John Turnstall Haverfield's painting of Constance in Esquimalt Harbour 1848 |
|
| Career (UK) | |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS Constance |
| Ordered: | 31 March 1843 |
| Builder: | Pembroke Dockyard |
| Laid down: | October 1843 |
| Launched: | 12 March 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 x 32pdrs (10 x 8in/68pdr shell guns later replaced 10 x 32pdrs) |
| 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. trunked compound engine, with surface condensers 500 nhp 2,301 ihp = 10.779kts. |
| Sail plan: | Full rigged ship |
HMS Constance was a 50-gun fourth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy launched in 1846. She had a tonnage of 2,132 and was designed with a V-shaped by Sir William Symonds[1] she was also one of the last class of frigates designed by him.[2] 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 62o south. Walker wrote that "nothing could have exceeded the way she went over it, not even straining a rope yarn".[3] In August 1848 her captain George Courtenay, for whom the town of Courtenay was named,[4] led 250 sailors and marines from Fort Victoria to try to intimidate the Indians.[5] Her crew and officers were Quarantined aboard whilst berthed at Port Royal on 26 October 1867 during an outbreak of Yellow Fever[6] In 1848 she became the first Royal Naval vessel to use Esquimalt as her base.[7]
In 1862 she was converted to screw propulsion using a compound 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]