HMS YORK (1807)
HMS York was a Revived Hero class 74-gun third-rate ship of the line, ordered 0n the 24th of January 1805, and built by Samuel & Daniel Brent,at Rotherhithe. Laid down in the August of that year, she was launched on the 7th of July,1807.
GREAT BRITAIN Name: HMS York Ordered: 31 January 1805 Builder: Brent, Rotherhithe Laid down: August 1805 Launched: 7 July 1807 Fate: Broken up, 1854 Notes: Prison ship from 1819 Class and type: Revived Hero Class ship of the line. Tons burthen: 1743 (bm) Length: 175 ft (53 m) (gundeck) Beam: 47 ft 8.5 in (14.48 m) Depth of hold: 13 ft 6 in (6.25 m) Propulsion: Sails 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
·Poop deck: 6 × 18-pounder carronades
Service.
HMS York was commissioned in the August of 1807 under Captain Robert Barton who commanded her until 1812.
One of the many British warships ordered after they were most needed. Although the major naval battles of the Napoleonic Wars had already occurred by the time of her launching, York was employed on some notable campaigns.
After her launch, York, under the command of Barton, sailed for the Leeward Islands on the 30th of November,1807, as part of Sir Samuel Hood's squadron on the 26th of December in that year she participated in the occupation of Madeira.
In 1809, York was on the West India Station, and was involved in the capture of Martinique in the February of that year. In April a strong French squadron arrived at the Îles des Saintes, south of Guadeloupe. There they were blockaded until the 14th of April, when a British force under Major-General Frederick Maitland and Captain Philip Beaver in Acasta, invaded and captured the islands.York was among the naval vessels that shared in the proceeds of the capture of the islands.
In July and August of that same year, back in home waters, York was involved in the disastrous landings at Walcheren. On the 14th of November York sailed for the Med, and combined with the Mediterranean Squadron off Toulon.
In the August of 1812, now under Captain Alexander Schomberg, she was back in the North sea and then the Channel.
On the 17th of December, 1813 York captured the French ship Marie Antoinette.
In 1814 York sailed to Nort America conveying troops.
On her return in the August of1815 she was paid off at Plymouth and went into ordinary.
Fate.
In the November of 1819, York entered Portsmouth harbour, where she was stripped of her masts and guns, and converted into a convict ship, serving in this role from 1824 to 1850. HMS York is best remembered in this state, thanks to a contemporary drawing by Edward William Cooke, which shows her fully converted, and with laundry above her decks where sails once would have been. She would have typically contained approximately 500 convicts.
HMS York in Prison-ship in Portsmouth Harbour with the convicts going on board, by Edward William Cooke
After many years at this harbour service, she was finally broken there up in the March of 1854.
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