HMS Cambrian (1797)

History

United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Cambrian
Ordered:	30 April 1795
Builder:	George Parsons, Bursledon
Laid down:	September 1795
Launched:	13 February 1797
Completed:	By 16 June 1797
Honours and awards:	Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Navarino"
Fate:	Wrecked on 31 January 1828
General characteristics
Class and type:	40-gun fifth-rate frigate
Tons burthen:	1,161 ¹⁴⁄₉₄ (bm)
Length:	154 ft (46.9 m) (gundeck) 128 ft 5 ¹⁄₄ in (39.1 m) (keel)
Beam:	41 ft 3 in (12.6 m)
Sail plan:	Full-rigged ship
Complement:	320
Armament:	As built Gundeck: 28 x 24-pounder guns QD: 8 x 9-pounder guns + 6 x 32-pounder carronades Fc: 4 x 9-pounder guns + 2 x 32-pounder carronades From 1799 6 × 9-pounder guns replaced by 32-pounder carronades 24-pounders replaced by lighter version From 1805 24-pounder guns replaced by 18-pounder guns From 1807 Gundeck: 28 x 18-pounder guns QD: 2 x 9-pounder guns + 12 x 32-pounder carronades Fc: 2 x 9-pounder guns + 2 x 32-pounder carronades

HMS Cambrian was a Royal Navy 40-gun fifth-rate frigate. She was built and launched at Bursledon in 1797 and served in the English Channel, off North America, and in the Mediterranean. She was briefly flagship of both Admiral Mark Milbanke and Vice-Admiral Sir Andrew Mitchell during her career, and was present at the Battle of Navarino. Cambrian was wrecked off the coast of Grabusa in 1828.

Ordered on 30 April 1795, Cambrian was designed by Sir John Henslow and built by George Parsons of Bursledon. She represented the first attempt to design a frigate that would carry 24-pounder guns and was one of several designs the Admiralty ordered to find a counter to French 24-pounder frigates. For her design, Henslow essentially simply scaled-up an earlier design. However, she was still too small to carry 24-pounder long guns comfortably and so the Admiralty replaced these first with lighter 24-pounders (in April 1799) and then with 18-pounders in 1805.

She was first commissioned in April 1797 under Captain Thomas Williams on the Irish station. Then under Captain Arthur Legge she served in the Channel, where she captured a number of French privateers.

On 11 January 1798, in company with Indefatigable and Childers, she captured the French privateer schooner Vengeur.Vengeur was a new vessel of 12 guns and 72 men. She was eight days out of Ostend but had taken no prizes. Pellew sent her into Falmouth.

Five days later, in the evening of 16 January, Sir Edward Pellew's squadron captured the French privateer Inconcevable. She was armed with eight guns and had a crew of 55 men. She was 10 days out of Dunkirk and had taken nothing. Prize money was paid to Indefatigable, Cambrian and Success.

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