HMS Constance (1846)
Frigate of the Royal Navy From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
HMS Constance was a 50-gun fourth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy launched on 12 May 1846. She had a tonnage of 2,132 and was designed with a V-shaped hull by Sir William Symonds.[1][2] She was also one of the last class of frigates designed by him.[3] On her shakedown voyage from England to Valparaiso she rounded Cape Horn in good trim, her captain for this voyage being Sir Baldwin Wake Walker, who commented "I think her a good sea boat, and a fine man of war". On the voyage she encountered a hurricane at 62° south. Walker wrote that "nothing could have exceeded the way she went over it, not even straining a rope yarn".[4] In August 1848, her captain George William Courtenay, for whom the town of Courtenay was named,[5] led 250 sailors and marines from Fort Victoria to try to intimidate the Indians.[6]
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![]() Constance off Rame Head heading into Plymouth, by Richard Brydges Beechey | |
History | |
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Name | HMS Constance |
Ordered | 31 March 1843 |
Builder | Pembroke Dockyard |
Laid down | October 1843 |
Launched | 12 May 1846 |
Completed | 28 June 1846 |
Reclassified | Converted to screw frigate between 1860-62 at Devonport Dockyard |
Refit | 1862 |
Fate | Sold for breaking up on 23 January 1875 |
General characteristics As ordered | |
Class and type | 50-gun Constance-class fourth-rate frigate |
Tons burthen | 2,125 75/94 bm |
Length |
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Beam | 52 ft 8 in (16.1 m) |
Depth of hold | 16 ft 3 in (4.95 m) |
Propulsion | Sails |
Sail plan | Full-rigged ship |
Complement | 500 |
Armament |
|
General characteristics After 1860-62 refit | |
Class and type | 50-gun fourth-rate frigate |
Displacement | 3,786 tons |
Tons burthen | 3,212 bm |
Length |
|
Beam | 53 ft (16.2 m) |
Draught |
|
Depth of hold | 17 ft 1 in (5.21 m) |
Propulsion |
|
Sail plan | Full-rigged ship |
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In 1848, she became the first Royal Naval vessel to use Esquimalt as her base.[7]
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In 1859, she was involved in the bombardment of Dwarka in the state of Gujarat in north western India.
In 1862, she was converted to screw propulsion using a compound steam engine[8] designed by Randolph & Elder.[9] She was the first Royal Naval ship to be fitted with this class of engine, and won a race against two frigates from Plymouth to Madeira in 1865.[10]
Her crew and officers were quarantined aboard whilst berthed at Port Royal on 26 October 1867 during an outbreak of Yellow Fever[11]
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External links
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