HMS Thrush (1806)

History
UK
Name: Prince of Wales
Operator: HM Revenue Service
Builder: Scotts, Greenock
Launched: 1794
Fate: Sold 1806
History
UK
Name: HMS Thrush
Acquired: 1806 by purchase
Fate: Foundered 1815; salvaged and sold
General characteristics [1]
Tons burthen: 307 3⁄94 (bm)
Length:
  • 96 ft 4 in (29.4 m) (overall)
  • 78 ft 10 1⁄2 in (24.0 m) (keel)
Beam: 27 ft 0 5⁄8 in (8.2 m)
Depth of hold: 13 ft 3 1⁄2 in (4.1 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Ship
Complement: 121
Armament: 18 x 6-pounder guns

HMS Thrush was launched in 1794 as the Prince of Wales, which served the Customs Service. In 1806 the British Admiralty purchased her and the Royal Navy renamed her HMS Thrush as there was already an HMS Prince of Wales in service. Thrush spent her brief active service on the Jamaica Station. She was converted to a powder hulk in late 1809 and foundered at Port Royal in 1815; salvaged, she was sold.

Royal Navy career

Prince of Wales arrived at Portsmouth on 2 June 1806, and the Navy renamed her on 12 September. She then lay there until was fitted out between March 1808 and 25 June.[1]

Commander Charles Webb commissioned Thrush in April 1808. He then sailed her to Jamaica on 18 July. Thrush detained Maria, which was sailing from Cuacoa to St Croix. Maria arrived at Jamaica on 21 January 1809.[2] Thrush also detained Nancy, Fresback, master, which had been sailing from Guernsey to Jacmel. Nancy arrived at Jamaica between 22 and 29 April.[3]

In May 1809 Commander Henry Spark Jones replaced Webb.[1] In the summer of 1809, Thrush participated in the blockade of San Domingo until the city fell on 11 July to Spanish forces and the British under Hugh Lyle Carmichael. The blockading squadron, under Captain William Pryce Cumby in the 64-gun third rate Polyphemus, also included Aurora, Tweed, Sparrow, Lark, Griffon, Moselle, and Fleur de la Mer.[4][5][Note 1]

Fate

In October 1809 the Navy converted Thrush to a powder hulk at Port Royal. Thrush foundered in July 1815 while she lay at anchor at Port Royal.[8] The Navy salvaged her and sold her.[1]

Thrush in literature

In the novel Mansfield Park, by the famed English author Jane Austen, the protagonist, Fanny Price, visits Portsmouth as her brother William is about to sail in Thrush. William has been promoted to lieutenant and appointed to Thrush, which has just gone out of Portsmouth Harbour and is as lying at Spithead. Austen may very well have seen Thrush fitting out there in early 1808, and drawn on her memory for a suitable appointment for a new lieutenant when she wrote the book between 1811 and 1813.

Notes, citations and references

Notes

  1. ↑ In January 1826 prize money was paid for stores captured at Santo Domingo. A first-class share was worth £7 10s 11d; a sixth-class share, that of an ordinary seaman, was worth 2s 5d.[6] In October 1832, prize money was paid for the ordnance stores. A first-class share was worth £67 3s 5d; a sixth-class share was worth £1 1s 3d.[7]

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 Winfield (2008), p. 272.
  2. ↑ Lloyd's List, n° 4340 - accessed 1 November 2015.
  3. ↑ Lloyd's List, n° 4360 - accessed 1 November 2015.
  4. ↑ "No. 16294". The London Gazette. 2 September 1809. p. 1420.
  5. ↑ Marshall (1825), Vol. 2, Part 2, pp.970-1.
  6. ↑ "No. 18209". The London Gazette. 7 January 1826. p. 28.
  7. ↑ "No. 18986". The London Gazette. 19 October 1832. p. 2330.
  8. ↑ Hepper (1994), p.154.

References

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