HMS Cumberland (1842)

HMS Cumberland was a 70-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 21 October 1842 at Chatham Dockyard.[1] She carried a crew of 620 men.

H.M.S. Cumberland, c.1852
History
UK
Name:	HMS Cumberland
Builder:	Chatham Dockyard
Laid down:	April 1836
Launched:	21 October 1842
Fate:	Burned 17 February 1889
General characteristics [1]
Class and type:	70-gun third rate ship of the line
Tons burthen:	2214 bm
Length:	180 ft (55 m) (gundeck)
Beam:	54 ft 3 in (16.54 m)
Depth of hold:	22 ft 4 in (6.81 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full-rigged ship
Armament:	70 guns: Gundeck: 24 × 32 pdrs, 2 × 68 pdr carronades Upper gundeck: 26 × 32 pdrs, 2 × 68 pdr carronades Quarterdeck: 8 × 32 pdr carronades Forecastle: 2 × 32 pdrs, 2 × 32 pdr carronades

Cumberland recommissioned as a flagship under Captain George Henry Seymour as the flagship of his father, Vice-Admiral Sir George Francis Seymour. She served on the North America and West Indies Station.[2] In March 1854 she sailed to the Baltic Sea as the Crimean War with Russia was imminent. Cumberland was involved in the Battle of Bomarsund, an Anglo-French attack on Bomarsund in the Grand Duchy of Finland in August 1854.[3] On 15 March 1858, Cumberland ran aground on an uncharted rock in the River Plate off the Isla de Flores, Uruguay. Her captain and master were both acquitted at the subsequent court martial held on board HMS Impregnable at HMNB Devonport on 11 August.[4]

Cumberland was converted to serve as a training ship in 1870. She was destroyed by fire on the River Clyde in Scotland on 17 February 1889.[1][5]

Monument to the 6 crew of HMS Cumberland that died at Halifax, Royal Navy Burying Ground (Halifax, Nova Scotia)