Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
Picture 4
Picture 5
Picture 6
The Flag Ship HMS Duke of Wellington (131 guns) leaving Spithead in 1852 from a Sketch by W Weedon, Esq. [Royal Museums Greenwich].
She replaced HMS Victory as flagship of the Port Admiral at Portsmouth in 1869, with Victory becoming her tender, firing salutes to passing dignitaries.
The HMS Duke of Wellington as it was in 1854
The HMS Duke of Wellington in Keyham Docks on 4 March 1854
Originally, the ship was christened HMS Windsor Castle, and was intended as a sailing vessel. Although the Royal Navy had been using steam power
in smaller ships for three decades, it had not been adopted for ships of the line, partly because the enormous paddle-boxes required would have meant a
severe reduction in the number of guns carried. This problem was solved by the adoption of the screw propellor in the 1840s. Under a crash programme
announced in December 1851 to provide the Navy with a steam-driven battlefleet, the design was further modified by the new Surveyor, Captain Baldwin Walker.
The ship was cut apart in two places on the stocks in January 1852, lengthened by 30 feet (9.1 m) overall and given screw propulsion. She received the
780 hp engines designed and built by Robert Napier for the iron frigate Simoon, which had surrendered them on conversion to a troopship. The ship was
launched on 14 September 1852 and became the flagship of Sir Charles Napier, manning 131 guns. The day of the launch was the day the Duke of Wellington
died, and the ship was subsequently re-named in his honour and provided with a new figurehead in the image of the duke.
