HMS Prince (1854)

{{Short description|Royal Navy storeship}}

{{other ships|HMS Prince}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2017}}

{{Use British English|date=January 2017}}

{{Infobox ship begin}} {{Infobox ship image |Ship image=HMS Prince (1854).jpg |Ship caption=The Wreckage of the Black Prince (sic) by Ivan Constantinovich Aivazovsky }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=United Kingdom |Ship flag=File:Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg |Ship name=HMS Prince |Ship ordered= |Ship builder=C J Mare, BlackwallWinfield (2004) p.243 |Ship laid down= |Ship launched=12 April 1854 |Ship acquired=Purchased in 1854 |Ship commissioned= |Ship decommissioned= |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship renamed= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship honours= |Ship captured= |Ship fate=Wrecked 14 November 1854 |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship class= |Ship type=Storeship |Ship tons burthen=2710 bm |Ship length={{convert|291|ft|6|in|m|abbr=on}} |Ship beam={{convert|41|ft|6|in|m|abbr=on}} |Ship draught= |Ship hold depth={{convert|30|ft|8|in|m|abbr=on}} |Ship sail plan= |Ship power=*300 nominal horsepower {{convert|815|ihp|kW|lk=in|abbr=on}} |Ship propulsion=*2-cylinder horizontal single-expansion steam engine Single screw |Ship complement= |Ship armament= |Ship notes= }}

HMS Prince was a Royal Navy storeship purchased in 1854 from mercantile owners and lost in a storm off Balaklava in November that year during the Crimean War.

She was purchased from the General Screw Steam Shipping Company for £105,000 by Admiralty Order dated July 1854 and commissioned under Commander Benjamin Baynton. She sailed for the Crimea, carrying 150 persons and a cargo of much needed winter uniforms. The loss of the ship and its cargo caused a public outcry in Britain because of the severe winter conditions being endured by troops in unsuitable clothing.[http://timesonline.typepad.com/timesarchive/2010/03/the-loss-and-finding-of-crimean-troop-ship-hms-prince.html The loss (and discovery) of Crimean troop ship, HMS Prince] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100328234607/http://timesonline.typepad.com/timesarchive/2010/03/the-loss-and-finding-of-crimean-troop-ship-hms-prince.html |date=28 March 2010 }}

She was destroyed at a deep water anchorage outside Balaklava by a hurricane-force storm that tore her from her anchorage and dashed her onto rocks: she broke up completely within ten minutes and only six of her 150 crew were saved. Correspondent William Howard Russell considered her officers to have been negligent in losing her bower anchors. Commander Bayntoun, her commanding officer, perished in the wreck.[http://archive.timesonline.co.uk/tol/viewArticle.arc?articleId=ARCHIVE-The_Times-1854-12-05-07-001&pageId=ARCHIVE-The_Times-1854-12-05-07 The Times article; 5 Dec 1854]{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}

Twenty-nine other Allied transport ships were wrecked during the same storm.{{Cite web|url=http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/wars_crimean.html|title = Crimean War, 1853-1856}}

A Ukrainian maritime archeological team led by Sergei Voronov, of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences discovered the wreck in 2010 off Balaklava.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8571967.stm Ukrainians uncover Crimean British Navy vessel]

File:St Mary's Arts Centre, Colchester 2021 05.jpg