'Cornwallis' British 4th rate (With Plans)

[Ned Loe]

HMS Cornwallis was a Royal Navy 54-gun fourth rate. Jemsatjee Bomanjee built the Marquis Cornwallis of teak for the East India Company. In March 1805 Admiral Sir Edward Pellew purchased her from the Company shortly after she returned from an expedition against the Mahe Islands. In February 1811 the Admiralty renamed her HMS Akbar.

In December 1801, she sailed, together with the Upton Castle (an Indiaman), the Betsey, an armed HEIC brig, some other vessels, and 1000 troops to Daman and Diu to persuade the Portuguese governor to resist any French incursion. The expedition was under the command of Captain John Mackellar, of the Royal Navy, whose own vessel, Terpsichore, was not ready for sea. The governor accepted the British reinforcements, which, as it turned out, were not needed. 

On 8 May 1804, Marquis Cornwallis sailed from Portsmouth under the command of Captain Isaac G. Richardson. She sailed via Saint Helena to Bombay, where the company intended for her to remain. She was convoying the Marquis of Ely, the Marchioness of Exeter, the Lord Nelson, the Bruswick, the Princess Charlotte, the Marquis of Wellesley, and the Ann.

In 1805 Admiral Pellew purchased her for £68,630. She was commissioned under Commander Charles James Johnson. She then served off Bombay and engaged in the long-distance blockade of Isle de France (now Mauritius).

On 11 November 1806, Sceptre and Cornwallis sailed into Saint Paul's Bay, on Île Bonaparte, in an attempt to cut out vessels there, which consisted of the French frigate Sémillante, three other armed ships and twelve captured British ships. (The eight ships that were prizes to Sémillante had a collective value of ₤1.5 million.) They fired on the French and took fire in return. However, when the slight breeze failed, Sceptre and Cornwallis found themselves unable to manoeuvre. They therefore left without having accomplished anything, but apparently also without having suffered damage or losses. 

In February 1807, Cornwallis was ordered to Australia. She reached Port Jackson by sailing through the Bass Strait, which made her the first Royal Navy ship to traverse the strait. After visiting Port Jackson, Cornwallis sailed to New Zealand and subsequently crossed the Pacific Ocean to the Juan Fernández Islands in the vain hope of finding enemy shipping. 
Off Valparaiso, an accidental explosion caused serious damage and a number of casualties aboard the frigate, but she was still able to raid Spanish settlements in the region, capturing a number of sheep and pigs and a few small vessels on the Peruvian coast. In September, Cornwallis raided Spanish settlements and shipping near Panama and subsequently visited Acapulco and Hawaii before returning to Madras.

In 1808, command passed to Captain Fleetwood Pellew. In this year, Cornwallis, in company with Sceptre, engaged and damaged Sémillante, together with the shore batteries whose protection she had sought.

In 1809 Captain William Augustus Montagu took command. Montagu was engaged in a number of operations off the Dutch East Indies, attacking forts on Celebes and Amboyna.

In February 1810, the British attacked Amboyna. In the campaign, Cornwallis captured the ship Mandarine, of 16 guns and 66 men, Captain Besman, on 3 February after a chase of four hours. Madarine had been out for four weeks but had captured nothing. Cornwallis suffered only one man wounded in the action. Mandarine then served as a tender to Cornwallis. 

On the 1st of March Cornwallis chased a Dutch man-of-war brig all day until she took refuge in a small bay on the north side of the island of Amblaw. The wind being light and variable, and night approaching, Montagu sent in Cornwallis's boats, under the command of Lieutenant Henry John Peachy. After rowing all night, they captured the Dutch brig Margaritta Louisa, under Captain De Ruyter on 2 March. Margaritta Louisa was pierced for 14 guns but carried only eight, and a crew of 40 men.[7] Margaritta Louisa had left Surabaya nine days earlier with 20 to 30,000 dollars for Ambonya, and supplies for Ternate. In the boarding, the British had one man seriously wounded and for men lightly wounded; the Dutch lost one man killed and 20 wounded. 
As the wind was light and variable, and night approaching, Captain Montagu sent the yawl, cutter, and jolly-boat, under the command of Lieutenant Henry John Peachey, assisted by Mr. John Garland the master, and master's mate William Sanderson, to endeavour to bring the vessel out.

After a fatiguing pull during the whole night, the boats found themselves, at daylight, close to the vessel : which was the Dutch national brig Margaretta, mounting eight, but pierced for 14 guns, with a crew of 40 men. In the face of a heavy fire of grape and musketry, and of a brave defence by pikes and swords, Lieutenant Peachey and his party boarded and carried the brig, and that with so comparatively slight a loss as one man dangerously, and four slightly wounded. The Dutch had one officer killed and 20 seamen wounded.

On 28 March Cornwallis and Dover shared in Samarang's capture of the Dutch brig Recruiter.

In late 1810, Cornwallis was deployed with Albemarle Bertie's squadron that forced the surrender of Isle de France. William Fisher took command after Cornwallis' Captain Montagu was selected from among the captains assembled for the invasion and reassigned to lead a naval brigade in support of the British Army forces' ground offensive. Over the next four years Cornwallis remained in the Indian Ocean under various commanders.

On 29 June 1811 Salsette captured the slaver Expedition off Mauritius. The prize crew took the ship and the slaves on her to the Portuguese colony of Goa because selling slaves was illegal in British India, but not Goa. Salsette shared the prize money with the crews of Drake and Cornwallis.

Between 4 August and 19 September 1811, Akbar participated in the capture of Java. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Java" to all surviving claimants from the campaign. 

In the spring of 1813, Captain Archibald Dickson was appointed to command Akbar.[ On 15 May 1814, Akbar captured the Indian Lass. In 1814 Cornwallis traveled to Britain for the first time. 

[Fluffy Fishy]

As you have covered her history fairly extensively here are some stats for her;

Crew: 430.

Dimensions:

• Gun Deck: 164ft 4 1/2 inches (50.1m)
• Keel: 140ft 4 7/8 inches (42.8m)
• Waist: 43ft 1/14 inches (13.1m)
• Draft: 15ft 3 inches (4.64m)
• Hold: 1387 57/94 bm.

Armaments as a Frigate:

• Gun deck Deck 30 x 24pdr
• Weather Deck 26 x 42pd Carronade
• Forwards Chaser 1 x 18/24pdr

Armaments as a Troopship:

• Gun deck 22 x 32pdr, 2 x 9pdr
• Weather Deck 8 x 32 pdr
• Forwards Chaser, 2 x 9pdr.

Edited February 16, 2017 by Fluffy Fishy

[maturin]

Quote

An interesting contrast with a real frigate, not only in the prodigious capacity of the hull (as seen in the ballast and water allocations), but also in the poor performance under sail. In a strong wind the ship could manage 7kts close-hauled, perhaps 9kts before the wind, and only 10.5kts on her best point of sailing, with the wind 2 points abaft the beam. She was also leewardly and unhandy, but these shortcomings were minimal compared to her quick and violent motions in a seaway--she rolled out all her topmasts on a voyage to Bermuda in 1815, and Rear-Admiiral Griffith confessed that it was 'impossible to describe her labouring'. Unfortunately, the iron water tanks made it difficult to radically reorganise the stowage of the thold, and the ship was reduced to the masts and spars of a 38-gun ship. The Navy Board, which recommended her conversion to a storeship in 1813, must have felt vindicated.

-R. Gardiner

 

She definitely takes the cake as the worst ship ever to grace this subforum.

[Ned Loe]

23 hours ago, maturin said:

-R. Gardiner

 

She definitely takes the cake as the worst ship ever to grace this subforum.

NA has all the best ships out there, but now I will be the first one to suggest the worst (hardcore) handling ship for this Forum. Enjoy.  She looks nice, but if you want NA to be a simulator game then many ships will be put into the the garbage bin leaving us with only the famous ones. 

P.S. she reminds me Jack's HMS Polychrest ship if you know what I mean. She carries the same/similar hull shape. Not only that her sailing is similar to Polychrest in many ways. All this would explain her violent character. 

Edited February 17, 2017 by Ned Loe

[maturin]

It's not remotely the same hull shape.

[Alex Connor]

In many ways the Cornwallis/Akbar is more similar to an indiaman than conventional royal navy frigates. 

The boxy flatbottomed hull in particular is pure indiaman, although Indiamen were known to exceed the performance recorded for Akbar (the indiaman Exeter ran down a french frigate and bluffed it into surrendering to a "ship-of-the-line"). I suspect the Royal Navy were not familiar with trimming and sailing this hulltype, and didn't exactly get the best out of the ship.

Spardeck is also likely copied from Indiamen rather than the big american frigates, the surveyor of the East India Company (Gabriel Snodgrass) was an innovative designer who adopted the spardeck as standard for his medium and large Indiamen from the later 1780s onwards because this arrangement allowed them to carry 26-28 guns all on the weather deck, so that in normal service the whole upper deck could be used for cargo/passengers. Previous Indiamen had to sacrifice part of the upper deck for guns, or end up with only a very light armament like a normal frigate's weather deck.