HMS Blonde (1819)
HMS Blonde, by Robert Dampier, 1825
|
|
| History | |
|---|---|
 UK
|
|
| Name: | HMS Blonde |
| Ordered: | 11 December 1812 |
| Builder: | Deptford Dockyard |
| Laid down: | March 1816 |
| Launched: | 12 January 1819 |
| Completed: | 1824 |
| Renamed: | HMS Calypso on 9 March 1870 |
| Reclassified: | Receiving ship in November 1850 |
| Fate: | Sold on 28 February 1895 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | 46-gun modified Apollo-class fifth-rate frigate |
| Tons burthen: | 1,103 bm |
| Length: |
|
| Beam: | 39 ft 8 in (12.1 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 13 ft 6 in (4.11 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sails |
| Sail plan: | Full rigged ship |
| Complement: | 315 |
| Armament: |
|
HMS Blonde was a 46-gun modified Apollo-class fifth-rate frigate of 1,103 tons burthen. She undertook an important voyage to the Pacific in 1824. She was used for harbour service from 1850 and was renamed HMS Calypso in 1870, before being sold in 1895.
Blonde was ordered on 11 December 1812 from Deptford Dockyard, to a new design developed from the lines of the Apollo class. She was laid down in March 1816, and was rated at 38 guns until February 1817. Blonde was launched on 12 January 1819, but was almost immediately laid up in ordinary at Greenhithe from between April 1819 and 1824, when she was completed and fitted for service at Woolwich. She cost a total of £38,266 to build, with a further £15,241 spent on fitting out.
Lord Byron (the 7th Baron, cousin of the famous poet George Gordon Byron) commanded her on an important voyage in 1824. Blonde departed Woolwich, England on 8 September 1824 with the bodies of King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu of the Kingdom of Hawaii who had died while trying to visit King George IV. The Hawaiian Islands had been named the "Sandwich Islands" in honor of John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich who was the sponsor of the voyage of Captain James Cook in 1776–1779. The crew included Scottish botanist James Macrae from the Royal Horticultural Society, and naturalist Andrew Bloxam whose brother Rowland was ship's chaplain. Ship's artist Robert Dampier also made several important paintings on the voyage.
...
Wikipedia