HMS Asia (1764)
HMS Asia at the Halifax Naval Yard in 1797. Watercolour by George Gustavus Lennox, who was a lieutenant aboard Asia
HMS Asia was a Sir Thomas Slade designed 64-gun third rate ship of the line, built by M/shipwright Edward Allin to the May of 1762 and completed by Thomas Bucknall at Portsmouth Dockyard. Ordered on the 4th of March, 1758, and confirmed on the 28th of the month, she was laid down in the 18th of April in that year, and launched on the 3rd of March, 1764.
Sir Thomas Slade had designed her as an experimental ship, and one which proved to be particularly groundbreaking in the fact that she was the first true 64 gun vessel. She proved so successful that the Admiralty Board decided not to order any further 60 gun ships, but went on to commission another 39 of the 64s, incorporating alterations learned from trials with Asia. All the subsequent ships built were bigger; consequently, she was the only ship of her class to be built.
History Great Britain Name: HMS Asia Ordered: 4 March 1758 Builder: Edward Allin & Thomas Bucknall, Portsmouth Dockyard Laid down: 18 April 1758 Launched: 3 March 1764 Commissioned: March 1771 Fate: Broken up, 1804 General characteristics Class and type: Asia Class 64 gun third rate ship of the line Tons burthen: 136446⁄94 (bm) Length: 158 ft 0 in (48.2 m) (gundeck) Beam: 44 ft 6 in (13.6 m) Draught:
- 10 ft 2 in (3.1 m) forward
- 16 ft 6 in (5.03 m) aft
Depth of hold: 18 ft 10 in (5.7 m) Propulsion: Sails Sail plan: Full rigged ship Armament:
- Gundeck: 26 × 24-pdr guns
- Upper gundeck: 26 × 18-pdr guns
QD: 10 × 9 pdr guns
- Fc: 2 × 9-pdr guns + 2 x 24 pdr Carronades from 1794.
- RH: 6x 18 pdr Carronades from 1794
Service.
HMS Asia was commissioned in the March of 1771 as a guardship and finally sailed from Portsmouth on the 10th of June, 1774.
The American Revolution.
Asia saw early service in the American Revolutionary War, as a transport vessel for 500 Marines sent to New York in 1774 to quell rising tensions among the local population. She arrived at New York on the 4th of December, and remained there until later in the month when she joined a flotilla commanded by Admiral Richard Howe.
On her return to New York Harbour, Asia supplied protection for the merchant ship Duchess of Gordon, where H.M.Royal governor William Tryon had established an ad hoc office in October 1775, fearing arrest by the rebels if he remained in the city.
She was present at the Battle of Brooklyn in the August of1776, and later survived a fire ship attack led by the American revolutionary Silas Talbot. The fire ship fouled Asia setting fire to her, but the crew, aided by men from other nearby vessels, were able to extinguish the flames, before they turned into a general conflagration.
On her return to England in 1777 she underwent a small repair at Portsmouth between the April and August of that year costing £12,277.14.0d. She then escorted some East Indiamen to India between 1778 and 1779.
On her return she was paid off in the April of 1781 and fitted and coppered at Chatham from the January to the June of 1782. She was then recommissioned for service in the channel, and paid off once more in the March of 1783, whereupon she underwent a large repair at Chatham between the May of 1786 and the June of 1787 at a cost of £27,030. She was recommissioned in the June of 1790 by Captain Andrew Mitchell for the Spanish Armament and then paid off.
The French Revolution.
During yet another refit between the April to the August of 1793, Asia was recommissioned in the May of that year under Captain John Brown and on the 26th of December she sailed for the West Indies to join the fleet of Admiral Sir John Jervis in early 1794. In the March of that year, Asia participated in the capture of Martinique with an expeditionary force under the command of Jervis and Lieutenant-General Sir Charles. By the 16th of that month, British forces were able to capture all the forts, excepting those of Forts Bourbon and Royal. On the 20th Asia and the Zebra were intended to have entered r the Carenage at Fort Royal in order to fire upon Fort St. Louis. However, Asia did not take up her position as a result of her pilot, M. de Tourelles, who had been a lieutenant of the port, reneging on his agreement to take her in, ostensibly because of a fear of shoals. Instead, Zebra went in alone, with her captain, Richard Faulknor, and crew landing under the guns of the fort and capturing it.
Capture of Fort Saint Louis, Martinique, 1794, with Asia in the background, and Zebra in the foreground; depicted by William Anderson.
Asia returned to England in the July of 1794, and In the following month Captain John M'Dougall assumed command as she joined the Downs squadron, followed by a period in the North sea during 1795. From the June of that year she performed duty as the Flagship of Rear Admiral Thomas Pringle.
At the commencement of 1796 having sailed to the West Indies, on the 29th of April Asia again faced a possible fire, this time in Port Royal. The fire was self-inflicted in that part of a recently stored delivery of 300 powder barrels on the lower gun deck exploded. Some 300 of the vessel's crew jumped overboard in order to escape the consequences should the nearby main Magazine explode. Asia's captain, officers, and a few of the remaining crew were able to put out the fire. In all, the vessel lost 11 men killed and wounded.
Following the fire, from the May of that year she was under the command of Captain Robert Murray, and on the 16th of August, she sailed for Halifax Nova Scotia. In the October of 1798 she was destined to become the flagship of Vice Admiral George Vanderput on that station. During her time At Halifax she picked up a group of 600 Jamaican Maroons who had been deported from Jamaica the previous year and were now to be transferred to Sierra Leone. She departed on the 8th of August and arrived in Sierra Leone on 30 September, disembarking there the group who came to be called the Jamaican Marroons of Sierra Leone.
On her return to England in 1800, she was refitted at Chatham and recommissioned in the February of 1801 under Captain John Dawson in Vice Admiral Charles Pole’s squadron. This commission ended in 1802 and she was paid off in the March of that year
Fate.
She was broken up in August 1804 at Chatham.
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