 Constance off Rame Head heading into Plymouth, by Richard Brydges Beechey
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | HMS Constance |
| Ordered | 31 March 1843 |
| Builder | Pembroke Dockyard |
| Laid down | October 1843 |
| Launched | 12 May 1846 |
| Completed | 28 June 1846 |
| Reclassified | Converted to screw frigate between 1860-62 at Devonport Dockyard |
| Refit | 1862 |
| Fate | Sold for breaking up on 23 January 1875 |
| General characteristics As ordered | |
| Class and type | 50-gun Constance-class fourth-rate frigate |
| Tons burthen | 2,125 75/94 bm |
| Length |
|
| Beam | 52 ft 8 in (16.1 m) |
| Depth of hold | 16 ft 3 in (4.95 m) |
| Propulsion | Sails |
| Sail plan | Full-rigged ship |
| Complement | 500 |
| Armament |
|
| General characteristics After 1860-62 refit | |
| Class and type | 50-gun fourth-rate frigate |
| Displacement | 3,786 tons |
| Tons burthen | 3,212 bm |
| Length |
|
| Beam | 53 ft (16.2 m) |
| Draught |
|
| Depth of hold | 17 ft 1 in (5.21 m) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Sail plan | Full-rigged ship |
HMS Constance was a 50-gun fourth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy launched on 12 May 1846. She had a tonnage of 2,132 and was designed with a V-shaped hull by Sir William Symonds.[1][2] She was also one of the last class of frigates designed by him.[3] On her shakedown voyage from England to Valparaiso she rounded Cape Horn in good trim, her captain for this voyage being Sir Baldwin Wake Walker, who commented "I think her a good sea boat, and a fine man of war". On the voyage she encountered a hurricane at 62° south. Walker wrote that "nothing could have exceeded the way she went over it, not even straining a rope yarn".[4] In August 1848, her captain George William Courtenay, for whom the town of Courtenay was named,[5] led 250 sailors and marines from Fort Victoria to try to intimidate the Indians.[6]
In 1848, she became the first Royal Naval vessel to use Esquimalt as her base.[7]
In 1859, she was involved in the bombardment of Dwarka in the state of Gujarat in north western India.
In 1862, she was converted to screw propulsion using a compound steam engine[8] designed by Randolph & Elder.[9] She was the first Royal Naval ship to be fitted with this class of engine, and won a race against two frigates from Plymouth to Madeira in 1865.[10]
Her crew and officers were quarantined aboard whilst berthed at Port Royal on 26 October 1867 during an outbreak of Yellow Fever[11]
