HMS Mersey (1814)

History
Great Britain
Name:	HMS Mersey
Ordered:	18 January 1813
Builder:	William Courtney, Chester
Laid down:	March 1813
Launched:	March 1814
Commissioned:	September 1818
Fate:	Broken up in July 1852
General characteristics
Class & type:	20-gun sixth-rate Conway-class post ship
Tons burthen:	450.7 long tons (458 t)
Length:	108 ft 6 in (33.1 m) (gundeck) 90 ft 1.25 in (27.5 m) (keel)
Beam:	30 ft 8 in (9.3 m)
Depth of hold:	9 ft (2.74 m)
Sail plan:	Full-rigged ship
Complement:	155
Armament:	20 guns: UD: 18 × 32 pdrs carronades QD: 6 x 12-pounder carronades Fc: 2 x 12-pounder carronades and 2 × 6 pdr chase guns

The first HMS Mersey was a Conway-class 20-gun sixth rate post ship, launched in 1814; she was re-rated as 26 guns in 1817. She was too late to see action in the Napoleonic War, though she nevertheless had a long and distinguished career that took her to Halifax Station in 1818, then joining the South American station in 1824 till its departure in 1827, when she was then deployed to the Caribbean station from that year until 1831. She was eventually broken up in 1852.

Sources

• Rif Winfield. British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. 2nd edition, Seaforth Publishing, 2008. ISBN 978-1-84415-717-4.