HMS Niger (1759)

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Niger.
Career (UK)
Name: HMS Niger
Ordered: 19 September 1757
Builder: Sheerness Dockyard
Laid down: 7 February 1758
Launched: 25 September 1759
Completed: By November 1759
Renamed: HMS Negro in 1813
Honours and
awards:		 Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Egypt"[1]
Fate: Sold for breaking up on 29 September 1814
General characteristics
Class and type:Niger-class fifth rate frigate
Tons burthen:679 67⁄94 bm
Length:125 ft (38 m) (gundeck)
103 ft 4 in (31.50 m) (keel)
Beam:35 ft 2 in (10.72 m)
Depth of hold:12 ft (3.7 m)
Sail plan:Full rigged ship
Complement:220
Armament:As built

Upper gundeck: 26 ×  12-pounder guns
Quarterdeck: 4 ×  6-pounder guns
Forecastle: 2 ×  6-pounder guns
12 x  ½pdr swivels
After 1794
Upper gundeck: 26 ×  12-pounder guns
Quarterdeck: 4 ×  6-pounder guns + 4 ×  24-pounder carronades

Forecastle: 2 ×  6-pounder guns + 2 ×  24-pounder carronades

HMS Niger was a 32-gun Niger-class fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1759.[2]

In 1766, under the command of Sir Thomas Adams, the Niger travelled to Newfoundland and Labrador.[Note 1] Also on board were Constantine Phipps, and the English botanist Joseph Banks.[4] The purpose of the journey was to transport a party of mariners to Chateau Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador to build a fort, to continue strengthening relations with the native population, and to survey some of the coast of Newfoundland.[2]

Banks collected many species of plants and animals during that journey, including many which were previously unknown or undescribed by Europeans.[5] In 1766 Banks met James Cook briefly in St. John's, Newfoundland, through their mutual friend Thomas Adams. This meeting would lead to Banks joining Cook on his first circumnavigation from 1769 to 1771.[6]

Because Niger served in the navy's Egyptian campaign (8 March to 8 September 1801), her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal that the Admiralty issued in 1847 to all surviving claimants.[Note 2]

Notes and citations

Notes
  1. ↑ Sir Thomas Adams was Niger‍ '​s captain from March 1763 until 1767. His father, Sir Robert Adams, was a London solicitor, his mother's name was Diana. Sir Thomas was baptized in St Pancras Church, London on 17 February 1738.[3] He inherited a baronetcy on the death of his father, but died without issue in April 1770.
  2. ↑ A first-class share of the prize money awarded in April 1823 was worth £34 2s 4d; a fifth-class share, that of an able seaman, was worth 3s 11½d. The amount was small as the total had to be shared between 79 vessels and the entire army contingent.[7]
Citations
  1. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 21077. pp. 791–792. 15 March 1850.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lysaght, p. 37
  3. ↑ Lysaght, p.63
  4. ↑ Lysaght, p.37 & 41.
  5. ↑ Lysaght, p.38
  6. ↑ Lysaght, p.41
  7. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 17915. p. 633. 3 April 1823.

References

  • Lysaght, A. M. (1971). Joseph Banks in Newfoundland and Labrador, 1766; his diary, manuscripts, and collections. Berkeley, University of California Press.
  • Winfield, Rif (2007). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714–1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. London: Seaforth. ISBN 978-1-84415-700-6.