HMS Berwick (1809)

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Berwick.

Berwick
History
United Kingdom
Name	Berwick
Ordered	1 July 1807
Builder	Perry, Wells & Green, Blackwall Yard
Laid down	October 1807
Launched	11 September 1809
Commissioned	March 1810
Decommissioned	July 1816
Fate	Broken up, March 1821
General characteristics (as built)
Class & type	Vengeur-class ship of the line
Tons burthen	1,757 (bm)
Length	176 ft (53.6 m) (gundeck)
Beam	47 ft 9 in (14.6 m)
Draught	18 ft (5.5 m) (light)
Depth of hold	21 ft (6.4 m)
Sail plan	Full-rigged ship
Complement	590
Armament	74 muzzle-loading, smoothbore guns Gundeck: 28 × 32 pdr guns Upper deck: 28 × 18 pdr guns Quarterdeck: 4 × 12 pdr guns + 10 × 32 pdr carronades Forecastle: 2 × 12 pdr guns + 2 × 32 pdr carronades

HMS Berwick was a 74-gun third rate Vengeur-class ship of the line built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 19th century. Completed in 1810, she played a minor role in the Napoleonic Wars.

launched on 11 September 1809 at Blackwall.^[1]

Career

At the action of 24 March 1811, Berwick under Captain James Macnamara led the pursuit and destruction of the French frigate Amazone near the Phare de Gatteville lighthouse, Normandy. One sailor was killed in the engagement.^[2]

Before the fall of Genoa in April 1814, the boats of Berwick and Rainbow, together with two Sicilian gunboats, attacked French posts near the pass of Rona on 8 and 10 April to assist the British army in its advance. The British drove off the French defenders, who left behind two 24-pounder guns and two mortars. The British lost two men killed and five wounded.^[3]

Fate

Berwick was broken up in 1821.^[1]

Notes

1. Lavery, p. 188
2. "No. 16469". The London Gazette. 26 March 1811. p. 573.
3. "No. 16897". The London Gazette. 10 May 1814. p. 984.

References

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben & Bush, Steve (2020). Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy from the 15th Century to the Present (5th revised and updated ed.). Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-5267-9327-0.
• Lavery, Brian (1984). The Ship of the Line. Vol. 1: The Development of the Battlefleet 1650-1850. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-85177-252-8.
• Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates (2nd, revised ed.). Seaforth. ISBN 978-1-84415-717-4.