Ships of the Line

[emason]

You're very welcome Ivor.
It seems that the photograph of St. Vincent is a late one (post 1862) when she was a training ship. There are, what look like windows in the gun ports.
So not typical of when she was in her prime.
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and another from 1896
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St. Vincent 1896.jpg

[ivorthediver]

Thanks Bill , that probably explains all the boat davits slung on the port side , but thanks for taking the trouble to post them , much obliged to you for pictures of this era .......

[emason]

Ivor, this photograph of HMS Victoria, taken some time between 1864 and 1867 in Malta, also shows boats on davits on the port side.
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Victoria - Malta 1864-67.jpg

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There is a painting of her showing a similar arrangement on the starboard side.
But I don't know when this practise started, or if it is applicable to the St. Vincent in her heyday.

[ivorthediver]

Again my thanks Bill , a very clear shot .

The admiralty plans I built my model from did not include the boats davits on the stern , so not sure when they were officially fitted ........or was this the birth of. "fitted for but not with "

Thank you for your time and trouble posting again , .....

[Brian James]

Ship of the Line HMVS Nelson pictured c1875...launched on July 4th 1814 at Woolwich Dockyard, but then laid up incomplete at Portsmouth until 1854, when work began with a view to commissioning her for service in the Crimean War, but this ended before much work had been done, and the ship returned to reserve. She was converted into a screw ship in 1860, being cut down to a two-decker and fitted with an engine of 2,102 indicated horsepower for a speed of 10.5 knots. In 1865, Nelson was given to the colony of Victoria as a Training Ship, and she was finally outfitted and rigged for £42,000 and sailed for Australia in October 1867. Travelling via the Cape of Good Hope, she arrived in February 1868. She was the first ship to dock in the newly constructed Alfred Graving Dock. Her armament in 1874 was listed as two 7-inch RML, twenty 64 lb guns, twenty 32 lb guns and six 12 lb howitzers.
During 1879–1882, Nelson was further cut down to a single deck and her rig reduced to the main mast only, the ship being reclassified as a Frigate. Her old armament was partly replaced by modern breech-loaders. She was laid up at Willamstown in 1891, her boilers being removed in 1893. On April 28th 1898 she was put up for auction and sold to Bernard Einerson of Sydney for £2,400. In 1900 Nelson was cut down yet again to create a Coal Lighter that kept the name Nelson, the upper timbers being used to build a drogher named Oceanic. In 1908 Nelson was sold to the Union Steamship Co. of New Zealand, and in July was towed from Sydney to Beauty Point on the Tamar River, Tasmania, for use as a coal storage hulk. She later foundered there with 1,400 tons of coal on board and remained submerged for forty days until finally refloated. In January 1915 she was towed to Hobart for further service as a coal hulk, until sold in August 1920 to Mr. H Gray for £500 and towed an up river to Shag Bay on the Derwnt for gradual breaking up, work continuing into the 1930s,although some of her timbers still survive. The ship's figurehead was preserved by the NSW Naval Brigade, then the Royal Australian Navy, before it was presented to the Australian National Maritime Museum for display. Several of her RML 64-pounder 58 cwt guns (Rifled Muzzle Loader, converted 32-pounder smoothbores) can be found scattered around the State of Victoria.

[Pelican]

Britannia passing Mt. Edgcumbe in Plymouth Sound by John Thomas Serres

Sold by Christies at their Victorian, Pre Raphaelite & British Impressionist Art, Maritime Art, Sporting & Wildlife Art sale of July 2015 for £5,625

From Christies catalogue;-
"H.M.S. Britannia, one of the largest ships of her day, was laid down in 1813 and launched in October 1820. A fine three-decker of 120-guns, she measured about 2,616 tons and carried a crew of 594 officers and men, 66 boys and 160 marines. First commissioned in January 1823, she remained in Plymouth for several years as one of the harbour's Guardships and then did some short spells of service in the Mediterranean before becoming flagship at Portsmouth in 1836. After further commissions in the Mediterranean, she returned to Portsmouth in 1850 to become Guardship-of-the-Ordinary and remained there until 1854 when, following the outbreak of the Crimean War, she was sent to the Black Sea as flagship to Vice-Admiral Dundas. Action there included leading the Anglo-French fleet in to bombard Sebastopol on 17th October 1854 but, when peace was concluded, she came home to Portsmouth where she was laid up until re-commissioned on 1st January 1859 as the first training ship for naval cadets. Her original moorings in Haslar Creek (Portsmouth) and then Portland proving unsuitable, she was eventually moved to Dartmouth in 1863 where she lay until broken up in 1869. By that time, however, she had so proved her usefulness that she was replaced by a larger vessel, the much newer Prince of Wales of 1860, which was promptly re-christened Britannia in order to maintain the name which had already become synonymous with training boys for a career at sea.
J.T. Serres was born in London in 1759 and was the eldest son of Dominic Serres, the Elder. On his father's death in 1793 he succeeded him in his appointment as Marine Painter to King George III and to H.R.H The Duke of Clarence. In 1800 he became Marine Draughtsman of the Admiralty."