third rate
In the rating system of the Royal Navy, a third rate was a ship of the line which from the 1720s mounted between 64 and 80 guns, typically built with two gun decks (thus the related term two-decker). Years of experience proved that the third r ...
ship of the line
A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactic known as the line of battle, which depended on the two colu ...
of the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
, launched on 23 June 1815 at
Deptford Dockyard
Deptford Dockyard was an important naval dockyard and base at Deptford on the River Thames, operated by the Royal Navy from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. It built and maintained warships for 350 years, and many significant events a ...
. She was built to the lines of the
Danish
Danish may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark
People
* A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark
* Culture of Denmark
* Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...
Second Battle of Copenhagen
The Second Battle of Copenhagen (or the Bombardment of Copenhagen) (16 August – 7 September 1807) was a British bombardment of the Danish capital, Copenhagen, in order to capture or destroy the Dano-Norwegian fleet during the Napoleonic War ...
.
Service
She saw little action early in her life, due to the end of the
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
. However, in the journal of Thomas Reed Stavers, she is recorded as being at Callao Roads, under Captain Thomas Maling, on 3 July and on 4/5 September 1824, on the latter occasion sailing from Callao to 'the Island of Lorenzo' to avoid attacks by a Spanish gun boat.Journal of Thomas Reed Stavers Retrieved 6 November 2008.
Letters in the Foreign Office (FO 16/1) and a detailed record in the Reverend Slavin diary written while he was on board, show that the Cambridge sailed to the Americas under Captain Thomas Maling. She left Portsmouth on 5 January 1824 with 72 passengers including the new British Consuls to Peru – Thomas Rowcroft, Chile – Christopher Nugent, Argentina – Woodbine Parish and Uruguay – Thomas Samuel Hood. Vice consuls included Udney Passmore, John White, Henry William Rouse, Matthew Carter, Charles Griffiths and Richard Franklin Pousett.
The ship sailed to skirt just west of Portuguese Madeira and anchored at Santa Cruz in Tenerife. She then sailed past Cape Verde and sighted the South American continent near Cape Frio on 21 February 1824. She then sailed into Rio de Janeiro where a refit took place. The ship left on 12 March for Monte Video, where Consul Hood and his party disembarked. Rowcroft and parish with their parties took the English Packet up to Buenos Ayres where Woodbine was to be stationed.
Thomas Rowcroft rode his horse right across the continent and over the Andes mountains to Valparaiso. Meanwhile, the Cambridge sailed from Monte Video around Cape Horn and up the western coast of South America to drop Consul Hood and family at Valparaiso on 26 March 1824 and pick up Rowcroft. The ship then sailed on 27 May further north to Callao Harbour (Peru) and Rowcroft and his daughter, Leonora Maria, disembarked there for his post at Lima. Rowcroft was accidentally shot by
Simon Bolivar
Simon may refer to:
People
* Simon (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name Simon
* Simon (surname), including a list of people with the surname Simon
* Eugène Simon, French naturalist and the genus ...
's men on the evening of 6 December 1824 and died the next day. Captain Maling buried him on San Lorenzo Island.
By January 1830 she was out of commission at
Sheerness
Sheerness () is a town and civil parish beside the mouth of the River Medway on the north-west corner of the Isle of Sheppey in north Kent, England. With a population of 11,938, it is the second largest town on the island after the nearby town ...
, but on 31 January that year she was commissioned there under Captain Edward Barnard and from then until 26 January 1843 served as the head of a naval squadron in the Mediterranean. This squadron's actions included operations in the eastern Mediterranean on the coast of
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
, a bombardment of
Beirut
Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
on 10 September, and blockading
Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
in ordinary
''In ordinary'' is an English phrase with multiple meanings. In relation to the Royal Household, it indicates that a position is a permanent one. In naval matters, vessels "in ordinary" (from the 17th century) are those out of service for repair o ...
at Devonport, until on 9 August 1856 when she was recommissioned as 'the gunnery ship at
Plymouth
Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west.
Plymouth ...
', under Captain Richard Strode Hewlett. In this role she saw four more captains (3 January 1857 – 1 April 1862 Arthur William Jerningham; 1 April 1862 – 20 April 1863 Captain Leopold George Heath; 20 April 1863 – May 1867 Charles Joseph Frederick Ewart; May 1867 – January 1869 Fitzgerald Algernon Charles Foley) before being scrapped in 1869. HMS ''Windsor Castle'' was renamed HMS ''Cambridge'' and replaced her as the gunnery ship.
Notes
References
*Lavery, Brian (2003) ''The Ship of the Line – Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650–1850.'' Conway Maritime Press. .