HMS Druid (1825)

HMS Druid was a 46-gun Seringapatam-class fifth-rate frigate built for the Royal Navy during the 1820s, the name ship of her sub-class.

Description

The Druid sub-class was an enlarged and improved version of the Serinapatam design, modified with a circular stern.^[1] Druid had a length at the gundeck of 159 feet 6 inches (48.6 m) and 133 feet 5 inches (40.7 m) at the keel. She had a beam of 41 feet 1 inch (12.5 m), a draught of 15 feet 4 inches (4.7 m) and a depth of hold of 12 feet 9 inches (3.9 m). The ship's tonnage was 1168 42⁄94 tons burthen.^[2] Druid was armed with twenty-eight 18-pounder cannon on her gundeck, fourteen 32-pounder carronades on her quarterdeck and a pair of 9-pounder cannon and two more 32-pounder carronades in the forecastle. The ship had a crew of 315 officers and ratings.^[3]

Construction and career

Druid, the fourth ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy,^[4] was ordered on 23 July 1817, laid down in August 1821 at Pembroke Dockyard, Wales, and launched on 1 July 1825.^[3] She was commissioned that same month and completed at Plymouth Dockyard on 21 December 1825.^[2]

On 6 January 1831 Druid was at Rio de Janeiro. There she took on the mail for England that the Post Office Packet Service packet HMS Zephyr (1823) had brought from Buenos Aires and Montevideo. Zephyr had come with the mails from Buenos Aires and Montevideo and would be delayed at Rio for some days while repairing a broken mast.

On 25 August 1839 Druid sailed from England to Sydney with Captain Hobson RN, who was tasked with negotiating an agreement with the natives of New Zealand about its settlement by English settlers. It arrived at Sydney on 24 December 1839.^[5] The Druid then sailed for China on 23 or 24 January 1840.^[6]

Druid saw active service in the First Opium War. In early June 1840, its commander Lord Henry John Spencer-Churchill, youngest son of the Duke of Marlborough, died on board off the coast of Macao. The cause of death was recorded as "congestion of the brain" complicated by dysentery.

Notes

^ Winfield, p. 712
^ a b Winfield, p. 713
^ a b Winfield & Lyon, p. 107
^ Colledge, p. 103
^ Treaty of Waitangi, Encyclopedia of New Zealand, New Zealand Government Print, 1966, Wellington
^ Departures, The Sydney Monitor and Commercial Advertiser, New South Wales, Friday 24 Jan 1840, Page 3

References

Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
Phillips, Lawrie; Lieutenant Commander (2014). Pembroke Dockyard and the Old Navy: A Bicentennial History. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press. ISBN 978-0-7509-5214-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Winfield, Rif (2014). British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1817-1863 (epub). Barnsley, UK: Seaforth. ISBN 978-1-47383-743-0.
Winfield, R.; Lyon, D. (2004). The Sail and Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815–1889. London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-032-6. OCLC 52620555.