HMS Windsor Castle (1790)

Name: HughThomasx4-WindsorCastle-_DSC9380.jpg Views: 2696 Size: 104.4 KB

HMS Windsor Castle was another revived London class 98-gun second rateship of the line. Begun by M/shipwright Adam Hayes,then Henry Peake and completed by Martin Ware. She was launched on the 3rd of May, 1790 at Deptford Dockyard.
History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:
 HMS Windsor Castle
Ordered:
 10 December 1782
Builder:
 Deptford Dockyard
Laid down:
 19 August 1784
Launched:
 3 May 1790
Honours and
awards:
Fate:
 Broken up, 1839
General characteristics
Class and type:
 London-classship of the line
Tons burthen:
 1871 (bm)
Length:
 177 ft 6 in (54.10 m) (gundeck)
Beam:
 49 ft (15 m)
Depth of hold:
 21 ft (6.4 m)
Propulsion:
 Sails
Sail plan:
 Full rigged ship
Armament:
  • 98 guns:
  • Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
  • Middle gundeck: 30 × 18-pounder guns
  • Upper gundeck: 30 × 12-pounder guns
  • Quarterdeck: 8 × 12-pounder guns
  • Forecastle: 2 × 12-pounder guns



Name: dd53f919325b060c7efdef3cf3d33dba.jpg Views: 2485 Size: 18.9 KB

Commissioned in the July of 1790 under Captain Sir James Barclay for the Spanish Armament, as the Flagship of Rear Admiral Herbert Sawyer. Then paid off. She was recommissioned in The December of 1792 under Captain Sir Thomas Baird as the Flagship of Vice Admiral Phillips Cosbey, and on the 22nd of April 1793 she sailed for the Med.

In 1794 she became the Flagship of Rear Admiral Robert Linzee under several successive captains,culminating with John Gore after the Mutiny of November 1794.

She took part in actions off Genoa on the 13th of March 1795 and off Hyeres on the 31th of July in that year. From December she was dispatched as Flagship of Rear Admiral Robert Mann in pursuit of French Admiral De Richery.

After repairs in Plymouth she was recommissioned in the August of 1799 under Captain John Manley. In 1800 she became the Flagship of Vice Admiral Sir Andrew Mitchell in the Channel with Captain Peter Bover in temporary command. Recommissioned again in 1803 as Flagship of Admiral James Montague under Captain Albemarle Bertie, she had a series of captains again until May 1804. She then came under the Captaincy of Charles Boyle until 1808.

Dardanelles.

Windsor Castle was part of Robert Calder's fleet at the Battle of Cape Finisterre on the 22nd of July,1805. She shared in the prize and head money for the San Rafael and Firme captured on that day.
During September 1806, a French squadron of five frigates and two corvettes under Commodore Eleonore-Jean-Nicolas Soleil was escorting a convoy ferrying supplies and troops to the French West Indies. A British squadron intercepted the convoy, which led to the Action of the 25th of September, where the British captured four of the frigates: Armeide, Minerva, Indefatigable, and Gloire. The frigate Thétis and the corvette Sylphe escaped, with the Lynx managing to outrun Windsor Castle.

Name: Duckworth forcing the Dardenelles.jpg Views: 3447 Size: 61.6 KB
Duckworth's squadron forcing the Dardanelles
By Thomas Whitcombe.
- Collections of the National Maritime Museum, Public Domain.

While in the Mediterranean she served during Vice Admiral Sir John Duckworth's unsuccessful 1807 Dardanelles Operation. On 19 February, Windsor Castle suffered seven men wounded while forcing the Dardanelles. Near a redoubt on Point Pesquies the British encountered a Turkish squadron of one ship of 64 guns, four frigates and eight other vessels, most of which they ran aground. Marines from Pompee spiked the 31 guns on the redoubt. On 27 February Windsor Castle had one man killed assisting a Royal Marine landing party on the island of Prota.

On the way out, the Turkish castle at Abydos fired on the British squadron. Granite cannonballs weighing 7-800 pounds and measuring 6'6" in circumference hit Windsor Castle, Standard and Active. Windsor Castle was badly damaged when an 800-pound stone shot from a Turkish cannon sheared off her main mast. Windsor Castle had four men killed and 20 wounded in the withdrawal. In all, the British lost 29 killed and 138 wounded. No ship was lost.

Windsor Castle accompanied Duckworth on the Alexandria expedition of 1807, and in May left Alexandria and sailed to Malta.
Paid off in 1808, she was cut down into a 74 at Plymouth in 1814. Following that she was used as a guard ship until 1825, when she briefly served in the Med under Captain Dunscombe Bouverie. She was paid off and fitted as a Divisional ship in August 1833, and became a Depot ship at Deal in 1834.

Fate.

She was eventually broken up in 1839.