HMS Armada. (1810).
HMS Armada, the name ship of her class, was a Peake and Rule designed Armada Class, 74 gun third rate ship of the line, ordered in 20th of October 1806, and built by Isaac Blackburn at Turnchapel, Plymouth. She was laid down in the February of 1807, and launched on the 22nd of March,1810. Her fitting out was completed at Plymouth on the 27th of September of that same year. She was the first ship to carry the name.
Armada
History GREAT BRITAIN Name: Armada Ordered: 20 October 1806 Builder: Blackburn, Turnchapel Laid down: February 1807 Launched: 22 March 1810 Fate: Sold, 1863 General characteristics Class and type: Armada Class third rate ship of the line Tons burthen: 1749 34⁄94 (bm) Length: 176 ft (53.6 m) (gundeck); 145 ft (44.2 m) (keel) Beam: 47 ft 7 1⁄2 in (14.5 m) Depth of hold: 21 ft (6.4 m) Sail plan: Full rigged ship Armament:
- Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
- Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
- QD: 4 × 12-pounder guns + 10 × 32-pounder Carronades
Fc: 2 × 12-pounder guns, 2 × 32-pounder carronades
Service.
HMS Armada was commissioned under Captain Adam Mackenzie in the August of 1810 for the Texel. On the 9th of November, Armada was among the vessels in sight when the 36-gun fifth rate Curacoa captured the French privateer Venus. Then on the 22nd of November, Armada was in the company of the 74-gun Northumberland when Northumberland captured the 14-gun French privateer ketch Glaneuse of Saint Maloes, which was under the command of a Dane, Anthe Haste. Glaneuse was only six months old and was six weeks into her first cruise, having made no captures.
On the 1st of February, 1811 Armada was one of a number of vessels that were in company when Hero captured the American schooner Beauty.
In the January of 1812 Captain R.F. Devonshire briefly took command. That same month he was replaced by Captain Charles Grant who then remained in command until 1814. HMS Armada sailed for the Med on the 10th of March.
On the 23rd of July 1813, the rough seas steered Armada into the range of French batteries at Borgidhero. The batteries opened fire but the shots passed over Armada who then proceeded to land her marines, taking the eastern battery and then entering the battery on the point of Borgidhero following a failed French attempt to blow it up. The marines rendered the guns unusable by spiking them all. The landing party came under fire from the nearby town so the frigates accompanying Armada turned their guns on the town, whilst the landing party burnt several vessels upon the shore. Armada only lost two men to wounds during the operation.
On the 4th of November in that year, Armada arrived off Cap Sicié and on the following day she was engaged in a fracas with a French squadron off the port of Toulon. Admiral Sir Edward Pellew's inshore squadron consisted of the 74-gun third rates Scipion, Mulgrave, Pembroke, and Armada, Captains Henry Heathcote, Thomas James Maling, James Brisbane, and Charles Grant. The 74-gun third rate Pompée, Captain Sir James Athol Wood, joined them. These vessels opened fire on the French fleet consisting of 14 sail of the line and seven frigates, which had sortied from Toulon on a training exercise. Pellew and the main body of his force soon arrived to join the fray. Neither side accomplished much as the French rapidly returned to port. Armada had no casualties though one shot did hit her, and in all the British suffered 12 men wounded by enemy fire and one man killed and two wounded in an accident. Pellew mentioned in his letter that the only reason he had reported the incident was to provide an accurate account to counteract French propaganda. The French suffered 17 wounded.
Blockade of Toulon, 1810-1814: Pellew's action, 5 November 1813, by Thomas Luny
On the 9th of December Armada was part of a squadron under Captain Josiah Rowley aboard the HMS America, and assisted in supporting the landing of troops at Via Reggio. She had met up with the squadron, which had sailed up from Palermo, off Corsica a few days earlier. The troops, comprising 1000 men of the Italian Levy under the command of Lieut-Colonel Catanelli, marched inland and captured Lucca. They then returned to Via Reggio. There was further fighting around Pisa and Via Reggio before the expedition re-embarked aboard the British warships.
In November and December Berwick and Euryalus made a number of captures. Armada shared in the prize money by agreement with Berwick. Armada benefited from the capture of the St Anne and two French ships taken on 13 th and 16th of November, the schooner Air taken on the 11th of December, and the Antoine Camille and Resurrection taken on the17th.
On the 12th of February,1814 Armada was a part of the fleet off Toulon that chased a French squadron into that port. Armada herself did not take part in any of the consequent action.
On the 23rd of April in that year, Armada and Curacoa, together with 12 Sicilian gunboats, arrived at Savona to support a British and Sicilian force besieging the fortress there. When the French commander declined to surrender, the British warships, the gunboats and a battery commenced a cannonade. After an hour the French capitulated. Under the terms of surrender they were permitted to march out and return to Italy. The British and Sicilian force captured 110 cannon.
On the 1st of September, Armada was escorting ten merchant vessels to Gibraltar, some 200 miles west of Ushant, when the convoy encountered the sloop USS Wasp, which was operating out of Lorient. Wasp made for the convoy and singled out the brig Mary, laden with iron and brass cannon and other military stores, which she quickly captured, carrying off Mary's crew as prisoners before burning her. Wasp then attempted to take another ship in the convoy, but Armada was able to chase her off.
On returning to Plymouth at the close of September, Armada went into ordinary and underwent a small to middling repair between the April of 1815 and the January of 1816 costing £51,282.
Fate.
The Admiralty used her as a powder hulk at Keyham Point from the April of1844. An Admiralty order in 1862 mandated that her sister ship Conquestador would replace her on the 12th of November. Armada was sold out of the Navy in 1863 and broken up at Marshall's ship breaking yard Plymouth on the 27th of May of that year.
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