HMS ''America'' was a 74-gun

third-rate In the rating system of the Royal Navy, a third rate was a ship of the line which from the 1720s mounted between 64 and 80 guns, typically built with two gun decks (thus the related term two-decker). Rating When the rating system was f ...

ship of the line A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactics in the Age of Sail, naval tactic known as the line of battl ...

of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

, launched on 21 April 1810 at

Blackwall Yard Blackwall Yard is a small body of water that used to be a shipyard on the River Thames in Blackwall, engaged in ship building and later ship repairs for over 350 years. The yard closed in 1987. History East India Company Blackwall was a sh ...

. In 1812 she was part of a British squadron consisting of the frigate , and ''

Swallow The swallows, martins, and saw-wings, or Hirundinidae are a family of passerine songbirds found around the world on all continents, including occasionally in Antarctica. Highly adapted to aerial feeding, they have a distinctive appearance. The ...

'' when they intercepted a French convoy that had left Genoa on 11 June, heading for

Toulon Toulon (, , ; , , ) is a city in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the French Riviera and the historical Provence, it is the prefecture of the Var (department), Var department. The Commune of Toulon h ...

. The convoy consisted of 14 merchant vessels, several gunboats, and most importantly, the brig-corvette , of 16 guns, under the command of ''Lieutenant de vaisseau''

Charles Baudin Charles Baudin (; 21 July 1784 – 7 June 1854), was a French admiral, whose naval service extended from the First Empire through the early days of the Second Empire. Biography Charles Baudin was born on 21 July 1784 in Paris. His father was ...

, and the schooner ''Goéland'', of 12 guns, under the command of ''Enseigne de vaisseau'' Belin. The British on 15 June drove the French to take shelter at the

Île Sainte-Marguerite Île Sainte-Marguerite (; , ) is the largest of the Lérins Islands, about half a mile offshore from the French Riviera city of Cannes, situated in the Bay of Cannes. The island is approximately in length (east to west) and across (north to so ...

. The next day ''Swallow'' came close to reconnoitre, the other two British ships having to hold off because of shallow water. Although the French escorts came out when they saw ''Swallow'' becalmed, they then turned back when the winds picked up and took their convoy to

Fréjus Fréjus (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Var (department), Var Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region in Southeastern France. It neighbours Saint-Raphaël, Var, Saint-Raphaël ...

. There the French escort vessels took on board some reinforcements and then turned to engage ''Swallow''. A sanguinary but inconclusive action ensued. Eventually, ''Swallow'' hauled off to rejoin the two larger British ships, which were coming up, while ''Renard'' and ''Goéland'' rejoined their convoy, now in the Bay of Grimaud. The action cost ''Swallow'' six men killed and 17 wounded, out of 109 men on board. ''Renard'' had a crew of 94, which had been doubled by the troops taken on at Fréjus. In all she lost 14 men killed and 28 wounded, including her captain, Lieutenant Baudin. ''Goéland'' had a crew of 113 men but her casualties are not known. She did not engage deeply in the battle, though she did exchange some fire with ''Swallow''.James (1837), Vol. 6, pp. 101-4. In 1827 ''America'' was cut down into a

fourth rate In 1603 all English warships with a complement of fewer than 160 men were known as 'small ships'. In 1625/26 to establish pay rates for officers, a six-tier naval ship rating system was introduced.Winfield 2009 These small ships were divided ...

. During the rising tensions with the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

over the

Oregon boundary dispute The Oregon boundary dispute or the Oregon Question was a 19th-century territorial dispute over the political division of the Pacific Northwest of North America between several nations that had competing territorial and commercial aspirations in ...

, HMS ''America'' was dispatched to the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...

in 1845.Longstaff, F. V. and W. K. Lamb
''The Royal Navy on the Northwest Coast, 1813-1850. Part 1.''
The British Columbia Historical Quarterly 9, No. 1 (1945), pp. 1-24. Leaving the

Straits of Juan de Fuca The Strait of Juan de Fuca (officially named Juan de Fuca Strait in Canada) is a body of water about long that is the Salish Sea's main outlet to the Pacific Ocean. The international boundary between Canada and the United States runs down the ce ...

on 1 October, the vessel sailed for the

Kingdom of Hawaii The Hawaiian Kingdom, also known as the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language, Hawaiian:

ɛ ɐwˈpuni həˈvɐjʔi Latin epsilon or open E (majuscule: Ɛ, minuscule: ɛ) is a letter of the extended Latin alphabet, based on the lowercase of the Greek letter epsilon (ε). It was introduced in the 16th century by Gian Giorgio Trissino to represent the pronunc ...

, was an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country from 1795 to 1893, which eventually encompassed all of the inhabited Hawaii ...

and later the

Pacific Station The Pacific Station was created in 1837 as one of the geographical military formations into which the Royal Navy divided its worldwide responsibilities. The South America Station was split into the Pacific Station and the South East Coast o ...

Valparaíso Valparaíso () is a major city, Communes of Chile, commune, Port, seaport, and naval base facility in the Valparaíso Region of Chile. Valparaíso was originally named after Valparaíso de Arriba, in Castilla–La Mancha, Castile-La Mancha, Spain ...

, in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

. While at the Pacific Station, Captain John Gordon ordered the valuable cargo of be moved to his ship and departed to deliver it to the United Kingdom. For removing the second most powerful British vessel on the Pacific coast of the

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

during the Oregon crisis, Gordon was court-martialed and reprimanded. ''America'' was

broken up Ship breaking (also known as ship recycling, ship demolition, ship scrapping, ship dismantling, or ship cracking) is a type of ship disposal involving the breaking up of ships either as a source of Interchangeable parts, parts, which can be sol ...

in 1867.

Notes

References

* Lavery, Brian (1983) ''The Ship of the Line - Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850.'' Conway Maritime Press. . * {{DEFAULTSORT:America (1810) Ships of the line of the Royal Navy Vengeur-class ships of the line Ships built by the Blackwall Yard 1810 ships