Unknown Ship (c.1880s)

[kc]

One of the photos added to the site today is of the ship pictured below. No identification was given with the photo, but it could have been a training ship at the time photographed. Anyone got any ideas which ship this might be.

http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/images/bld0015_sotl.jpg

[cissystar650]

Hi KC...

I have gone blind and increased the prescription of my glasses looking at loads of books/websites... and so far no luck!

Just to let you know that I am trying !! (Very trying......)

Cissy

[kc]

Thanks cissy, I appreciate the effort!

This one is annoying me because it's one of those ones I know I've seen before but just can't name it. There were no clues to the name on the larger photo of the ship either.

[Stan.J]

Would it have been H.M.S.Worcester which was moored in the Thames and used as a training ship????

[Commodore Armiger]

It is certainly a Training Ship. Note the prominent spars for raising and lowering sea-boats, of which no less than five are visible. Although rigged to bear topsails, this ship wasn't intended to move under its own power any time soon. Question is whether it was an RN Boy-Seaman Ship a Marine Society Ship or a Merchant Cadet Ship like Worcester. There were a surprisingly large number of wooden walls used for training (before that they were recycled as prisons).

There are two good sites about sea training ships:

http://www.workhouses.org.uk/index.html?trainingships/trainingships.shtml

http://www.trainingships.royalnavy.co.uk/

[Batstiger]

I wouldn't put my pension on it but she looks very similar to the old "Ganges"

[astraltrader]

I have gone through all my pictures of old training ships and I agree with Bob - I think it is HMS Ganges as well. The angle of your photograph is not the best but I have a couple of photo`s of the Ganges and they seem to fit.
The only other ship that comes anywhere near it is the old HMS Warspite - but I too opt for the Ganges...

[kc]

Thanks all.

I had briefly looked through some of our own pics, and HMS Worcester was one that fitted the bill. If the general consensus is that it's HMS Ganges then great, I don't think we had a pic of the old Ganges, at least not like this.

Thank you all for taking the time to have a look.

[Batstiger]

It was only a suggestion Kc. Here are a couple more of the Ganges which I offered the Association many years ago plus the one you posted. We can now see them all together.

[Commodore Armiger]

To my eye the poop of picture 3 is not the same as that in picture 4, but that may be the result of a repaint at some point.

[romft1945]

Does this help there are more gun ports on one than on the other albiet one is counted on the port side and the other the starboard side,
ROM

[astraltrader]

You may well be right KC. For some reason I don`t have anything to hand concerning HMS Worcester...

[Stan.J]

It seems so far that its between Bob and Me. With the Ganges or Worcester, I hope whoever gets the final nod gets a large Tot, Cheers, Stan.

[kc]

I don't think we'll ever know unless someone knows a definitive way to tell these two ships apart, or knows the location of the photograph. I know the background is not a particularly good give away on this one, but comparison with some known photos usually gives a good idea. Unfortunately in all of Bob's photos, if it is the same ship, the position of the photographer is opposite to their position in the photo I posted. Ships this old are not really my speciality for identifying, but I'll keep an eye out for more photos of either ship.

[Maritime Michael Ian]

Hi Ladies and fellas!

For what it's worth...the stern of the vessel looks very much like photos I saw a few years ago of Foudroyant, also the Trincomalee ( if that's how it's spelt) with a rounded stern.

Ian

[herakles]

If its the same Tricomalee that's now a display at Hartleypool I must say nothing in the pics reminds me of her.

[Commodore Armiger]

Definitely not Trincomalee (1817), which is a fine example of a Frigate of the period immediately after the Napoleonic Wars. Originally a Fifth Rate 28, she was subsequently re-gunned and redesignated a Sixth Rate corvette. She was re-named Foudroyant 1897 when she replaced the T/S of that name sunk in a storm off Blackpool, and back to Trincomalee 1990.

Much more about Trincomalee here:

http://www.hms-trincomalee.co.uk/

The "unknown ship" was considerably larger, probably a Third Rate 74, possibly bigger.

Ganges (1821) was a Second Rate 84. Warspite - ex Waterloo (1833) /Conqueror (1862) was a First Rate 120, so one of the biggest wooden walls the RN ever commissioned.

[Stan.J]

If only I were younger, I wouldn`t mind the job advertised on the Trincomalee site..