HMS Wellesley (1815)

HMS "Wellesley" was a teak built 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 24 February 1815 at Bombay Dockyard. She was named for the Duke of Wellington.

"Wellesley" saw active service in the Far East during the First Opium War and was for a time the flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Frederick Lewis Maitland.

In 1854 "Wellesley" became a harbour flag ship and receiving ship at Chatham, and in 1868 was loaned to the London School Ship Society by the Admiralty and refitted as a reformatory. She was renamed "Cornwall" and was moored off Purfleet. In 1928, due to industrial development at that location, she was moved to Denton below Gravesend.

On September 24 1940 she was severely damaged during a German air-raid and subsequently sank; she was raised in 1948, and beached at Tilbury, where she was broken up. Some of her timbers were used in the rebuilding of the Royal Courts of Justice in London, while her figurehead now resides just inside the main gates of Chatham Dockyard. [Sherwin Chase. [http://www.thurrock-community.org.uk/historysoc/wooden.htm The Training and Powder ships moored at Purfleet] . Wooden Walls of Purfleet. Retrieved 11 November 2007]

Notes

References

*Colledge
*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.