HMS ''Hannibal'' was a 91-gun

second rate In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a second-rate was a ship of the line which by the start of the 18th century mounted 90 to 98 guns on three gun decks; earlier 17th-century second rates had fewer guns ...

built for 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 ...

during the 1850s. Completed in 1854, she played a minor role in the

Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...

of 1854–1855.

Description

''Hannibal'' measured on the

gundeck The term gun deck used to refer to a deck aboard a ship that was primarily used for the mounting of cannon to be fired in broadsides. The term is generally applied to decks enclosed under a roof; smaller and unrated vessels carried their guns ...

and on the

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element of a watercraft, important for stability. On some sailboats, it may have a fluid dynamics, hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose as well. The keel laying, laying of the keel is often ...

. She had a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Radio beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially lo ...

of , a

depth of hold Depth(s) may refer to: Science and mathematics * Depth (ring theory), an important invariant of rings and modules in commutative and homological algebra * Depth in a well, the measurement between two points in an oil well * Color depth (or "nu ...

of ,Winfield, p. 40 a deep draught of and had a tonnage of 3130

tons burthen Builder's Old Measurement (BOM, bm, OM, and o.m.) is the method used in England from approximately 1650 to 1849 for calculating the cargo capacity of a ship. It is a volumetric measurement of cubic capacity. It estimated the tonnage of a ship b ...

. The ship was fitted with a horizontal,

geared A gear or gearwheel is a rotating machine part typically used to transmit rotational motion and/or torque by means of a series of teeth that engage with compatible teeth of another gear or other part. The teeth can be integral saliences or c ...

, two-cylinder single-expansion steam engine built by Scott, Sinclair & Co. that had been taken from the

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and maneuvera ...

HMS ''Greenock''. It was rated at 450

nominal horsepower Horsepower (hp) is a unit of measurement of power, or the rate at which work is done, usually in reference to the output of engines or motors. There are many different standards and types of horsepower. Two common definitions used today are th ...

and drove a single

propeller shaft A drive shaft, driveshaft, driving shaft, tailshaft (Australian English), propeller shaft (prop shaft), or Cardan shaft (after Girolamo Cardano) is a component for transmitting mechanical power, torque, and rotation, usually used to connect o ...

. Her boilers provided enough steam to give the engine that was good for a speed of . Her crew numbered 850 officers and ratings. The ship's

muzzle-loading A muzzleloader is any firearm in which the user loads the projectile and the propellant charge into the muzzle end of the gun (i.e., from the forward, open end of the gun's barrel). This is distinct from the modern designs of breech-loading fire ...

smoothbore A smoothbore weapon is one that has a barrel without rifling. Smoothbores range from handheld firearms to powerful tank guns and large artillery mortars. Some examples of smoothbore weapons are muskets, blunderbusses, and flintlock pistols. ...

armament consisted of thirty-two shell guns on her lower gundeck and thirty-four 32-pounder (56 cwt) guns"Cwt" is the abbreviation for

hundredweight The hundredweight (abbreviation: cwt), formerly also known as the centum weight or quintal, is a British imperial and United States customary unit of weight or mass. Its value differs between the United States customary and British imperial sy ...

, 56 cwt referring to the weight of the gun. on her upper gundeck. Between her

forecastle The forecastle ( ; contracted as fo'c'sle or fo'c's'le) is the upper deck (ship), deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or, historically, the forward part of a ship with the sailors' living quarters. Related to the latter meaning is t ...

and

quarterdeck The quarterdeck is a raised deck behind the main mast of a sailing ship. Traditionally it was where the captain commanded his vessel and where the ship's colours were kept. This led to its use as the main ceremonial and reception area on bo ...

, she carried twenty-four 32-pounder (42 cwt) guns and a single

68-pounder gun The 68-pounder cannon was an artillery piece designed and used by the British Armed Forces in the mid-19th century. The cannon was a smoothbore muzzle-loading gun manufactured in several weights firing projectiles of . Colonel William Dundas de ...

Construction and career

''Hannibal'' was ordered as a 90-gun second rate on 12 March 1840, but was never laid down. The ship was reordered to a John Edye design on 19 June 1847 that was lengthened from the modified design of the same year. She was

laid down Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one ...

Woolwich Dockyard Woolwich Dockyard (formally H.M. Dockyard, Woolwich, also known as The King's Yard, Woolwich) was an English Royal Navy Dockyard, naval dockyard along the river Thames at Woolwich - originally in north-west Kent, now in southeast London - whe ...

in December 1848. The ship was reordered again as a steam-powered, 90-gun second rate on 23 September 1852. The conversion was ordered on 30 October and work began the same day which included inserting a section into the ship's middle to accommodate the steam engine. She was launched on 31 January 1854 and was commissioned by Captain

Frederick Grey Admiral Sir Frederick William Grey GCB (23 August 1805 – 2 May 1878) was a Royal Navy officer. As a captain he saw action in the First Opium War and was deployed as principal agent of transports during the Crimean War. He became First Naval ...

on 18 March 1854. ''Hannibal'' was completed for sea on 22 June. She served in the Crimean War, initially as the

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of navy, naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically ...

of Commodore Grey, commanding the fleet bringing 10,000 French troops to the Åland Islands. By 25 January 1855, the ship was flagship of Rear-Admiral

Houston Stewart Admiral of the Fleet Sir Houston Stewart, (3 August 1791 – 10 December 1875) was a Royal Navy officer and briefly a Liberal Party Member of Parliament. After serving as a junior officer in the Napoleonic Wars, Stewart became commanding office ...

in the Black Sea and was commanded by Captain

John Charles Dalrymple Hay Admiral Sir John Charles Dalrymple-Hay, 3rd Baronet, (11 February 1821 – 28 January 1912) was a Royal Navy officer and politician. Early life Born in Edinburgh, Hay-Dalrymple was the only child of Sir James Dalrymple Hay, 2nd Baronet, by his ...

. She was used to transport Garibaldi's soldiers in Italy. The ship arrived in Naples in July 1860. In November a smallpox epidemic broke out, and in ten days 90 men from this ship and at least one other had caught the disease. Seven of those who died were buried in the

English Cemetery, Naples The English Cemetery, ''Il Cimitero degli Inglesi'', or more correctly, ''Il Cimitero acattolico di Santa Maria delle Fede'', is located near Piazza Garibaldi, Naples, Italy. It was the final resting place of many Switzerland, Swiss, Germany, Ge ...

.Giancarlo Alisio, ''Il Cimitero degli Inglesi'', Naples, 1993, She was hulked in 1874 and broken up in 1904.

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hannibal (1854) Ships of the line of the Royal Navy 1854 ships