HMS Trincomalee (Leda Class Frigate) (Ex RN)
HMS Trincomalee (Leda Class Frigate) (Ex RN)
^ HMS Trincomalee in her home, Hartlepool
Introduction
HMS Trincomalee is a Royal Navy Leda-class sailing frigate built shortly after the end of the Napoleonic Wars. She is now restored as a museum ship in Hartlepool, England.
History
1812 - 1847
Trincomalee is one of two surviving British frigates of her era — her near-sister HMS Unicorn (of the modified Leda class) is now a museum ship in Dundee. After being ordered on 30 October 1812, Trincomalee was built in Bombay, India by the Wadia family of shipwrights in teak, due to oak shortages in Britain as a result of shipbuilding drives for the Napoleonic Wars. The ship was named Trincomalee after the 1782 Battle of Trincomalee off the Ceylon (Sri Lanka) port of that name.
With a construction cost of £23,000, Trincomalee was launched on 12 October 1817. Soon after completion she was sailed to Portsmouth Dockyard where she arrived on 30 April 1819, with a journey costing £6,600. During the maiden voyage the ship arrived at Saint Helena on 24th January 1819 where she stayed for 6 days, leaving with an additional passenger, a surgeon who had attended Napoleon at Longwood House on the island, Mr John Stokoe.
After being fitted out at a further cost of £2,400, Trincomalee was placed in reserve until 1845, when she was re-armed with fewer guns giving greater firepower, had her stern reshaped and was reclassified as a sixth-rate spar-decked corvette.
1847 - 1857
Trincomalee departed from Portsmouth in 1847 and remained in service for ten years, serving on the North American and West Indies station. During her time, she was to help quell riots in Haiti and stop a threatened invasion of Cuba, and serve on anti-slavery patrol. In 1849, she was despatched to Newfoundland and Labrador before being recalled to Britain in 1850. In 1852 she sailed to join the Pacific Squadron on the west coast of America.
^ TS Foudroyant in Portsmouth Harbour, 1981
TS Foudroyant
Trincomalee finished her Royal Navy service as a training ship, but was placed in reserve again in 1895 and sold for scrap two years later on 19th May 1897. She was then purchased by entrepreneur George Wheatley Cobb, restored, and renamed Foudroyant in honour of HMS Foudroyant, his earlier ship that had been wrecked in 1897.
Foudroyant was used in conjunction with HMS Implacable as an accommodation ship, a training ship, and a holiday ship based in Falmouth then in Portsmouth Harbour. She remained in service until 1986, after which she was again restored in Hartlepool and renamed back to Trincomalee in 1992.
Later years
Now listed as part of the National Historic Fleet, following her recent restoration Trincomalee has become the centrepiece of the historic dockyard museum in Hartlepool. Trincomalee holds the distinction of being the oldest British warship still afloat as HMS Victory, although 52 years her senior, is in dry dock.
Specification
Class and type: Leda-class frigate
Tons burthen: 1065.63 bm
Length: 150 ft 4.5 in (45.834 m) (gundeck), 125 ft 7.25 in (38.2842 m) (keel)
Beam: 39 ft 11.25 in (12.1730 m)
Depth of hold: 12 ft 9 in (3.89 m)
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Complement: 315 officers and men
Armament: 38-guns: (classed as 46 as carronades were counted in armament from 1817)
Gundeck:
28 × 18-pounders
Quarterdeck:
14 × 32-pounder carronades
Forecastle:
2 × 9 pounders
2 × 32-pdr carronades
Re: HMS Trincomalee (Leda Class Frigate) (Ex RN)
Update: HMS Trincomalee is now currently the world's oldest warship still floating. I've learned that the USS Constitution has been in a drydock since 2015 minus its entire hull and copper cladding due to rot.
However, HMS Victory still retains the world's oldest commissioned warship title.
However, HMS Victory still retains the world's oldest commissioned warship title.
- ArmChairCivvy
- Senior Member
- Posts: 16312
- Joined: 05 May 2015, 21:34
Re: HMS Trincomalee (Leda Class Frigate) (Ex RN)
A pity that the name she carries will soon relate to a PLAN base:SKB wrote: HMS Trincomalee is now currently the world's oldest warship still floating.
"Mr. Maithripala Sirisena, current Sri Lankan president, has balanced the situation between India and Sri Lanka. A former prime minister, Dudley Senanayake had warned his successor, that if Colombo gave base facilities to China in Trincomalee, the next India-China war would be fought in Sri Lanka."
Ever-lasting truths: Multi-year budgets/ planning by necessity have to address the painful questions; more often than not the Either-Or prevails over Both-And.
If everyone is thinking the same, then someone is not thinking (attributed to Patton)
If everyone is thinking the same, then someone is not thinking (attributed to Patton)
Re: HMS Trincomalee (Leda Class Frigate) (Ex RN)
Nobody click on anything you are not familiar with. ^^^
This recent arrival, posting all over the place doesn't seem friendly.
This recent arrival, posting all over the place doesn't seem friendly.
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