HMS Cornwall (1812)

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See HMS Cornwall for other ships of this name.

HMS Cornwall was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, completed in 1812.

She served in the English Channel in the Napoleonic Wars. Following the end of that conflict, she was given numerous modifications to allow her to have a gun deck of 50 larger and more powerful guns giving a tremendous increase in speed and firepower. Even with these upgrades, she never saw active service again.

In 1859 she was loaned to the London Association for use as a juvenile reformatory school. In 1868 she was renamed Wellesley and moved to the Tyne to serve as a school ship. She was scrapped in Sheerness in 1874.

The former Wellesley, now renamed Cornwall, took part in the occupation of Karachi as well as operations against China. She took over the reformatory duties of the original Cornwall. She remained in service until September 1940 when she was sunk by a near-miss bomb during World War II. Eight years later, she was salvaged and broken up.