HMS Constance (1846)
{{short description|Frigate of the Royal Navy}}
{{other ships|HMS Constance}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image=The steam frigate H.M.S. 'Constance' off Rame Head heading into Plymouth.jpg |Ship caption=Constance off Rame Head heading into Plymouth, by Richard Brydges Beechey }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=United Kingdom |Ship flag=File:Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg |Ship name=HMS Constance |Ship ordered=31 March 1843 |Ship awarded= |Ship builder=Pembroke Dockyard |Ship laid down=October 1843 |Ship launched=12 May 1846 |Ship christened= |Ship completed=28 June 1846 |Ship acquired= |Ship commissioned= |Ship recommissioned= |Ship decommissioned= |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship renamed= |Ship reclassified=Converted to screw frigate between 1860-62 at Devonport Dockyard |Ship refit=1862 |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship fate=Sold for breaking up on 23 January 1875 }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption=As ordered |Ship class=50-gun Constance-class fourth-rate frigate |Ship tons burthen=2,125 75/94 bm |Ship length=*{{convert|180|ft|m|1|abbr=on}} (overall)
|Ship beam={{convert|52|ft|8|in|m|1|abbr=on}} |Ship draught= |Ship hold depth={{convert|16|ft|3|in|m|2|abbr=on}} |Ship sail plan=Full-rigged ship |Ship propulsion=Sails |Ship complement=500 |Ship armament=*Upper deck: 28 × 32-pdrs (10 × 8 in/68-pdr shell guns later replaced 10 × 32-pdrs)
|Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption=After 1860-62 refit |Ship class=50-gun fourth-rate frigate |Ship tons burthen=3,212 bm |Ship displacement=3,786 tons |Ship length=*{{convert|253|ft|11|in|m|1|abbr=on}} (overall)
|Ship beam={{convert|53|ft|m|1|abbr=on}} |Ship draught=*{{convert|21|ft|1|in|m|2|abbr=on}} (forward)
|Ship hold depth={{convert|17|ft|1|in|m|2|abbr=on}} |Ship sail plan=Full-rigged ship |Ship propulsion=*Sails
|Ship complement= |Ship armament= |Ship notes= }} |
File:H.M.S. Constance, 50 guns... joining the Experimental Squadron RMG PY0935.jpg
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.Mariner's pp 64–68{{cite report |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CX4SAAAAYAAJ |title=Reports from Committees: Eighteen volumes. -(15. part II.)- Navy, Army and Ordnance Estimates: Part II |page=859 |year=1848 |publisher=House of Commons |location=London }} She was also one of the last class of frigates designed by him.Brock p26 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".Sharp p698 In August 1848, her captain George William Courtenay, for whom the town of Courtenay was named,Akrigg p54 led 250 sailors and marines from Fort Victoria to try to intimidate the Indians.Gough p46
File:HMS Constance in 1848.jpg Harbour 1848, a sketch by John Turnstall Haverfield, a marine on board ship]]
In 1848, she became the first Royal Naval vessel to use Esquimalt as her base.Akrigg p52
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 engineRankine p445 designed by Randolph & Elder.Gardiner p174 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.The Race p90
Her crew and officers were quarantined aboard whilst berthed at Port Royal on 26 October 1867 during an outbreak of Yellow Fevertimes and gazette p467
References
{{reflist}}
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.
- {{cite book|title=Warship 1996|editor-last1=McLean|editor-first1= David|editor-last2 =Preston|editor-first2=Antony|publisher=Conway Maritime Press|location=London|year=1996 |isbn=0-85177-685-X|name-list-style=amp|editor-link2=Antony Preston|last=Jones|first=Colin |chapter=Entente Cordiale, 1865}}
External links
- {{Commons category-inline|HMS Constance (ship, 1846)}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Constance, HMS}}
Category:Frigates of the Royal Navy
Category:Ships built in Pembroke Dock