HMS Carcass was an of the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

, later refitted as a survey vessel

Survey vessel

A survey vessel is any type of ship or boat that is used for mapping. It is a type of research vessel.-Role:The task of survey vessels is to map the bottom, benthic zone, full water column, and surface for the purpose of:* hydrography* general oceanography...

. A young Horatio Nelson

Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson

Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronté, KB was a flag officer famous for his service in the Royal Navy, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. He was noted for his inspirational leadership and superb grasp of strategy and unconventional tactics, which resulted in a number of...

 served aboard her as a midshipman

Midshipman

A midshipman is an officer cadet, or a commissioned officer of the lowest rank, in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Kenya...

 on an expedition to the Arctic.

Design and construction

The Infernal class were designed by Thomas Slade

Thomas Slade

Sir Thomas Slade was an English naval architect, most famous for designing HMS Victory, Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.-Career Outline:...

. Carcass was ordered from Stanton & Wells, Rotherhithe

Rotherhithe

Rotherhithe is a residential district in inner southeast London, England and part of the London Borough of Southwark. It is located on a peninsula on the south bank of the Thames, facing Wapping and the Isle of Dogs on the north bank, and is a part of the Docklands area...

 on 21 September 1758 and launched on 27 January 1759, having been named over a week previously on 19 January. She was commissioned as a sloop

Sloop-of-war

In the 18th and most of the 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. As the rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above, this meant that the term sloop-of-war actually encompassed all the unrated combat vessels including the...

 at Deptford Dockyard on 27 June 1759, having cost £3,757.14.6d to build, and a further £2,144.8.1d spent on fitting out.

Career

Carcass’s first commander was Charles Inglis

Charles Inglis (c. 1731–1791)

Charles Inglis was an officer of the Royal Navy who saw service during the War of the Austrian Succession, the Seven Years' War, and the American War of Independence, rising to the rank of rear-admiral....

, who took her to join Admiral George Rodney's

George Brydges Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney

George Brydges Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney, KB was a British naval officer. He is best known for his commands in the American War of Independence, particularly his victory over the French at the Battle of the Saintes in 1782...

 squadron in the English Channel

English Channel

The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...

. She was present at the bombardment of Le Havre

Le Havre

Le Havre is a city in the Seine-Maritime department of the Haute-Normandie region in France. It is situated in north-western France, on the right bank of the mouth of the river Seine on the English Channel. Le Havre is the most populous commune in the Haute-Normandie region, although the total...

 on 3 July 1759, and the following year captured the 10-gun Mercury off La Rochelle

La Rochelle

La Rochelle is a city in western France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime department.The city is connected to the Île de Ré by a bridge completed on 19 May 1988...

. She was refitted in March 1760 for £531.15.1d, and again in 1761. She was recommissioned in January 1762 under the command of Lord William Campbell, before being refitted again, this time as a bomb vessel between February and March 1762. She came under the command of Robert Fanshawe in August 1762, before being paid off

Ship decommissioning

To decommission a ship is to terminate her career in service in the armed forces of her nation. A somber occasion, it has little of the elaborate ceremony of ship commissioning, but carries significant tradition....

 in 1763. A series of repairs and refits were carried out over the next two years, before Carcass was recommissioned in August 1765 under Captain Mark Pattison. Pattison sailed her to Jamaica

Jamaica

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

 in October 1765, and by September 1766 she was under Thomas Jordan. Further repairs at Deptford

Deptford

Deptford is a district of south London, England, located on the south bank of the River Thames. It is named after a ford of the River Ravensbourne, and from the mid 16th century to the late 19th was home to Deptford Dockyard, the first of the Royal Navy Dockyards.Deptford and the docks are...

 followed, before she was recommissioned in June 1771 under Commander Skeffington Lutwidge

Skeffington Lutwidge

Skeffington Lutwidge was an officer of the Royal Navy, who saw service during the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars...

, serving in the Irish Sea

Irish Sea

The Irish Sea separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is connected to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel, and to the Atlantic Ocean in the north by the North Channel. Anglesey is the largest island within the Irish Sea, followed by the Isle of Man...

.

Carcass was paid off in April 1773, before undergoing a refit at Sheerness

Sheerness

Sheerness is a town located beside the mouth of the River Medway on the northwest corner of the Isle of Sheppey in north Kent, England. With a population of 12,000 it is the largest town on the island....

 in preparation for an expedition to the Arctic. The refit cost £2,895.8.8d, and on its completion, she joined Constantine Phipps

Constantine Phipps, 2nd Baron Mulgrave

Constantine John Phipps, 2nd Baron Mulgrave, PC was an English explorer and officer in the Royal Navy. He served during the Seven Years War and the American War of Independence, seeing action in a number of battles and engagements...

's expedition. Horatio Nelson was assigned to the Carcass as a midshipman, through the influence of his uncle, Maurice Suckling

Maurice Suckling

Captain Maurice Suckling was a Royal Navy officer who was instrumental in the training of his nephew, Horatio Nelson.-Seven Years War:...

. They managed to reach within ten degrees of the North Pole

North Pole

The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is, subject to the caveats explained below, defined as the point in the northern hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface...

, but were forced back by the ice, and returned to Britain in September 1773. By 1800 Lutwidge began to circulate a story that while the ship had been trapped in the ice, Nelson had seen and pursued a polar bear

Polar Bear

The polar bear is a bear native largely within the Arctic Circle encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the world's largest land carnivore and also the largest bear, together with the omnivorous Kodiak Bear, which is approximately the same size...

, before being ordered to return to the ship. Lutwidge's later version, in 1809, reported that Nelson and a companion had given chase to the bear, but on being questioned why, replied that "I wished, Sir, to get the skin for my father."

After the conclusion of the Arctic expedition, Carcass was again paid off, recommissioning again in January 1775 under Commander James Reid for service on the African coast. She was again paid off, in September that year, followed by another series of refits. She sailed to North America in May 1776 under Commander Robert Dring, who was succeeded by John Howorth in February 1777. After a period under the command of Thomas Barker, Carcass came under the command of Edward Edwards, who took her to the West Indies with William Hotham

William Hotham, 1st Baron Hotham

Admiral William Hotham, 1st Baron Hotham was an officer in the Royal Navy. He was the son of Sir Beaumont Hotham , a lineal descendant of Sir John Hotham....

 in 1780. She was under John Young, off the Leeward Islands

Leeward Islands

The Leeward Islands are a group of islands in the West Indies. They are the northern islands of the Lesser Antilles chain. As a group they start east of Puerto Rico and reach southward to Dominica. They are situated where the northeastern Caribbean Sea meets the western Atlantic Ocean...

 by the end of 1780, and was paid off in December 1781. She was finally sold at Woolwich

Woolwich

Woolwich is a district in south London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.Woolwich formed part of Kent until 1889 when the County of London was created...

for £320 on 5 August 1784.

External links

• Details of HMS Carcass's career