HMS Aid (1809)

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Aid and HMS Adventure.

HMS Aid was a Royal Navy transport ship launched in 1809 at Kings Lynn. She was the name ship of a six-vessel class of purpose built storeships, the only vessels built as such during the Napoleonic Wars.^[1]

History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Aid
Laid down	July 1808
Launched	4 April 1809
Renamed	HMS Adventure, 24 May 1821
Fate	Sold 19 March 1853
General characteristics [1]
Class and type	Aid-class storeship
Tons burthen	313 68⁄94 (bm)
Length	105 ft 5 in (32.13 m) (overall) 87 ft 3 in (26.59 m)
Beam	26 ft (7.9 m)
Depth of hold	17 ft 4 in (5.28 m)
Propulsion	Sails
Complement	39
Armament	4 × 12-pounder carronades + 2 × 9-pounder guns (as survey ship)

Ordered in 1808, she was built by Mr Thomas Brindley at King's Lynn, Norfolk.^[2]

She was converted to a survey ship between December 1816 and March 1817 at Sheerness. Commander William Henry Smyth commissioned her in January 1817.^[1]

On 14 September 1817, while under Smyth's command, she was at Lebida (Leptis Magna), together with HMS Weymouth. There they loaded columns, marbles, and other antiquities to bring back to England.^[3]

Aid was renamed HMS Adventure in 1821.

As HMS Adventure the ship was deployed for five years between 1826 and 1830 in a survey of Patagonia, under the command of Captain Phillip King. The ship was accompanied by HMS Beagle, a slightly smaller vessel (90.3 ft in length), who was on her first of three major voyages. Adventure was sold in Plymouth by the Admiralty on 19 May 1853 for £750.^[4]

See also

• European and American voyages of scientific exploration

Citations

1. Winfield (2008), p.398.
2. "Contract for Assistance (1809) and Aid (1809)". collections.rmg.co.uk. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
3. Smyth (1854), pp.488-9.
4. Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793 – 1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1844157174.

References

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
• Smyth, William Henry (1854) The Mediterranean: A Memoir Physical, Historical, and Nautical (John W. Parker and Son).