HMS ''Volage'' was a sixth-rate

sailing frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...

launched in 1825 for 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 ...

. At one point

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althoug ...

Thomas Abel Brimage Spratt Thomas Abel Brimage Spratt (11 May 181112 March 1888) was an English vice-admiral, hydrographer, and geologist. Life Thomas Spratt was born at Woodway House, East Teignmouth, the eldest son of Commander James Spratt, RN, who was a hero of ...

served aboard her.

Construction

''Volage'' was a one-off 28-gun sixth-rate frigate designed and built by the "superior class of

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

shipwright apprentices". She was ordered on 16 June 1819 as a successor to the ''Atholl''-class corvettes, the last batch of which were ordered only eleven days before ''Volage'' herself. She was laid down in August and launched on 20 February 1825 with the following dimensions: along the

gun deck The term gun deck used to refer to a deck aboard a ship that was primarily used for the mounting of cannon to be fired in broadsides. The term is generally applied to decks enclosed under a roof; smaller and unrated vessels carried their guns ...

, at the

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...

, with a beam of and a depth in the

hold Hold may refer to: Physical spaces * Hold (ship), interior cargo space * Baggage hold, cargo space on an airplane * Stronghold, a castle or other fortified place Arts, entertainment, and media * Hold (musical term), a pause, also called a Ferm ...

of . She measured 515

tons burthen Builder's Old Measurement (BOM, bm, OM, and o.m.) is the method used in England from approximately 1650 to 1849 for calculating the cargo capacity of a ship. It is a volumetric measurement of cubic capacity. It estimated the tonnage of a ship bas ...

. The fitting out process for ''Volage'' was completed on 26 January 1826.

Service

Volage served as the lead ship in the

Aden Expedition The Aden Expedition was a naval operation that the British Royal Navy carried out in January 1839. Following Britain's decision to acquire the port of Aden as a coaling station for the steamers sailing the new Suez-Bombay route, the sultan of ...

due to her being the largest and best armed of the ships assembled. In 1831, ''Volage'' was docked in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...

(at the time capital of the Empire of Brazil) alongside . ''Volage'' was the vessel that took

Dom Pedro I Dom or DOM may refer to: People and fictional characters * Dom (given name), including fictional characters * Dom (surname) * Dom La Nena (born 1989), stage name of Brazilian-born cellist, singer and songwriter Dominique Pinto * Dom people, an eth ...

, who had just abdicated the Brazilian throne, to Portugal, in order to face his brother Dom Miguel in the context of the ongoing Portuguese Civil War of 1828–1834. ''Volage'' fought in the

Battle of Chuenpi The First Battle of Chuenpi () was a naval engagement fought between British and Chinese ships at the entrance of the Humen strait (Bogue), Guangdong province, China, on 3 November 1839 during the First Opium War. The battle began when the Briti ...

during the First Opium War under the command of Captain Henry Smith. In 1847 she was converted into a survey ship, being commanded by Thomas Graves among others. ''Volage'' was deployed to the Baltic during 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 ...

. ''Volage'' was converted into a powder barge at

Sheerness Dockyard Sheerness Dockyard also known as the Sheerness Station was a Royal Navy Dockyard located on the Sheerness peninsula, at the mouth of the River Medway in Kent. It was opened in the 1660s and closed in 1960. Location In the Age of Sail, the Roy ...

in March–June 1855, but was recommissioned for service as a storeship for the Baltic later that year. She was loaned to the War Department as a powder depot in the River Medway on 19 October 1864 and was briefly returned to Admiralty control on 10 February 1871 before being loaned as a floating depot for

gun cotton Nitrocellulose (also known as cellulose nitrate, flash paper, flash cotton, guncotton, pyroxylin and flash string, depending on form) is a highly flammable compound formed by nitrating cellulose through exposure to a mixture of nitric acid and ...

Upnor Lower Upnor and Upper Upnor are two small villages in Medway, Kent, England. They are in the parish of Frindsbury Extra on the western bank of the River Medway. Today the two villages are mainly residential and a centre for small craft moored o ...

on 19 September.

Scrapping Scrap consists of recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap has monetary value, especially recovered me ...

of the ship was completed at

Chatham Dockyard Chatham Dockyard was a Royal Navy Dockyard located on the River Medway in Kent. Established in Chatham in the mid-16th century, the dockyard subsequently expanded into neighbouring Gillingham (at its most extensive, in the early 20th century ...

on 12 December 1874.

Citations

References

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Volage (1825) Sixth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy 1825 ships