HMS Hero (1816)

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Hero and HMS Wellington.
Career (UK)
Name: HMS Hero
Builder: Deptford Dockyard
Laid down: July 1813
Launched: 21 September 1816
Renamed: HMS Wellington, 4 December 1816
Fate: Sold, 1908
General characteristics [1]
Class and type:Vengeur-class ship of the line
Tons burthen:1756 bm
Length:176 ft (54 m) (gundeck)
Beam:47 ft 6 in (14.48 m)
Depth of hold:21 ft (6.4 m)
Propulsion:Sails
Sail plan:Full rigged ship
Armament:74 guns:
  • Gundeck: 28 × 32 pdrs
  • Upper gundeck: 28 × 18 pdrs
  • Quarterdeck: 4 × 12 pdrs, 10 × 32 pdr carronades
  • Forecastle: 2 × 12 pdrs, 2 × 32 pdr carronades
  • Poop deck: 6 × 18 pdr carronades

HMS Hero was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 21 September 1816 at Deptford Dockyard.[1]

On 4 December 1816 Hero was renamed HMS Wellington. She became a training ship in 1862, and Wellington was eventually sold out of the Navy in 1908.[1]

As the HMS Wellington, the ship is infamous for being the source of the first mosquitoes in the Hawaiian Islands, in 1826. These mosquitoes were introduced to a stream on Maui when sailors seeking fresh water rinsed out their water barrels in the stream. Prior to this, no mosquitoes lived in Hawaii.[2]

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lavery, Ships of the Line vol.1, p189.
  2. ↑ Patterson, Gordon. The Mosquito Crusades: A History of the American Anti-Mosquito Movement from the Reed Commission to the First Earth Day. Rutgers University Press. Retrieved 4/5/2011. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)

References

  • 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.