HMS Cornwallis (1813)

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Career (UK)
The Treaty of Nanking is signed in the Great Cabin of HMS Cornwallis
Name:	HMS Cornwallis
Ordered:	25 July 1810
Builder:	Bombay Dockyard
Laid down:	1812
Launched:	12 May 1813
Fate:	Broken up, 1957
General characteristics
Class and type:	Vengeur-class ship of the line
Tons burthen:	1809 tons (1838 tonnes)
Length:	176 ft (54 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	47 ft 6 in (14.5 m)
Depth of hold:	21 ft (6.4 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	74 guns: Gundeck: 28 × 32 pdrs Upper gundeck: 28 × 18 pdrs Quarterdeck: 4 × 12 pdrs, 10 × 32 pdr carronades Forecastle: 2 × 12 pdrs, 2 × 32 pdr carronades Poop deck: 6 × 18 pdr carronades

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Cornwallis.

HMS Cornwallis was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 12 May 1813 at Bombay.

On 27 April 1815, she was engaged by the American sloop USS Hornet, which had mistaken the Cornwallis for a merchant ship. Heavily outgunned, the Hornet was forced to throw boats, guns and other equipment overboard in order to escape.

After China's defeat in the First Opium War, representatives from the British and Qing Empires negotiated a peace treaty aboard the Cornwallis in Nanjing, and on 29 August 1842, British representative Sir Henry Pottinger and Qing representatives, Qiying, Ilibu and Niujian, signed the Treaty of Nanking aboard her.

Cornwallis was fitted with screw propulsion and reduced to 60 guns in 1855, and took part in the Crimean War, where she was commanded by George Wellesley, future admiral and First Sea Lord, and the nephew of the Duke of Wellington.

She was converted to a jetty at Sheerness in 1865, and then used as a base ship from 1916, when she was renamed HMS Wildfire. After an extended career she was broken up in 1957 at Sheerness.

[edit] References

Lavery, Brian (2003) The Ship of the Line - Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850. Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-252-8.
Colledge, J. J. and Warlow, Ben (2006). Ships of the Royal Navy: the complete record of all fighting ships of the Royal Navy, Rev. ed., London: Chatham. ISBN 9781861762818. OCLC 67375475.

v • d • e Vengeur-class ship of the line

Ajax · Berwick · Rodney · Poictiers · Vigo · Cressy · Egmont · Armada · America · Vengeur · Conquestador · Edinburgh · Barham · Hogue · Duncan · Asia · Stirling Castle · Mulgrave · Cornwall · Dublin · Gloucester · Scarborough · Clarence · Anson · Pembroke · Rippon · Devonshire · Medway · Indus · Benbow · *Cornwallis* · Blenheim · Vindictive · Redoubtable · Defence · Hercules · Pitt · Hero · Agincourt · Russell

Preceded by: Swiftsure-class · Followed by: Black Prince-class List of ships of the line of the Royal Navy