HMS Windsor Castle (1858)

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Windsor Castle and HMS Cambridge.
HMS Cambridge firing a torpedo
Career (UK)
Name: HMS Windsor Castle
Ordered: 3 October 1833
Reordered on 29 June 1848 to modified sail design
Reordered on 28 February 1857 to modified steam design
Builder: Pembroke Dockyard
Laid down: May 1844
Launched: 26 August 1858
Renamed: Built as HMS Victoria
Renamed HMS Windsor Castle on 6 January 1855
Renamed HMS Cambridge in 1869
Fate: Sold for breaking up on 24 June 1908
General characteristics As designed
Class and type:110-gun first-rate ship of the line
Tons burthen:3,083 tons
Length:204 ft (62 m)
Beam:60 ft (18 m)
Depth of hold:23 ft 9 in (7.24 m)
Propulsion:Sail
Sail plan:Full rigged ship
Speed:11kts (under steam)
Complement:950
Armament:102 guns:
  • Lower deck: 28 x 32pdr guns + 2 x 68 pdr guns
  • Main deck: 28 x 32pdr guns + 2 x 68 pdr guns
  • Upper deck: 32 x 32pdr guns
  • Quarter deck: 10 x short 32pdr gunnades
  • Forecastle: 2 x short 32pdr gunnades + 2 x 68pdr carronades
  • 4 x 18pdr carronades
General characteristics As completed
Class and type:102-gun first-rate ship of the line
Displacement:4,971 tons
Tons burthen:3,099 tons
Length:204 ft (62 m)
Beam:60 ft (18 m)
Depth of hold:23 ft 9 in (7.24 m)
Propulsion:Sail
2-cyl. (64½in diam., 40in stroke) horizontal single expansion, trunk
Single screw
500 nhp
2,052 ihp
Sail plan:Full rigged ship
Speed:11kts (under steam)
Complement:930
Armament:102 guns:
  • Lower deck: 30 x 8in guns
  • Main deck: 30 x 32pdr guns
  • Upper deck: 30 x 32pdr guns
  • Quarter deck/Forecastle: 10 x 32pdrs + 2 x 68pdrs
General characteristics After 1862
Class and type:97-gun ship of the line
Armament:97 guns:
  • 1 x 110pdr (on pivot)
  • 30 x 8in guns
  • 4 x 70pdrs
  • 6 x 40pdrs
  • 56 x 32pdrs

HMS Windsor Castle was a triple-decker, 102-gun first-rate Royal Navy ship of the line. She was renamed HMS Cambridge in 1869, when she replaced a ship of the same name as gunnery ship off Plymouth.

Life

Early life

She was laid down at Pembroke Dockyard as HMS Victoria in 1844, to the design of HMS Queen. She was intended to carry 110 guns, but work was suspended. She was reordered on 29 June 1848 to a modified design, and reordered again on 28 February 1857 when she was ordered to be converted from sail to steam propulsion whilst on the stocks and to be fitted with 120 guns. She was renamed Windsor Castle on 6 January 1855 and launched on 26 August 1858, having since been reduced to carry 116 guns, and then 102 guns. She cost a total of £117,030, £84,555 spent on her hull as a sailing vessel, her conversion had cost another £14,878. 204 feet long, and of 4971 tons displacement, she had a crew of 930, but almost immediately entered the first-class steam reserve - The Times reported on 13 September 1860 reported her as among the "ships and gunboats in the first-class steam reserve which could be got ready for the pennant at a short notice". By 1862 she had been reduced to 97 guns.

Gunnery school

She was renamed HMS Cambridge in 1869, when she replaced a ship of the same name as gunnery ship off Plymouth. She was later joined by HMS Calcutta as her tender, with a wooden bridge between the bow of HMS Cambridge and the stern of the Calcutta. Other of her tenders included HMS Gorgon, Plucky and Sabrina (around 1877) and HMS Bonetta, Bulldog, Cuckoo, Hecate, Plucky, Sabrina, Snap (around 1890), and Undaunted (from 1901). In 1890, some of her officers were listed as bound for Foudroyant and Perseus.

Fate

She was towed on 30 October 1907 to No. 5 Basin of the Royal Dockyard to enable the gunnery school to move ashore into the Naval Barracks, paid off on November 4 that year and sold to Cox on 24 June 1908 for breaking up at Falmouth.

Captains

References

  1. ↑ "Naval & Military intelligence" The Times (London). Friday, 26 April 1901. (36439), p. 10.

External links