Name HMS Queen Laid down November 1833 Notes Screw ship from 1859 Launched 15 May 1839 Builder HMNB Portsmouth | Ordered 29 October 1827 Fate Broken up, 1871 Construction started November 1833 Beam 18 m | |
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Class and type 110-gun first rate ship of the line | ||
HMS Queen was a 110-gun first rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 15 May 1839 at Portsmouth. She was the last purely sailing battleship to be completed - subsequent ones had steam engines as well although all British battleships were constructed with sailing rig until the 1870s.
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Ordered
She was ordered in 1827 under the name Royal Frederick, but renamed on 12 April 1839 while still on the stocks in honour of the recently enthroned Queen Victoria. She was originally ordered as the final ship of the broadened Caledonia class, but on 3 September 1833 she was re-ordered to a new design by Sir William Symonds.
This was the only ship completed to this Symonds draught, although three other sisters were originally ordered to the same design; of these a ship originally ordered at Portsmouth Dockyard on 12 September 1833 as Royal Sovereign took over the name Royal Frederick on 12 April 1839, and was eventually completed as a screw battleship under the name of Frederick William. Of the remaining two intended sisterships, both ordered from Pembroke Dockyard on 3 October 1833, Algiers was eventually completed as a 90-gun screw battleship, while Victoria was eventually completed as a 90-gun screw battleship under the name Windsor Castle.
In 1842 she was visited by Queen Victoria.
Crimean War
In 1854, she participated in the bombardment of Sevastopol during the Crimean War. She was set on fire three times and eventually forced to withdraw from the action. The famous Timothy the tortoise, who was about 160 years old when she died in 2004, was the ship's mascot during this time.
Refitted
Between August 1858 and April 1859 Queen had an auxiliary steam engine fitted, and at the same time was cut down from three decks to two gundecks, and re-armed as an 86-gun ship. She was fitted with a Maudslay, Sons and Field 500 nhp engine and single screw propulsion. Now, being able to cruise at 10.5 knots (12.1 mph; 19.4 km/h), she was commissioned into the Mediterranean Fleet until 1864.
Broken up
The ship was broken up in 1871 at Surrey Canal Wharf in Rotherhithe, on the River Thames.