HMS Constance (1846)

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

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]

Constance in Esquimalt Harbour 1848, a sketch by John Turnstall Haverfield, a marine on board ship

Constance off Rame Head heading into Plymouth, by Richard Brydges Beechey
History
United Kingdom
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	180 ft (54.9 m) (overall) 146 ft 10.25 in (44.8 m) (keel)
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	Upper deck: 28 × 32-pdrs (10 × 8 in/68-pdr shell guns later replaced 10 × 32-pdrs) Quarterdeck: 14 × 32-pdrs Forecastle: 8 × 32-pdrs
General characteristics After 1860-62 refit
Class and type	50-gun fourth-rate frigate
Displacement	3,786 tons
Tons burthen	3,212 bm
Length	253 ft 11 in (77.4 m) (overall) 219 ft 2 in (66.8 m) (keel)
Beam	53 ft (16.2 m)
Draught	21 ft 1 in (6.43 m) (forward) 23 ft 7 in (7.19 m) (aft)
Depth of hold	17 ft 1 in (5.21 m)
Propulsion	Sails 6-cyl. compound trunk engine, with surface condensers 500 nhp 2,301 ihp = 10.779kts.
Sail plan	Full-rigged ship

Constance joining the Experimental Squadron, from a sketch by one of her officers' Lieut. J.F.B. Wainwright circa 1846-9

In 1848, she became the first Royal Naval vessel to use Esquimalt as her base.^[7]

Constance (far left) in operations at "The Temple Fort of Dwarka, at the entrance of the Gulf of Kutch," from the Illustrated London News, 1860

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]

References

1. Mariner's pp 64–68
2. Reports from Committees: Eighteen volumes. -(15. part II.)- Navy, Army and Ordnance Estimates: Part II (Report). London: House of Commons. 1848. p. 859.
3. Brock p26
4. Sharp p698
5. Akrigg p54
6. Gough p46
7. Akrigg p52
8. Rankine p445
9. Gardiner p174
10. The Race p90
11. times and gazette p467

Bibliography

• Brock, P. W. & Greenhill, Basil Steam and sail: in Britain and North America: 80 photographs mainly from the National Maritime Museum depicting British and North American naval, merchant, and special purpose vessels of the period of transition from sail to steam Pyne Press, 1973
• Sharp, James A. Memoirs of the life and services of Rear-Admiral Sir William Symonds Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans & Roberts 1858
• Rankine, William John Macquorn Miscellaneous Scientific Papers: From the Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal and Other Scientific and Philosophical Societies Adamant. 4 June 2001. ISBN 978-1-4021-7192-5
• Gardiner, Robert Steam, steel & shellfire: the steam warship, 1815-1905 Conway Maritime Press. 20 June 2001. ISBN 978-0-85177-564-7
• Akrigg, G. P. V. Akrigg, Helen B. British Columbia place names University of British Columbia Press; 3rd edition. 31 December 1997. ISBN 978-0-7748-0637-4
• Gough, Barry M. Gunboat Frontier: British Maritime Authority and Northwest Coast Indians, 1846-1890 University of British Columbia Press. 1st edition. 1 January 1984. ISBN 0-7748-0175-1
• Mariner's mirror The Mariner's mirror, Volume 73 Society for Nautical Research., 1987
• The medical times and gazette John Churchill & Sons. 1867
• The Race The annual of the Royal School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering Henry Sotheran & Co. 1871.
• Jones, Colin (1996). "Entente Cordiale, 1865". In McLean, David & Preston, Antony (eds.). Warship 1996. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-685-X.

External links

• Media related to HMS Constance (ship, 1846) at Wikimedia Commons