HMS Marlborough was a 131-gun, first-rate, modified built for the Royal Navy (RN) during the 1850s. She was converted to screw-propulsion whilst still under construction. Completed in 1858, she served as the flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet until 1864; thereafter she was relegated to secondary duties. The ship served as a receiving ship at Portsmouth after she was paid off and then became a training ship in 1878. Marlborough was transferred to the torpedo school at HMS Vernon in 1904 as a barracks ship and was renamed Vernon II. The ship was sold for scrap in 1924, but capsized enroute to the shipbreaker with the loss of four crewmen.

Background and description Marlborough was originally ordered on 20 March 1844 as a sister ship of the Surveyor of the Navy, Sir William Symonds's, 110-gun, first rate , but work was suspended on 9 December. After Symonds's resignation in 1847, her design was modified by the Assistant Surveyor John Edye into a 120-gun ship and she was reordered to the modified design on 29 June 1848. She was intended to measure at the gun deck and at the keel. The ship would have had a beam of , a depth of hold of and had a tonnage of 3,185 tons burthen. Her crew would have numbered 970 officers and ratings.Winfield 2014, pp. 17, 19 The ship had the usual three-masted full-ship rig.Lambert 1984, pp. 122, 127

The ship was intended to be armed with 120 muzzle-loading, smoothbore guns that consisted of thirty (65 cwt)"Cwt" is the abbreviation for hundredweight, 65 cwt referring to the weight of the gun., 68-pounder shell guns on her lower gun deck, thirty 32-pounder (56 cwt) guns on her middle gun deck and thirty 32-pounders (42 cwt) on her upper gun deck. Her forecastle and quarterdeck would have carried a total of six 32-pounders (42 cwt) and fourteen short 32-pounder (25 cwt) guns between them. Four 18-pounder carronades would have been positioned on her poop deck.Winfield 2014, p. 19

Conversion In response to the revolutionary French 90-gun, screw-powered ship of the line, Napoléon, the new Surveyor, Captain Baldwin Wake Walker, had already ordered Marlborough's sister, Windsor Castle (later renamed Duke of Wellington), to be converted to screw power, but the burgeoning arms race between Britain and France in screw-powered ships of the lineLambert 1984, p. 38 caused Walker to order Marlborough to be converted along the same lines as Windsor Castle on 30 October 1852, although the bow was lengthened by an extra more than her sister.Winfield 2014, p. 20Winfield 2010, p. 109

Marlboroughs length at the gun deck increased to and on the keel. She had a beam of and her depth of hold measured . The ship had a deep draught of ,Lambert 1984, p. 127 a tonnage of 4,000 , and displaced . Her crew numbered 1,100 officers and ratings. The ship was fitted with a two-cylinder, horizontal, single-expansion steam engine that was built by Maudslay, Sons and Field. It was rated at 800 nominal horsepower and drove a single propeller shaft. To reduce drag and improve performance under sail, the ship could hoist her propeller into the hull and retract the telescoping funnel. During her sea trials on 12 May 1856 in Stokes Bay, the ship's boilers provided enough steam for the engine to produce that was good for a speed of , although her masts were not rigged.Lambert 1984, pp. 57, 59, 127–128

The ship was armed with 131 guns that consisted of twenty-six 32-pounder (56 cwt) guns and ten 8-inch (65 cwt), 68-pounder shell guns on her lower gun deck, thirty 56-cwt 32-pounder guns and six 8-inch shell guns on her middle gun deck and thirty-eight 32-pounders (42 cwt) on her upper gun deck. Between her forecastle and quarterdeck, she carried twenty 32-pounder gunnades and a single 68-pounder gun that was positioned on the forecastle as a pivot gun so that it could serve as a bow chaser.

Construction and career

Named after General John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough,Manning & Walker, p. 287 Marlborough was the third ship of her name to serve in the RN.Colledge, Warlow & Bush, p. 267 She was laid down at HM Dockyard, Portsmouth, on 1 September 1850. Problems with her launching took a week to resolve and the ship finally entered the water on 31 July 1855. Marlborough was commissioned on 1 February 1858 by Captain Lord Frederick Kerr and was completed by 22 February as she became as the flagship of Vice-Admiral Arthur Fanshawe, Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet. Vice-Admiral William Martin relieved Fanshawe on 19 April 1860 and Captain William Houston Stewart relieved Kerr on 3 May. Martin was relieved in his turn by Vice-Admiral Robert Smart on 20 April 1863 as was Stewart by Captain Charles Fellowes in June. The ship was paid off on 1 December 1864 and became a receiving ship at Portsmouth.

By 1870 her armament had been reduced to 98 guns and to 70 guns in 1875. In December 1877 she became a training ship for engineers. and later as a receiving ship for the Steam Reserve in 1890, as tender to ). In 1904, Marlborough was moved to Portchester Creek and renamed Vernon II in March, she became an accommodation hulk to the HMS Vernon torpedo school. (Vernon I was the joint name for the establishment's two existing hulks, HMS Ariadne and HMS Actaeon)Warlow, pp. 12, 19, 48, 148

In 1923, HMS Vernon moved ashore, and the old hulks were no longer required. Marlborough was sold to A. Butcher for breaking up in October 1924, but capsized and sank with the loss of four men on 28 November 1924 off Selsey while being towed to the breakers at Osea Island, Essex. Marlboroughs figurehead was removed before her sale and can be seen at the Gunwharf Quays shopping centre in Portsmouth, which was built on the site of the old HMS Vernon shore establishment.

Notes

Footnotes

Bibliography

External links

http://www.pdavis.nl/ShowShip.php?id=2 http://www.britainsnavy.co.uk