HMS Impregnable (1810)

HMS "Impregnable" was a 98-gun second rate three-decker ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 1 August 1810 at Chatham. She was designed by Sir William Rule, and was the only ship built to her draught. Purportedly as originally built she was a near copy of the famed first rate as the Commander-in-Chief's flagship moored at the entrance to the Hamoaze. She then saw service again in the Mediterranean until May 1843, when she was once again laid up with the Reserve Fleet at Devonport.Fact|date=July 2008

"Impregnable" was rated as a training ship in 1862 [Ships of the Old Navy.] and removed from the reserve fleet to begin service at Devonport training boy seamen for the Royal Navy.

On September 27 1886, "Impregnable" was replaced by HMS "Howe" which was re-named HMS "Bulwark" as she became a training ship. The old "Impregnable" ended her days first as a tender to HMS "Indus" and then on November 9 1888 she was re-named HMS "Kent" to be used as a hulk in the event of an epidemic. On that date, her name, "Impregnable," was given to HMS "Bulwark" (the former HMS "Howe"), still serving at Devonport. Three years later on September 22 1891, she was once again re-named, this time HMS "Caledonia", and became a Scottish boys training / school ship moored at Queensferry in the Firth of Forth. She was sold for breaking up in 1906. Beginning with HMS "Bulwark" in 1886 until "Impregnable" moved ashore in 1936 and becoming a stone frigate in the process, every subsequent vessel that served in this ship's stead as a school ship at Devonport had been re-named "Impregnable" in her honour. The training school eventually closed in 1948.Fact|date=July 2008

Notes

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.
*Michael Phillips. [http://www.ageofnelson.org/MichaelPhillips/info.php?ref=1202 Impregnable (98) (1810)] . Michael Phillips' Ships of the Old Navy. Retrieved 19 August 2007.