HMS Winchester (1822)
Encyclopedia
HMS Winchester was a 60-gun Southampton-class
Southampton class frigate (1820)
The Southampton-class frigates launched from 1820 onwards were 52-gun sailing frigates of the fourth rate produced for the Royal Navy following the close of the Napoleonic War. They were designed in 1816 to carry sixty guns, but were completed with fifty-two guns only...
sailing frigate 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...
. She was laid down in 1816 at Woolwich Dockyard
Woolwich Dockyard
Woolwich Dockyard was an English naval dockyard founded by King Henry VIII in 1512 to build his flagship Henri Grâce à Dieu , the largest ship of its day....
, and launched on 21 June 1822. Although designed for 60 guns, she and the rest of the class carried 52 guns. From 1831 to 1861 she served in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
and South East Asia. In 1861 she became the training ship Conway at Liverpool, and from 1876 she was the training ship Mount Edgcumbe. She was sold in 1921.
Flagship in North America, Cape of Good Hope and the East Indies
Although ordered in 1816 and laid down in 1818, Winchester was not launched until 21 June 1822, and commissioned on 16 September later that year. She served until 1839 as the flagshipFlagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, reflecting the custom of its commander, characteristically a flag officer, flying a distinguishing flag...
on the North America and West Indies Station, where she was commanded by Captain Charles Austen
Charles Austen
Rear Admiral Sir Charles John Austen CB was an officer in the Royal Navy. He served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and beyond, eventually rising to the rank of rear-admiral.-Family and early life:...
, brother of the novelist Jane Austen
Jane Austen
Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...
. From 1842 she served as the flagship on the Cape of Good Hope Station
Cape of Good Hope Station
The Cape of Good Hope Station was one of the geographical divisions into which the British Royal Navy divided its worldwide responsibilities. It was formally the units and establishments responsible to the Commander-in-Chief, Cape of Good Hope....
, under the command of Captain Charles Eden
Charles Eden (Royal Navy officer)
Admiral Sir Charles Eden KCB was a Royal Navy officer who went on to be Second Naval Lord.-Naval career:Born the fifth son of Sir Frederick Eden, Eden joined the Royal Navy in 1821. He was given command of the fourth-rate HMS Winchester in 1842 and the flagship HMS Victory in 1847...
, taking part during 1852 and 1853 in military operations on coast of Burma. Rear Admiral Fleetwood Pellew
Fleetwood Pellew
Admiral Sir Fleetwood Broughton Reynolds Pellew CB KCH was an officer of the Royal Navy who served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He was the son of Captain Edward Pellew, who later became an admiral and first Viscount Exmouth...
Pellew raised his flag aboard Winchester in April 1853, and by September 1854 he was off Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
to take command of the East Indies and China Station
East Indies and China Station
The East Indies and China Station was a formation of the British Royal Navy from 1831 to 1865.-History:The Station was formed in 1831; it ceased to exist when it was separated into the East Indies Station and the China Station in 1865. Its area covered the Indian Ocean and the coasts of China and...
. Here he seems to have decided that he would not allow shore leave until the dangerous season for fevers and infections had passed, but neglected to make his reasoning known to his men. The crew were apparently in a mutinous mood, so Pellew ordered them to beat to quarters. When they refused, he sent the officers onto the lower deck to force them up at sword point. Several of the crew were wounded and the nascent mutiny was quashed.
From 1854 Winchester was the flagship of Rear Admiral James Stirling
James Stirling (Australian governor)
Admiral Sir James Stirling RN was a British naval officer and colonial administrator. His enthusiasm and persistence persuaded the British Government to establish the Swan River Colony and he became the first Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Western Australia...
, and during this time she was involved in the Second Opium War
Second Opium War
The Second Opium War, the Second Anglo-Chinese War, the Second China War, the Arrow War, or the Anglo-French expedition to China, was a war pitting the British Empire and the Second French Empire against the Qing Dynasty of China, lasting from 1856 to 1860...
, when her boats and some of her ship's company were used in the attack on Canton
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
.
Discovery of Russian coast
In August 1855, during the Crimean WarCrimean War
The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...
, Winchester and entered and first charted the waters of Peter the Great Gulf
Peter the Great Gulf
The Peter the Great Gulf is the largest gulf of the Sea of Japan adjoining the coast of Russia's Primorski Krai...
, while searching for the Russian squadron commanded by Vasily Zavoyko
Vasily Zavoyko
Vasily Stepanovich Zavoyko was an admiral in the Russian navy.Born to a noble family of Poltava Governorate, in 1827 he took part in the Battle of Navarino, and in 1835-1838 he twice circumnavigated the Earth....
.
Training ship Conway
From 1861 Winchester replaced the 26-gun sixth rate HMS ConwayHMS Conway (1832)
HMS Conway was a sixth rate of the Royal Navy, built by Chatham Dockyard and launched on 2 February 1832. She was lent to the Mercantile Marine Association of Liverpool in February 1859 to act as a training ship for boys, and gave her name to HMS Conway, a series of ships and a shore-based school....
as the training ship in the port of Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
, and was renamed Conway that year. She was used as an educational vessel for homeless and destitute children. She was replaced in 1876 by HMS Nile, which in turn was renamed Conway. The former Winchester was returned to the Admiralty on 1 September 1876, and was renamed HMS Mount Edgcumbe.
Training ship Mount Edgcumbe
The Devon and Cornwall Industrial Training Ship Association was formed in 1874 to provide a training ship for the homeless boys of Plymouth, and Mount Edgcumbe was anchored in the River TamarRiver Tamar
The Tamar is a river in South West England, that forms most of the border between Devon and Cornwall . It is one of several British rivers whose ancient name is assumed to be derived from a prehistoric river word apparently meaning "dark flowing" and which it shares with the River Thames.The...
off Saltash
Saltash
Saltash is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It has a population of 14,964. It lies in the south east of Cornwall, facing Plymouth over the River Tamar. It was in the Caradon district until March 2009 and is known as "the gateway to Cornwall". Saltash means ash tree by...
. The training ship was closed down on 4 December 1920.