HMS Boreas (1774)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other ships with the same name, see HMS Boreas.

History
Royal Navy Ensign (1707-1801)Great Britain
NameHMS Boreas
Ordered25 December 1770
BuilderHugh Blaydes & Mr Hodgson, Hull
Laid downMay 1771
Launched23 August 1774
Completed23 October 1775 at Chatham Dockyard
CommissionedAugust 1775
FateSold to break up at Sheerness in May 1802
General characteristics
Class and typeModified Mermaid-class frigate
Displacement626 48⁄94 (bm)
Length
  • 124 ft 6 in (37.95 m) (gundeck)
  • 103 ft 11 in (31.67 m) (keel)
Beam33 ft 8 in (10.26 m)
Sail planFull-rigged ship
Complement200 officers and men
Armament
  • Upper deck: 24 × 9-pounder guns
  • QD: 4 × 3-pounder guns
  • 12 swivel guns

HMS Boreas was a modified Mermaid-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was first commissioned in August 1775 under Captain Charles Thompson. She was built at Blaydes Yard in Hull to a design by Sir Thomas Slade at a cost of £10,000. She was fitted out at Chatham Docks.[1]

In 1778 she underwent a refit in Plymouth having a copper bottom fitted at a cost of £5500.

In July 1779 she saw action in the Battle of Grenada under command of Captain Thompson.

On 31 August 1779 Boreas, still under Captain Thompson, captured the French corvette , of eighteen 6-pounder guns, which was carrying a cargo of sugar.[2][Note 1] Compas, which was armed en flute, put up resistance for about 20 minutes, with the result that she suffered nine men killed and wounded before she struck.[4] Boreas was part of a squadron under the command of Rear Admiral of the Red Hyde Parker on the Jamaica station.

Horatio Nelson (who was created 1st Viscount Nelson 1801) was Senior Naval Officer of the Leeward Islands from 1784 to 1787 on the Boreas.

The Boreas was used as a slop ship from 1797 until its sale in 1802.

Footnotes[]

Notes
  1. ^ Compas had been launched on 12 September 1776. She had originally been intended as a training corvette for 40 students at the École de la Marine at Havre, but it closed in March, before she was launched. The Royal Navy did not take her into service. French sources report that she was armed with eighteen 8-pounder guns.[3]
Citations
  1. ^ "Hugh Blaydes (1686-?)".
  2. ^ Clowes et al., (1897-1903), Vol. 4, p. 31.
  3. ^ Demerliac (1996), p. 107, #742
  4. ^ "No. 12050". The London Gazette. 18 January 1780. p. 1.

References[]

  • *Clowes, W. Laird, et al. (1897-1903) The royal navy: a history from the earliest times to the present. (Boston: Little, Brown and Co.; London: S. Low, Marston and Co.).
  • Demerliac, Alain (1996) La Marine De Louis XVI: Nomenclature Des Navires Français De 1774 À 1792. (Nice: Éditions OMEGA). ISBN 2-906381-23-3
  • Robert Gardiner, The First Frigates, Conway Maritime Press, London 1992. ISBN 0-85177-601-9.
  • David Lyon, The Sailing Navy List, Conway Maritime Press, London 1993. ISBN 0-85177-617-5.
  • Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 978-1-86176-246-7.
  • Winfield, Rif (2014). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1817–1863: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 978-1-84832-169-4.


Stub icon

This article about a specific naval ship or boat of the United Kingdom is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by .

  • v
  • t
Retrieved from ""