| Naval history of Great Britain
by
William James |
| 1806 |
The Warren Hastings |
239 |
than we are accustomed to act towards an Englishman. To the honour of both navies, cases of the kind are rare, very rare ; and if M. Thevenard continued to belong to the French navy, as it appears he did, until the reduction that took place in the year 1817, it must have been because he misrepresented the circumstances under which he had been captured in 1806. What would Napoléon have done, had he known that the commander of one of his brig-corvettes had struck to a vessel of equal force without firing a shot?
On the 17th of February, 1805, the honourable East India company's ship Warren-Hastings, Captain Thomas Larkins, mounting 44 guns, with a complement of 196 men and boys, sailed from Portsmouth on a voyage to China. As extraordinary pains had been taken in the equipment of this ship, to enable her to defend herself against a French frigate should she chance to fall in with one, we will give a more particular account of her armament.
The Warren-Hastings mounted 26 medium 18-pounders on her main or lower deck, 14 carronades, 18-pounders, on her upper deck, and four carronades, 12-pounders, on her poop. The medium gun was six feet long, and weighed about 26¾ cwt.; whereas the common 18-pounder of the British navy is nine feet long, and weighs about 42½ cwt. The former, when run out, did not reach above a foot beyond the ship's side, and, in traversing, wooded, or touched the side of the port, at an angle of less than three points from the beam. The 18-pounder carronade was five feet long, and weighed about 15½ cwt.; the 12-pounder was three feet and a quarter long, and weighed about 8½ cwt. A navy carronade of each caliber is in length and weight as follows the 18-pounder, three feet four inches, and about 10½ cwt.; the 12-pounder, two feet eight inches, and about 6½ cwt. The carronades of the Warren-Hastings were mounted upon a carriage resembling Gover's in every particular but the only essential one, the having of rollers adapted to a groove in the slide. The consequence of this silly evasion of an ingenious man's patent was, that the whole of the ship's quarterdeck and poop guns became utterly useless, after only a few rounds had been fired from them. The first discovery of any imperfection in the new carriage occurred at exercise ; but a plentiful supply of black lead upon the upper surface of the slide lessened the friction, and, with the aid of an additional hand, enabled the gun to be run out. On account, however, of the rain, and the salt water in washing the deck, the application of black lead was obliged to be repeated every time of exercise.
The Warren-Hastings arrived out without meeting any opponent to try her powers upon, and sailed again on her return, but not quite so strongly armed. Four of her maindeck ports had been calked up, to afford space for a store-room, and the four guns transferred to the hold ; and, on account of a
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