HMS Windsor Castle (1858)

HMS Windsor Castle was a triple-decker, 102-gun first-rate Royal Navy ship of the line. She was renamed HMS Cambridge in 1869, when she replaced a ship of the same name as gunnery ship off Plymouth.

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Windsor Castle and HMS Cambridge.

HMS Cambridge firing a torpedo
History
United Kingdom
Name: HMS Windsor Castle
Ordered:
  • 3 October 1833
  • Reordered on 29 June 1848 to modified sail design
  • Reordered on 28 February 1857 to modified steam design
Builder: Pembroke Dockyard
Laid down: May 1844
Launched: 26 August 1858
Renamed:
  • Built as HMS Victoria
  • Renamed HMS Windsor Castle on 6 January 1855
  • Renamed HMS Cambridge in 1869
Fate: Sold for breaking up on 24 June 1908
General characteristics As designed
Class and type: 110-gun first-rate ship of the line
Tons burthen: 3,083 tons
Length: 204 ft (62 m)
Beam: 60 ft (18 m)
Depth of hold: 23 ft 9 in (7.24 m)
Propulsion: Sail
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Speed: 11kts (under steam)
Complement: 950
Armament:
  • 102 guns:
  • Lower deck: 28 x 32pdr guns + 2 x 68 pdr guns
  • Main deck: 28 x 32pdr guns + 2 x 68 pdr guns
  • Upper deck: 32 x 32pdr guns
  • Quarter deck: 10 x short 32pdr gunnades
  • Forecastle: 2 x short 32pdr gunnades + 2 x 68pdr carronades
  • 4 × 18pdr carronades
General characteristics As completed
Class and type: 102-gun first-rate ship of the line
Displacement: 4,971 tons
Tons burthen: 3,099 tons
Length: 204 ft (62 m)
Beam: 60 ft (18 m)
Depth of hold: 23 ft 9 in (7.24 m)
Propulsion:
  • Sail
  • 2-cyl. (64½in diam., 40in stroke, 130,700 cu.in. or 2142 litres) horizontal single expansion, trunk
  • Single screw
  • 500 nhp
  • 2,052 ihp
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Speed: 11kts (under steam)
Complement: 930
Armament:
  • 102 guns:
  • Lower deck: 30 x 8in guns
  • Main deck: 30 x 32pdr guns
  • Upper deck: 30 x 32pdr guns
  • Quarter deck/Forecastle: 10 x 32pdrs + 2 x 68pdrs
General characteristics After 1862
Class and type: 97-gun ship of the line
Armament:
  • 97 guns:
  • 1 × 110pdr (on pivot)
  • 30 × 8in guns
  • 4 × 70pdrs
  • 6 × 40pdrs
  • 56 × 32pdrs

Life
Starboard stern elevation illustrating her lifting screw propeller

Early life

She was laid down at Pembroke Dockyard as HMS Victoria in 1844, to the design of HMS Queen. She was intended to carry 110 guns, but work was suspended. She was reordered on 29 June 1848 to a modified design, and reordered again on 28 February 1857 when she was ordered to be converted from sail to mixed sail/steam propulsion whilst on the stocks and to be fitted with 120 guns. She was renamed Windsor Castle on 6 January 1855 and launched on 26 August 1858, having since been reduced to carry 116 guns, and then 102 guns. She cost a total of £117,030, £84,555 spent on her hull as a sailing vessel, her conversion had cost another £14,878. 204 feet long, and of 4971 tons displacement, she had a crew of 930, but almost immediately entered the first-class steam reserve - The Times reported on 13 September 1860 reported her as among the "ships and gunboats in the first-class steam reserve which could be got ready for the pennant at a short notice". By 1862 she had been reduced to 97 guns.

Gunnery school
Cambridge in the Hamoaze on gun practice
The hulks of HMS Calcutta (right) and HMS Cambridge (left) in Portsmouth Dockyard, c.1890

She was renamed HMS Cambridge in 1869, when she replaced a ship of the same name as gunnery ship off Plymouth. She was later joined by HMS Calcutta as her tender, with a wooden bridge between the bow of HMS Cambridge and the stern of the Calcutta. Other of her tenders included HMS Gorgon, Plucky and Sabrina (around 1877) and HMS Bonetta, Bulldog, Cuckoo, Hecate, Plucky, Sabrina, Snap (around 1890), and Undaunted (from 1901). In 1890, some of her officers were listed as bound for Foudroyant and Perseus.

In June 1902 she was at Devonport, when Rear-Admiral Assheton Curzon-Howe hoisted his flag on board as second in command of the Channel Squadron.[1]

Fate

She was towed on 30 October 1907 to No. 5 Basin of the Royal Dockyard to enable the gunnery school to move ashore into the Naval Barracks, paid off on 4 November that year and sold to Cox on 24 June 1908 for breaking up at Falmouth.

Captains
  • January 1869 - May 1871: Fitzgerald Algernon Charles Foley
  • February 1874: F. Herbert R.N.
  • Around 12 August 1877: Thomas Le Hunte Ward
  • 15 August 1883 – 25 August 1886: George Stanley Bosanquet
  • December 1896: William Metcalfe Lang
  • August 1898 - 1900: Captain Robert William Craigie[2]
  • August 1900 - August 1903: Captain Charles Ramsay Arbuthnot[3]

References
  1. "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times (36787). London. 6 June 1902. p. 11.
  2. "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times (36054). London. 1 February 1900. p. 6.
  3. "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times (36439). London. 26 April 1901. p. 10.
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