Cressey
History
Royal Navy EnsignUnited Kingdom
NameHMS Cressy
Ordered1 October 1806
BuilderBrindley, Frindsbury
Launched7 March 1810
FateBroken up 1832
General characteristics [1]
Class and typeVengeur-class ship of the line
Tons burthen1763 bm
Length176 ft (54 m) (gundeck)
Beam47 ft 6 in (14.48 m)
Depth of hold21 ft (6.4 m)
PropulsionSails
Sail planFull-rigged ship
Armament
  • Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
  • Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
  • QD: 4 × 12-pounder guns + 10 × 32-pounder carronades
  • Fc: 2 × 12-pounder guns + 2 × 32-pounder carronades
  • Poop deck: 6 × 18-pounder carronades

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

A View of the shipwreck and total loss of the St George and the Defence; Cressy can be seen top left of the picture

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.[lower-alpha 1]

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][lower-alpha 2]

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. 1 2 3 Lavery, Ships of the Line vol. 1, p. 188.
  2. 1 2 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 (2003) The Ship of the Line - Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850. Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-252-8.


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