HMS Cressy (1810)

Cressey
History
United Kingdom
NameCressy
Ordered1 October 1806
BuilderJosiah & Thomas Brindley, Frindsbury
Laid downMarch 18007
Launched7 March 1810
CommissionedNovember 1811
FateBroken up, 1832
General characteristics (as built)
Class & typeVengeur-class ship of the line
Tons burthen1,763 7194 (bm)
Length176 ft 1 in (53.7 m) (gundeck)
Beam47 ft 10 in (14.6 m)
Draught17 ft 8 in (5.4 m) (light)
Depth of hold21 ft 1 in (6.4 m)
Sail planFull-rigged ship
Complement590
Armament

HMS Cressy was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 7 March 1810 at Frindsbury.[1]

Service

On 24 December 1811 Cressy was off the west coast of Jutland, Denmark, under command by commander Charles Dudley Pater and in the company of St George, under Rear-admiral Robert Carthew Reynolds, and Defence, when an extratropical cyclone and heavy seas came up. St George was jury-rigged and so Captain Atkins of Defence refused to leave her without the Admiral's permission. As a result, both were wrecked near Ringkøbing. Cressy did not ask for permission and so avoided wrecking.[2]

Both St George and Defence lost almost all their crews, including the Admiral. Most of the bodies that came ashore were buried in the sand dunes of Thorsminde, which have been known ever since as "Dead Mens Dunes".[2]

Shortly after the outbreak of the War of 1812, on 12 August, Cressy shared in the seizure of several American vessels: Cuba, Caliban, Edward, Galen, Halcyon, and Cygnet.[a]

On 11 February 1813m Severn ran down and sank Wargrave. Cressy rescued Wargrave's crew. Wargrave, Ostler, master, was on a voyage from Dublin to Surinam.[4][b]

Fate

She was broken up in 1832.[1]

Notes

  1. ^ Prize money was paid in November 1815. A first-class share was worth £360 2s 3d; a sixth-class share, that of an ordinary seaman, was worth £3 11s 7d.[3]
  2. ^ Wargrave, of 175 tons (bm), had been launched in Denmark in 1801.[5]

Citations

  1. ^ a b Lavery, p. 188
  2. ^ a b Gosset (1986), p. 81.
  3. ^ "No. 17076". The London Gazette. 4 November 1815. p. 2209.
  4. ^ Lloyd's List №4722.
  5. ^ Lloyd's Register (1810), Seq.№W29.

References

  • Gosset, William Patrick (1986). The lost ships of the Royal Navy, 1793-1900. Mansell. ISBN 0-7201-1816-6.
  • Lavery, Brian (1984). The Ship of the Line. Vol. 1: The Development of the Battlefleet 1650-1850. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-85177-252-8.
  • Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates (2nd, revised ed.). Seaforth. ISBN 978-1-84415-717-4.