View source for HMS Trincomalee

{{short description|19th-century British Royal Navy frigate}}
{{other ships|List of ships named HMS Trincomalee}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2022}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2023}}
{|{{Infobox ship begin
}}
{{Infobox ship image
| Ship image = H.M.S. Trincomalee, Hartlepool Maritime Experience - geograph.org.uk - 1605077.jpg
| Ship caption = ''Trincomalee'' in her current location in Hartlepool
}}
{{Infobox ship career
| Hide header = 
| Ship country =United Kingdom 
| Ship flag = {{shipboxflag|United Kingdom|naval}}
| Ship name = HMS ''Trincomalee''
| Ship operator = [[National Museum of the Royal Navy]]
| Ship ordered = 30 October 1812
| Ship builder = [[Wadia Group]]
| Ship original cost = £23,000
| Ship laid down = 25 April 1816
| Ship launched = 12 October 1817
| Ship acquired = 
| Ship commissioned = 
| Ship decommissioned = 
| Ship in service = 
| Ship out of service = 1986
| Ship renamed = *''Foudroyant'': 1903
*''Trincomalee'': 1992
| Ship struck = 
| Ship reinstated = 
| Ship honours = 
| Ship captured = 
| Ship fate = 
|Ship homeport=*[[National Museum of the Royal Navy, Hartlepool]], England
| Ship status = Museum ship
| Ship notes = 
}}
{{Infobox ship characteristics
| Hide header = 
| Header caption = 
| Ship class = {{sclass|Leda|frigate|3}}
| Ship tons burthen = 1065.63 [[Builder's Old Measurement|bm]]
| Ship length = *{{convert|150|ft|4.5|in|m|abbr=on}} (gundeck)
*{{convert|125|ft|7.25|in|m|abbr=on}} (keel)
| Ship beam = {{convert|39|ft|11.25|in|m|abbr=on}}
| Ship draught = 
| Ship hold depth = {{convert|12|ft|9|in|m|abbr=on}}
| Ship sail plan = [[Full-rigged ship]]
| Ship complement = 315 officers and men
| Ship armament = *38-guns: (classed as 46 as carronades were counted in armament from 1817)
**Gundeck:
***28 × 18-pounders
**Quarterdeck:
***14 × 32-pounder carronades
**Forecastle:
***2 × 9-pounders
***2 × 32-pdr [[carronade]]s
| Ship notes = 
}}
|}
'''HMS ''Trincomalee''''' is a [[Royal Navy]] {{sclass|Leda|frigate|0}} [[sailing frigate]] built shortly after the end of the [[Napoleonic Wars]]. She is now restored as a [[museum ship]] afloat in the [[National Museum of the Royal Navy, Hartlepool|National Museum of the Royal Navy]], [[Hartlepool]], [[England]].

==History==

===1812–1847===
''Trincomalee'' is one of two surviving British frigates of her era—her near-sister {{HMS|Unicorn|1824|6}} (of the modified ''Leda'' class) is now a museum ship in [[Dundee]]. After being ordered on 30 October 1812, ''Trincomalee'' was built in [[Bombay]], [[India]], by the [[Wadia Group|Wadia family]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.zoroastrian.org.uk/vohuman/Article/The%20Wadias%20of%20India.htm |title=The Wadias of India |publisher=zoroastrian.org.uk |access-date=25 July 2015}}</ref> of shipwrights in [[teak]], due to oak shortages in Britain as a result of shipbuilding drives for the Napoleonic Wars. The ship was named ''Trincomalee'' after the 1782 [[Battle of Trincomalee]] off the Ceylon ([[Sri Lanka]]) port of that name.

Work on the Trincomalee began in May 1816. Ceremonially an engraved silver nail was hammered into the ship's keel by the master shipbuilder [[Jamsetjee Bomanjee Wadia]], this being considered vital for the ship's well-being, according to [[Parsis|Parsi]] [[Zoroastrianism|Zoroastrian]] tradition.<ref name="FoHMST">{{cite web | title = The History of HMS Trincomalee 1812 to 1986 | url = http://friendsofhmstrincomalee.org.uk/onewebmedia/TK001%20The%20History%20of%20HMS%20Trincomalee%201812%20to%201986.pdf | website = friendsofhmstrincomalee.org.uk | date = 2012 | access-date = 10 March 2023}}</ref> With a construction cost of £23,000 (approximately £2,015,000 in 2020), ''Trincomalee'' was launched on 12 October 1817. Commander Philip Henry Bridges sailed her to [[HMNB Portsmouth|Portsmouth Dockyard]], where she arrived on 30 April 1819, with a journey costing £6,600.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Trincomalee Construction |url=http://www.hms-trincomalee.co.uk/history/construction |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170527084839/http://www.hms-trincomalee.co.uk/history/construction |archive-date=2017-05-27 |access-date=25 July 2015 |publisher=The National Museum}}</ref> During the maiden voyage the ship arrived at [[Saint Helena]] on 24 January 1819, where she stayed for 6 days, leaving with an additional passenger, a surgeon who had attended [[Napoleon]] at [[Longwood House]] on the island, Mr John Stokoe.<ref>The Portsmouth Telegraph letter dated St. Helena 29 Jan. 1819</ref>

After being fitted out at a further cost of £2,400, ''Trincomalee'' was placed in [[Reserve fleet|reserve]] until 1845, when she was re-armed with fewer guns giving greater firepower, had her stern reshaped and was reclassified as a [[sixth-rate]] spar-decked [[corvette]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=HMS ''Trincomalee'' – Royal Navy Service |url=http://www.hms-trincomalee.co.uk/history/royal-navy-service |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170527094924/http://www.hms-trincomalee.co.uk/history/royal-navy-service |archive-date=2017-05-27 |access-date=25 July 2015 |publisher=The National Museum}}</ref>

===1847–1895===
''Trincomalee'' departed from Portsmouth in 1847 and remained in service for ten years, serving on the [[North America and West Indies Station]]. During her time, she was to help quell riots in [[Haiti]] and stop a threatened invasion of [[Cuba]], and serve on anti-[[slavery]] patrol. In 1849, she was despatched to [[Newfoundland (island)|Newfoundland]] and [[Labrador]] before being recalled to [[United Kingdom|Britain]] in 1850. In 1852 she sailed to join the [[Pacific Station|Pacific Squadron]] on the west coast of [[Americas|America]],<ref>[http://www.nmrn-portsmouth.org.uk/online-information-bank HMS ''Foudroyant'']</ref> and upon returning to
England in 1857, she was put back 'in ordinary' after arriving at Chatham on 4 September.<ref name="FoHMST" />

In 1860 ''Trincomalee'' was fitted out and then in January 1861 towed to Sunderland to become tender to the drill ship {{HMS|Castor|1832}}, whose role was to train Naval Volunteers boys aged 15 to 16 years being signed up to serve for 10 years on reaching the age of 18 years. During this time ''Trincomalee'''s gunports were again modified several times to accommodate different types of training armament. Then in 1862 she was moved to West Hartlepool, then the third largest port in Britain, and
moored in the Union Dock to become an independent drill ship.<ref name="FoHMST" />

=== TS ''Foudroyant'' ===
''Trincomalee'' finished her Royal Navy service as a [[training ship]], but was placed in [[Reserve fleet|reserve]] again in 1895 and sold for scrap two years later on 19 May 1897. She was then purchased by entrepreneur Geoffry Wheatly Cobb, restored, and renamed ''Foudroyant'' in honour of {{HMS|Foudroyant|1798|6}}, his earlier ship that had been wrecked in 1897.<ref>{{Cite web |title=HMS Trincomalee – Training days as TS Foudroyant |url=http://www.hms-trincomalee.co.uk/history/training-days-ts-foudroyant |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160315105809/http://www.hms-trincomalee.co.uk:80/history/training-days-ts-foudroyant |archive-date=2016-03-15 |url-status=dead |access-date=18 December 2024 |publisher=The National Museum}}</ref>

She was used in conjunction with {{HMS|Implacable|1805|6}} as an accommodation ship, a training ship, and a holiday ship first based in [[Falmouth, Cornwall|Falmouth]] and then [[Milford Haven]].<ref>Death Of Mr. G. Wheatly Cobb, ''Western Morning News'', 6 April 1931, p8.</ref> The relocation caused great dismay in Falmouth.<ref>Jordaan, Peter, ''A Secret Between Gentlemen: Suspects, Strays and Guests'', Alchemie Books, 2023, pp123-128.</ref> She was based in [[Portsmouth Harbour]] in 1954.<ref>{{cite journal |journal=The Meccano Magazine |date=April 1954 |last=((The Editor)) |title=More about the Foudroyant |volume=XXXIX |issue=4 |pages=viii, 167 |url=https://archive.org/details/meccano-magazine-1954-04/page/n9/mode/1up?view=theater}}</ref>

She remained in service until 1986, after which she was again restored and renamed back to ''Trincomalee'' in 1992.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Restoration and the present day |url=http://www.hms-trincomalee.co.uk/history/restoration-and-the-present-day |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160315105759/http://www.hms-trincomalee.co.uk:80/history/restoration-and-the-present-day |archive-date=2016-03-15 |access-date=18 December 2024 |publisher=The National Museum}}</ref>

===Later years===
[[File:H.M.S. Trincomalee, Hartlepool Maritime Experience - geograph.org.uk - 1604022.jpg|thumb|HMS ''Trincomalee'', stern quarter]]
Now listed as part of the [[National Historic Fleet]], following her recent restoration ''Trincomalee'' has become the centrepiece of the [[National Museum of the Royal Navy]] based in [[Hartlepool]].

''Trincomalee'' holds the distinction of being the oldest British warship still afloat<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hms-trincomalee.co.uk/about-us |title=HMS Trincomalee – About us |publisher=The National Museum |access-date=25 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151121225205/http://www.hms-trincomalee.co.uk/about-us |archive-date=21 November 2015 |url-status=usurped }}</ref> as {{HMS|Victory}}, although 52 years her senior, is in [[dry dock]].

Until his death in 1929, the Falmouth-based painter [[Henry Scott Tuke]] used the ship and its trainees as subject matter.{{Citation needed|date=March 2012}}

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:HMS Trincomalee at Hartlepool 2010 (800x600).jpg
File:H.M.S. Trincomalee, Hartlepool Maritime Experience - geograph.org.uk - 1605081.jpg
File:H.M.S. Trincomalee, Hartlepool Maritime Experience - geograph.org.uk - 1604019.jpg
File:H.M.S. Trincomalee, Hartlepool Maritime Experience - geograph.org.uk - 1605098.jpg
File:Captains cabin HMS Trincomalee geograph.org.uk 1605087 e0de772e-by-Ian-Petticrew.jpg
File:Her Majesty's Ships Amphitrite and Trincomalee Beating out of San Francisco on Sepr 23rd 1854 RMG PY0799.jpg|''Trincomalee'' beating out of San Francisco on 23 Sept 1854
</gallery>

==See also==
*{{HMS|Victory}} – 18th-century [[first rate]] [[ship of the line]]
*{{USS|Constitution}} – 18th-century [[US Navy]] frigate
*{{HMS|Unicorn|1824|6}} – a surviving sister ship
*[[Historical Maritime Society]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*Andrew Lambert – ''Trincomalee: the last of Nelson’s frigates'', Chatham Publishing, 2002, {{ISBN|1-86176-186-4}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|HMS Trincomalee (ship, 1817)}}
*[https://www.nmrn.org.uk/visit-us/hartlepool HMS ''Trincomalee'' official website]

{{coord |54|41|25|N|1|12|24|W|type:landmark_region:GB-HPL|display=title}}

{{Leda class frigate}}
{{National Historic Ships}}
{{Oldest surviving ships (pre-1919)}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Trincomalee}}
[[Category:Frigates of the Royal Navy]]
[[Category:Museum ships in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Museums in County Durham]]
[[Category:Tall ships of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:1817 ships]]
[[Category:Leda-class frigates]]
[[Category:Ships and vessels of the National Historic Fleet]]
[[Category:British ships built in India]]