HMS Constance (1846)

HMS Constance was a 50-gun fourth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy launched in 1846. She had a tonnage of 2,132 and was designed with a V-shaped hull by Sir William Symonds.[1] She was also one of the last class of frigates designed by him.[2] On her shakedown voyage from England to Valparaiso she rounded Cape Horn in good trim, her captain for this voyage being Sir Baldwin Wake Walker, who commented "I think her a good sea boat, and a fine man of war". On the voyage she encountered a Hurricane at 62o south. Walker wrote that "nothing could have exceeded the way she went over it, not even straining a rope yarn".[3] In August 1848 her captain George William Courtenay, for whom the town of Courtenay was named,[4] led 250 sailors and marines from Fort Victoria to try to intimidate the Indians.[5]

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

John Turnstall Haverfield's painting of Constance in Esquimalt Harbour 1848
History
United Kingdom
Name: HMS Constance
Ordered: 31 March 1843
Builder: Pembroke Dockyard
Laid down: October 1843
Launched: 12 March 1846
Completed: 28 June 1846
Reclassified: Converted to screw frigate between 1860-62 at Devonport Dockyard
Refit: 1862
Fate: Sold for breaking up on 23 January 1875
General characteristics As ordered
Class and type: 50-gun Constance-class fourth-rate frigate
Tons burthen: 2,125 75/94 bm
Length:
  • 180 ft (54.9 m) (overall)
  • 146 ft 10.25 in (44.8 m) (keel)
Beam: 52 ft 8 in (16.1 m)
Depth of hold: 16 ft 3 in (4.95 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Complement: 500
Armament:
  • Upper deck: 28 x 32pdrs (10 x 8in/68pdr shell guns later replaced 10 x 32pdrs)
  • Quarter deck: 14 x 32pdrs
  • Forecastle: 8 x 32pdrs
General characteristics After 1860-62 refit
Class and type: 50-gun fourth-rate frigate
Displacement: 3,786 tons
Tons burthen: 3,212 bm
Length:
  • 253 ft 11 in (77.4 m) (overall)
  • 219 ft 2 in (66.8 m) (keel)
Beam: 53 ft (16.2 m)
Draught:
  • 21 ft 1 in (6.43 m) (forward)
  • 23 ft 7 in (7.19 m) (aft)
Depth of hold: 17 ft 1 in (5.21 m)
Propulsion:
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship

In 1848 she became the first Royal Naval vessel to use Esquimalt as her base.[6]

Constance (far left) in operations at "The Temple Fort of Dwarka, at the entrance of the Gulf of Kutch," from the Illustrated London News, 1860

In 1859 she was involved in the bombardment of Dwarka in the state of Gujarat in north western India.

In 1862 she was converted to screw propulsion using a compound steam engine[7] designed by Randolph & Elder.[8] She was the first Royal Naval ship to be fitted with this class of engine, and won a race against two frigates from Plymouth to Madeira in 1865.[9]

Her crew and officers were quarantined aboard whilst berthed at Port Royal on 26 October 1867 during an outbreak of Yellow Fever[10]

References
  1. Mariner's pp 64–68
  2. Brock p26
  3. Sharp p698
  4. Akrigg p54
  5. Gough p46
  6. Akrigg p52
  7. Rankine p445
  8. Gardiner p174
  9. The Race p90
  10. times and gazette p467

Bibliography
  • Brock, P. W. & Greenhill, Basil Steam and sail: in Britain and North America: 80 photographs mainly from the National Maritime Museum depicting British and North American naval, merchant, and special purpose vessels of the period of transition from sail to steam Pyne Press, 1973
  • Sharp, James A. Memoirs of the life and services of Rear-Admiral Sir William Symonds Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans & Roberts 1858
  • Rankine, William John Macquorn Miscellaneous Scientific Papers: From the Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal and Other Scientific and Philosophical Societies Adamant. 4 June 2001. ISBN 978-1-4021-7192-5
  • Gardiner, Robert Steam, steel & shellfire: the steam warship, 1815-1905 Conway Maritime Press. 20 June 2001. ISBN 978-0-85177-564-7
  • Akrigg, G. P. V. Akrigg, Helen B. British Columbia place names University of British Columbia Press; 3rd edition. 31 December 1997. ISBN 978-0-7748-0637-4
  • Gough, Barry M. Gunboat Frontier: British Maritime Authority and Northwest Coast Indians, 1846-1890 University of British Columbia Press. 1st edition. 1 January 1984. ISBN 0-7748-0175-1
  • Mariner's mirror The Mariner's mirror, Volume 73 Society for Nautical Research., 1987
  • The medical times and gazette John Churchill & Sons. 1867
  • The Race The annual of the Royal School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering Henry Sotheran & Co. 1871.
  • Jones, Colin (1996). "Entente Cordiale, 1865". In McLean, David & Preston, Antony (eds.). Warship 1996. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-685-X.
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