HMS Defence (1815)

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

Plan drawing of Defence
History
United Kingdom
Name	Defence
Ordered	23 March 1809
Builder	Chatham Dockyard
Laid down	May 1812
Launched	25 April 1815
Completed	7 June 1815
Fate	Scrapped, 21 January 1858
General characteristics (as built)
Class & type	Vengeur-class ship of the line
Tons burthen	1,754 9⁄94 (bm)
Length	174 ft (53.0 m) (gundeck)
Beam	47 ft 8 in (14.5 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 Defence was a 74-gun third rate Vengeur-class ship of the line built for the Royal Navy in the 1810s. Completed in 1815, she was never commissioned and served as a prison ship beginning in 1851. Badly damaged by a fire in 1857 the ship was broken up for scrap in 1858.

History

HMS Defence was ordered on 23 March 1809 and laid down in May 1812 at Chatham Dockyard. She was launched on 25 April 1815 and served as a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line.

In 1849, she was converted to serve as a prison ship. On 14 July 1857, Defence was badly damaged by an accidental fire at Woolwich, likely caused by spontaneous combustion in a recently delivered load of coal.^[1] The fire was extinguished by scuttling the ship, and the remains were subsequently broken up later that year.^[2]

Sectional view of the interior of the Defence Hulk, (The Woolwich prison ships)

The Defence hulk and the Unite convict hospital ship, off Woolwich

Citations

1. The Hobart Town Mercury, 30 Oct 1857, p. 2
2. Gosset, p. 114

References

• 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.
• Gosset, William Patrick (1986). The Lost Ships of the Royal Navy, 1793-1900. Mansell. ISBN 0-7201-1816-6.
• 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.