HMS Calcutta (1831)

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Calcutta.
Career (UK)
Name: HMS Calcutta
Ordered: 4 April 1827
Builder: Bombay Dockyard
Laid down: March 1828
Launched: 14 March 1831
Fate: Sold, 1908
General characteristics [1]
Class and type: 84-gun second rate ship of the line
Tons burthen: 2291 bm[2]
Length: 196 ft 1.66 in (59.7830 m) (gundeck)
Beam: 50 ft 9 in (15.47 m)
Depth of hold: 21 ft (6.4 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Complement: 720 officers and men
Armament:

84 guns:

  • Gundeck: 30 × 32 pdrs
  • Upper gundeck: 32 × 24 pdrs
  • Quarterdeck: 6 × 24 pdrs, 10 × 32 pdr carronades
  • Forecastle: 2 × 24 pdrs, 4 × 32 pdr carronades

HMS Calcutta was an 84-gun second-rate ship-of-the-line of the Royal Navy, built in teak to a draught by Sir Robert Seppings and launched on 14 March 1831 in Bombay. She was the only ship ever built to her draught.[1] She carried her complement of smooth-bore, muzzle-loading guns on two gundecks. Her complement was 720 men (38 officers, 69 petty officers, 403 seamen, 60 boys and 150 marines).[3]

In 1855 the ship had been in reserve, but was recommissioned for the war between Russia and Britain and sailed for the Baltic. After two months she was sent home again, as being useless for modern naval actions.[4]

She saw action in the Second Opium War as the flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Michael Seymour, under the command of Captain William King-Hall. In 1858 Calcutta visited Nagasaki where she stayed for one week, becoming the first ship-of-the-line to visit Japan.[3]

In 1865, she was converted to a gunnery ship, moored at Devonport, Devon, with HMS Cambridge.[5] She was sold to breakers in 1908.[1] Her figurehead was acquired by Admiral Lord Fisher, then First Sea Lord, as she had been his first seagoing ship.[6]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c Lavery, Ships of the Line, vol. 1, p. 191.
  2. ^ Lavery, p. 191.
  3. ^ a b Diaries of William King-Hall. Retrieved 6 November 2008.
  4. ^ Robert Massie (1991). Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the coming of the Great War. Random House. p. 410.  ISBN 0 3945 2833 6.
  5. ^ HMS Cambridge, Gunnery School, in old photos. Cyber Heritage. Retrieved 6 November 2008.
  6. ^ Morris, J. Fisher's Face, London (1994), p. 196.

References

  • Mackay, Ruddock F. Fisher of Kilverstone. London: Oxford University Press, 1973.
  • Lavery, Brian (2003) The Ship of the Line - Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850. Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-252-8.

See also