HMS Armada (1810)
| Career (UK) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS Armada |
| Ordered: | 21 October 1806 |
| Builder: | Blackburn, Turnchapel |
| Laid down: | February 1807 |
| Launched: | 23 March 1810 |
| Fate: | Sold, 1863 |
| General characteristics [1] | |
| Class and type: | Venguer-class Third Rate |
| Tons burthen: | 1749 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:
|
HMS Armada was a Royal Navy 74-gun Third Rate. Armada was the first ship to carry that name.
This ship of the line was launched on 23 March 1810 by Mrs Pridham, the wife of the Mayor of Plymouth, Mr Joseph Pridham.[1] After a relatively undistinguished career, Armada was sold out of the Navy in 1863 and broken up at Marshall's ship breaking yard in Plymouth.[1]
Contents
Service
Captain Adam Mackenzie commissioned her. On 22 November 1810, Armada was in the company of the 74-gun Northumberland when Northumberland captured the the 14-gun French privateer ketch La Glaneuse.
On 4 November 1813 she arrived off Cap Sicié and on the 5th was involved in a skirmish with a French squadron off Toulon. Admiral Sir Edward Pellew's inshore squadron consisted of the 74-gun ships Scipion, Mulgrave, Pembroke, and Armada, Captains Henry Heathcote, Thomas James Maling, James Brisbane, and Charles Grant. The 74-gun Pompée, Captain Sir James Athol Wood, joined them. These vessels opened fire on the French fleet consisting of 12 sail of the line, six frigates, and a schooner, 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. The French suffered 17 wounded.
On 12 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 action.
On 25 July Armada, the 36-gun Fifth Rate Curacoa, and 12 Sicilian gunboats bombarded the fortress at Savona, leading the French forces there to surrender to a mixed corps of British and Sicilian troops.
On 1 September Armada was escorting a convoy of ten sail to Gibraltar when, about 200 miles west of Ushant, they encountered the American sloop USS Wasp, operating out of L'Orient. Wasp made for the convoy and singled out the brig Mary, laden with iron and brass cannon and other military stores, which she quickly took as a prize, carrying off Mary's crew as prisoners and burning her. Wasp then attempted to take another ship in the convoy, but Armada chased her off.
Fate
In 1815 Armada was out of commission at Plymouth. Armada was sold out of the Navy in 1863 and broken up at Marshall's ship breaking yard in Plymouth.
Notes
References
- Colledge, J.J. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of All Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy From the Fifteenth Century to the Present. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1987. ISBN 0-87021-652-X.
- 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.
- Winfield, Rif. British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1793-1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing, 2nd edition, 2008. ISBN 978-1-84415-717-4.
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