ships of the Class, LIVERPOOOL and JAMAICA were cancelled.
She was laid down in November 1818 and launched into the River Thames on 21 June 1822. Whilst under construction the complement of guns carried by the SOUTHAMPTON Class was reduced from 60 to 52 and HMS WINCHESTER commissioned on 16 September 1822 as a 52-
THE 52-
From 1822 until 1839 HMS WINCHESTER served as Flagship on the North America and West Indies Station under the command of Captain Charles Austen, the brother of novelist Jane Austen.
In 1842, four years after the start of the Great Trek, she became the flagship of the Cape of Good Hope Station, commanded by Captain Charles Eden. At that time there were no dry docks or patent slipways available so the ship would have to be beached and careened periodically in order to remove marine growth from the bottom. With relatively little difference between the depths of water high and low tide at the Cape this could be a rather risky business.
Other warships based at Simon’s Town at that time were H M Ships ISIS (44 guns), CLEOPATRA and CONWAY (26 guns), and BITTERN, HELENA and SAPPHO, Sloops mounting 16 guns each.
Other ships on Station included BADGER, built at Frindsbury on the River Medway in 1808. She was decommissioned at the Cape in 1831 as was converted to a mooring vessel. She served in this capacity until she was retired in 1860, being hauled ashore in the West Yard on 22 March of that year to be broken up.
The Station also had a “Tank Vessel,” named PROGRESSO, a sailing vessel which had been in the Slave Trade. She was purchased by the Royal Navy in 1844 and was used to deliver water to ships in the Bay until she was disposed of in 1869.
On 4 April 1843 the Admiral’s Flag in HMS WINCHESTER would have been saluted by H M Ships EREBUS and TERROR, commanded by Capt James Clark Ross, on their arrival in Simon’s Bay from the Antarctic. The two ships stayed for three weeks and then sailed for UK, being paid off at Woolwich on 23 September 1843, after four and a half years away.
The Royal Navy List of 1850 indicates that HMS WINCHESTER was then at Portsmouth and that of 1852 shows that she was stationed in the Far East as the flagship of Rear Admiral the Honourable Fleetwood Broughton Reynolds Pellew KCH , the senior Rear Admiral of the White. During 1852 and 1853, as flagship of the East Indies and China Station, she took part in operations on the Coast of Burma and in September 1854 she arrived at Hong Kong for the first time. Admiral Pellew almost caused a mutiny by not allowing his crew shore leave on arrival. He had good reason to keep them on board as the ship’s arrival coincided with the height of the fever season but had not explained this to the ship’s company.
In 1854, under the command of Rear Admiral James Stirling the ship was involved in the Second Opium War and her boats took part in the attack on Canton.
In the winter of 1855, during the Crimean War, the ship took part in the search for a Russian squadron under Admiral Vasily Zavoyko, who was in charge of the transfer of the main Russian Pacific naval base from Petropavlovsk to the Amur estuary. The Russian fleet managed to make its way through despite the frozen seas and the superior enemy fleet awaiting them near the mouth of the Amur. In two months Zavoyko’s sailors built the Nikolayevsk-on-Amur city that served as the base for the Pacific fleet.
On her return to the United Kingdom HMS WINCHESTER was paid off into the Reserve and in 1861 she became the static training ship CONWAY, moored in the River Mersey off Liverpool to provide education and accommodation for destitute children. HMS CONWAY, which was stationed at the Cape at the same time as HMS WINCHESTER, became a training ship in 1859 and exchanged names with WINCHESTER in 1861.
In 1842, four years after the start of the Great Trek, she became the flagship of the Cape of Good Hope Station, commanded by Captain Charles Eden. At that time there were no dry docks or patent slipways available so the ship would have to be beached and careened periodically in order to remove marine growth from the bottom. With relatively little difference between the depths of water high and low tide at the Cape this could be a rather risky business.
Other warships based at Simon’s Town at that time were H M Ships ISIS (44 guns), CLEOPATRA and CONWAY (26 guns), and BITTERN, HELENA and SAPPHO, Sloops mounting 16 guns each.
Other ships on Station included BADGER, built at Frindsbury on the River Medway in 1808. She was decommissioned at the Cape in 1831 as was converted to a mooring vessel. She served in this capacity until she was retired in 1860, being hauled ashore in the West Yard on 22 March of that year to be broken up.
The Station also had a “Tank Vessel,” named PROGRESSO, a sailing vessel which had been in the Slave Trade. She was purchased by the Royal Navy in 1844 and was used to deliver water to ships in the Bay until she was disposed of in 1869.
On 4 April 1843 the Admiral’s Flag in HMS WINCHESTER would have been saluted by H M Ships EREBUS and TERROR, commanded by Capt James Clark Ross, on their arrival in Simon’s Bay from the Antarctic. The two ships stayed for three weeks and then sailed for UK, being paid off at Woolwich on 23 September 1843, after four and a half years away.
The Royal Navy List of 1850 indicates that HMS WINCHESTER was then at Portsmouth and that of 1852 shows that she was stationed in the Far East as the flagship of Rear Admiral the Honourable Fleetwood Broughton Reynolds Pellew KCH , the senior Rear Admiral of the White. During 1852 and 1853, as flagship of the East Indies and China Station, she took part in operations on the Coast of Burma and in September 1854 she arrived at Hong Kong for the first time. Admiral Pellew almost caused a mutiny by not allowing his crew shore leave on arrival. He had good reason to keep them on board as the ship’s arrival coincided with the height of the fever season but had not explained this to the ship’s company.
In 1854, under the command of Rear Admiral James Stirling the ship was involved in the Second Opium War and her boats took part in the attack on Canton.
In the winter of 1855, during the Crimean War, the ship took part in the search for a Russian squadron under Admiral Vasily Zavoyko, who was in charge of the transfer of the main Russian Pacific naval base from Petropavlovsk to the Amur estuary. The Russian fleet managed to make its way through despite the frozen seas and the superior enemy fleet awaiting them near the mouth of the Amur. In two months Zavoyko’s sailors built the Nikolayevsk-
T. S. MOUNT EDGERCUMBE ex CONWAY ex HMS WINCHESTER MOORED IN THE
RIVER TAMAR NEAR THE SALTASH BRIDGE PRIOR TO 1921.
In 1876 CONWAY ex WINCHESTER was replaced by HMS NILE, later renamed CONWAY, and was acquired by the Devon and Cornwall Training Ship Association. She was towed to the River Tamar where she was moored at Saltash to serve as a home and school for homeless boys. The school closed on 4 December 1920 and on 8 April of the following year MOUNT EDGECUMBE ex CONWAY ex HMS WINCHESTER was towed to Queen Anne’s Battery, where she was broken up. – Sources : Wikipedia and others.
Bill Rice
30 December 2011
