HMS Boadicea (1797)

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Career

Ordered:	30 April 1795
Laid down:	September 1795 Adams, Bucklers Hard
Launched:	12 April 1797
Sailed:	[[9 September 1797
Fate:	1854 hulked, Broken up, 1858
General Characteristics
tons Burthen:	1052
Length:	148-6 feet
Beam:	39-11 1/2 feet
Depth of Hold:	12-8 feet
Propulsion:	Sail
Speed:
Range:
Complement:	284–
Armament (as ordered):	UD: Twenty Eight 18lb guns; QD eight 9lb guns, six 32lb carronades, FC two 32lb carronades two 9lbguns

1 Design
2 History
3 Sail Qualities
4 Fiction
5 See also
6 References

[edit] Design

Boadicea was one of a group of large frigates ordered in 1795 all of which were of largest of their class, and which the majority were to the draught of captured French ships, the Navy then being under the sway of Middleton and the French school of thought, a school supposing that the design of warships in France was of a higher quality. She was built to the draught of the Imperieuse, a 40 gun ship completed in 1787 and captured in October 1793, changes were made to the shape of the topsides, and the scantlings and fastenings were strengthened to reflect British practice. She retained her shallow French hull form, and as a result the holds and magazines were considered cramped.

[edit] History

Boadicea commissioned under Capt. R.G. Keats for service in the Channel fleet, and experienced active service on this station for several years, including capturing the Spanish ship Union 22 on the 14 August 1797. She served under Capt. Charles Rowley from 1801, in charge of a light squadron on the Atlantic coast of France and Spain. In 1803 Capt. John Maitland, commanded the ship in the Channel. In the autumn of 1806 Boadicea was employed protecting the whale fishery in the Davis Strait followed by service on the Irish station in 1807.

In 1808 Capt. John Hatley, sailed in the Boadicea from Portsmouth for the Indian Ocean. The ship served in the long campaign to capture the Mauritius, in August 1809 off Mauritius she lost her bowsprit and foremast in a collision. In September 1809 she served in a squadron of frigates and sloops in the expedition against St Paul’s, in the Isle of Bourbon (Reunion), with Captain Rowley the senior officer aboard the Raisonnable, 64. The detachment landed without alarming the batteries which were stormed and carried. The rest of the squadron then stood into the bay and exchanged fire with the French frigate Caroline,46. Soon the batteries, town and shipping were all in British hands for the total loss of 22 killed, 76 wounded and 4 missing.

Capt. Josias Rowley moved to Boadicea and on the 7 July 1810, with three other frigates he escorted a force of 1650 Europeans and 1600 Sepoys from Madras and 1000 from Roderiguez to capture Reunion the island surrendering on 9 July 1810. Under Captain Rowley the Boadicea then took part in a series of separate actions against a number of French frigates and other vessels, during which a British squadron was defeated in a failed attack on Grand Port, Mauritius, the British Africaine 38 was damaged, the British Ceylon, 38 was recaptured and the French Venus captured. On 21 November 181O Vice Ad. Bertie led a large fleet of warships and transports to attack Mauritius, the French surrendering on the 7 December 1910. Capt. Rowley and the Boadicea returned to England with Vice Ad. Bertie's dispatches.

Boadicea went on to serve for the remainder of the war, and in the East Indies from 1824 to 1827.

[edit] Sail Qualities

“Average under sail, not recording more than 9kts close hauled and 11.5kts off the wind, good sea boat…. tolerably handy in staying and wearing.” She received extensions to her gripe and another 4in onto her false keel, suggesting a lack of weatherliness as built.