HMS America (1810)

For other ships of the same name, see HMS America.

History

UK
Name:	HMS America
Ordered:	22 August 1807
Builder:	Perry, Blackwall Yard
Launched:	21 April 1810
Fate:	Broken up, 1867
General characteristics ^[1]
Class & type:	Vengeur-class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1758 bm
Length:	176 ft (54 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 6 in (14.48 m)
Depth of hold:	21 ft (6.4 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	74 guns: Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounders Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounders Quarterdeck: 4 × 12-pounders, 10 × 32-pounder carronades Forecastle: 2 × 12-pounders, 2 × 32-pounder carronades Poop deck: 6 × 18-pounder carronades

HMS America was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 21 April 1810 at Blackwall Yard.^[1]

In 1827 America was cut down into a fourth rate. During the rising tensions with the United States of America over the Oregon boundary dispute, HMS America was dispatched to the Pacific Northwest in 1845.^[2] Leaving the Straits of Juan de Fuca on 1 October, the vessel sailed for the Kingdom of Hawaii and later the Pacific Station at Valparaíso, in Chile. While at the Pacific Station, Captain John Gordon ordered the valuable cargo of HMS Daphne be moved to his ship and departed to deliver it to the United Kingdom. By removing the second most powerful British vessel on the Pacific coast of the Americas during the Oregon crisis, Gordon was court-martialed and reprimanded.^[2]

The America was broken up in 1867.^[1]

Notes

1 2 3 Lavery, Ships of the Line, vol. 1, p. 188.
1 2 Longstaff, F. V. and W. K. Lamb. The Royal Navy on the Northwest Coast, 1813-1850. Part 1. The British Columbia Historical Quarterly 9, No. 1 (1945), pp. 1-24.

References

Lavery, Brian (2003) The Ship of the Line - Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850. Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-252-8.

Vengeur-class ships of the line

Ajax Berwick Rodney Poictiers Vigo Cressy Egmont Armada America Vengeur Conquestador Edinburgh Barham Hogue Duncan Asia Stirling Castle Mulgrave Cornwall Dublin Gloucester Scarborough Clarence Anson Pembroke Rippon Devonshire Medway Indus Benbow Cornwallis Blenheim Vindictive Redoubtable Defence Hercules Pitt Hero Agincourt Russell

Preceded by: Swiftsure class Followed by: Black Prince class

List of ships of the line of the Royal Navy

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