- HMS Cambridge (1815)
HMS Cambridge was an 80-gun
third rate ship of the line of theRoyal Navy , launched on23 June 1815 atDeptford . She was built to the lines of the Danish ship "Christian VII", which had been captured in1807 at the Second Battle of Copenhagen. She saw little action early in her life, due to the end of theNapoleonic Wars . However, in the journal of Thomas Reed Stavers, she is recorded as being atCallao Roads , under a Captain Malin, on3 July and on 4th/5th September1824 , on the latter occasion sailing from Callao to "the Island ofLorenzo " to avoid attacks by a Spanish Gun Boat. [http://www.du.edu/~ttyler/ploughboy/trstaversjournal.htm]By January
1840 she was out of commission atSheerness , but on31 January that year she was commissioned there under Captain Edward Barnard and from then until26 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 ofSyria , a bombardment ofBeirut onSeptember 10 , and blockadingAlexandria , all as part of the 1840 combined Ottoman-British campaign against Mehmet Ali.On her return, she was again decommissioned and laid up at Devonport, until on
August 9 1856 she was re-commissioned as 'the gunnery ship atPlymouth ', 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 in1869 . HMS "Windsor Castle" was renamed HMS "Cambridge" and replaced her as the gunnery ship.References
*Lavery, Brian (2003) The Ship of the Line - Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850. Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-252-8.External links
*http://www.plymouthdata.info/Royal%20Naval%20Gunnery%20School.htm
*http://www.nmm.ac.uk/collections/prints/viewPrint.cfm?ID=PAD6111
*http://www.nmm.ac.uk/collections/prints/viewPrint.cfm?ID=PAF8024
*http://www.pdavis.nl/ShowShip.php?id=1195
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