HMS Royal William (1833)

History
UK
Name:	HMS Royal William
Ordered:	30 December 1823
Builder:	Pembroke Dockyard
Laid down:	October 1825
Launched:	2 April 1833
Fate:	Burnt, 1899
General characteristics [1]
Class & type:	Broadened Caledonia-class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	2694 bm
Length:	205 ft 5.5 in (62.624 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	54 ft 6 in (16.61 m)
Depth of hold:	23 ft 2 in (7.06 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	120 guns: Gundeck: 30 × 32 pdrs, 2 × 68-pdr carronades Middle gundeck: 34 × 32 pdrs Upper gundeck: 34 × 32 pdrs Quarterdeck: 2 × 18 pdrs, 14 × 32 pdr carronades Forecastle: 2 × 18 pdrs, 2 × 32 pdr carronades

HMS Royal William was a 120-gun first rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 2 April 1833 at Pembroke Dock.^[1]

She was fitted with screw propulsion in 1860.^[1] Royal William was destroyed by a fire in July 1899, near New Ferry, on the Wirral. She had been lent to the Liverpool Roman Catholic Reformatory Society, who renamed the ship Clarence.^[2]

The figurehead of the Royal William (in its original state) was for many years placed beside the historic 1775 Mutton Cove "covered slip number 1" in Plymouth harbour. In the 1990s it was replaced by a fibreglass copy, the wooden original is now preserved in Devonport dockyard (link).

Notes

1. Lavery, Ships of the Line vol.1, p190.
2. "A Reformatory Ship Destroyed By Fire". The Times (35892): Col A, p. 6. 27 July 1899.

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.
• Lyon, David and Winfield, Rif (2004) The Sail and Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815-1889. Chatham Publishing, London. ISBN 1-86176-032-9.