HMS ''Cumberland'' was a 70-gun

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 21 October 1842 at Chatham Dockyard. She carried a crew of 620 men. ''Cumberland'' recommissioned as a flagship under

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

George Henry Seymour as the

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...

of his father, Vice-Admiral Sir

George Francis Seymour Admiral of the Fleet Sir George Francis Seymour, (17 September 1787 – 20 January 1870) was a Royal Navy officer. After serving as a junior officer during the French Revolutionary Wars, Seymour commanded the third-rate under Admiral Sir John ...

. She served on the North America and West Indies Station. In March 1854 she sailed to the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

as the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

with

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was imminent. ''Cumberland'' was involved in the Battle of Bomarsund, an Anglo-French attack on Bomarsund in the Grand Duchy of Finland in August 1854. On 15 March 1858, ''Cumberland'' ran aground on an uncharted rock in the River Plate off the

Isla de Flores Isla de Flores is a small Uruguayan island in the Rio de la Plata, south-east of Punta Carretas, Montevideo, Uruguay. The island and 2 nautical miles of water around it were made a national park on February 26, 2018. History Flores was named ...

, Uruguay. Her captain and master were both acquitted at the subsequent court martial held on board at

HMNB Devonport His Majesty's Naval Base, Devonport (HMNB Devonport) is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy (the others being HMNB Clyde and HMNB Portsmouth) and is the sole nuclear repair and refuelling facility for the Roy ...

on 11 August. ''Cumberland'' was converted by ''The Clyde Industrial Training Ship Association'' to serve as a

training ship A training ship is a ship used to train students as sailors. The term is mostly used to describe ships employed by navies to train future officers. Essentially there are two types: those used for training at sea and old hulks used to house classr ...

for destitute and homeless boys from

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in 1869. She was destroyed in an

arson Arson is the crime of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, wat ...

attack by young sailors at

Rhu Rhu (; gd, An Rubha ) is a village and historic parish on the east shore of the Gare Loch in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. The traditional spelling of its name was ''Row'', but it was changed in the 1920s so that outsiders would pronounce it cor ...

on the

Gareloch The Gare Loch or Gareloch ( gd, An Gearr Loch) is an open sea loch in Argyll and Bute, Scotland and bears a similar name to the village of Gairloch in the north west Highlands. The loch is well used for recreational boating, water sports and f ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

on 17 February 1889. The Association replaced her with in 1891, on condition her name was changed to HMS Empress. The ''Revenge'' was a 91-gun screw powered second rate launched in 1859 and had been used as a base ship from 1872 The Association renamed as ''The Clyde Industrial Training Ship Empress Association'' converted her into a

, she was used as such until eventually sold for breaking in 1923.

Notes

References

*Lavery, Brian (2003) ''The Ship of the Line - Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850.'' Conway Maritime Press. . Ships of the line of the Royal Navy Ships built in Chatham 1842 ships Ships of the Fishery Protection Squadron of the United Kingdom Crimean War naval ships of the United Kingdom Maritime incidents in March 1858 Ship fires Shipwrecks of Scotland Maritime incidents in February 1889 {{UK-line-ship-stub