HMS Cornwall

HMS Cornwall (1692-1761)

The first HMS Cornwall was launched in 1692 as an 80 gun third Rate Frigate. In her first year, she took part in the battle of Barfleur and the action at La Hogue. She was rebuilt in 1705-06 at Rotherhithe. After this, she served in the Mediterranean where she was involved in the capture of a French convoy off Cataloniain May 1708. After yet another rebuild, this time in Deptford, which lasted from 1723-26, she had a pleasant peacetime service in the Baltic and Mediterranean. Yet, she was not re-commissioned until 1742 even thought a war between Britain and Spain had been raging since 1739. She initially served off Spain, but was later deployed to the West Indies where, in March 1748, she took part in the capture of Port Louis in the French colony of Haiti. In the following October, Cornwall captured a 64-gun Spanish frigate during the defence of a convoy off Havana. She became a prison ship in 1755, ending her career in 1760 and being broken up in 1761.

HMS Cornwall (1761-1780)

The second HMS Cornwall was launched at Deptford in 1761. She was a slightly smaller ship than her predecessor, though she possessed a potent 74 guns in her arsenal. She served in the English Channel until the end of the Seven Years War in 1763. After service as a guard-ship at Plymouth, she was sent to North America. She arrived in New York on 30th July 1779 and just ten days later was in a confrontation with the French navy. Later that year she was deployed to the West Indies where she was badly damaged in action off Grenada and again off Martinique in 1780. She was sent to St Lucia for urgent repairs, but her damage was impossible to repair due to it being too extensive. She was destroyed on 30th June 1780.

HMS Cornwall (1812-1940)

The third HMS Cornwall was also a 74-gun frigate, completed in 1812. She was part of the Channel Fleet until the end of the Napoleonic War in 1814. She was given numerous modifications to allow her to have a gun deck of 50 large and far more powerful guns giving a tremendous increase in speed and firepower. Even with these upgrades, she never saw active service again. In 1859 she was loaned to the London Association for use as a juvenile reformatory school. In 1868 she exchanged names with HMS Wellesly and moved to the Tyne to serve as a training ship. She was scrapped in Sheerness in 1874. The former Wellesly, now Cornwall had taken part in the occupation of Karachi as well as operations against China. She took over the reformatory duties of the original Cornwall. She remained in service until September 1940 when she was sunk by a near-miss bomb, during WWII. Eight years later, she was salvaged and broken up.

HMS Cornwall (1902-1919)

The fourth HMS Cornwall was a 9000 ton armoured cruiser of the Monmouth-class, launched at Pembroke in 1902, and commissioned in 1904. At the beginning of war in 1914, she was deployed to West Africa to intercept German merchant shipping. Shortly afterwards she proceeded to the Falkland Islands, where on 8th December 1914, while under the command of Captain W.M. Ellerton, took part in the famous Battle of the Falkland Islands, in company with the powerful battlecruisers Inflexible and Invincible, along with the pre-dreadnought Canopus, two armoured cruisers, three light cruisers and one armed merchant cruiser, engaged the German cruisers, under the command of the noted German Vice-Admiral Maximilian Graf Von Spee. During the battle, Cornwall assisted in the sinking of the light cruiser Leipzig.

She returned to West Africa shortly after that battle, but soon left again in June 1915, when she was sent to support the Gallipoli Campaign. The following October, she was back in the East Indies and China Station to protect Allied shipping from marauding enemy surface raiders. She returned to the UK in 1917 where she was refitted, and subsequently sent to escort convoys between Canada and the UK. She was paid off early in 1919.

HMS Cornwall (1926-1942)

The fifth HMS Cornwall was a 9750 ton Kent-class heavy cruiser, launched at Devonport in 1926. She saw service in the exotic China Station, and was reconstructed from 1935-39, being completed just before the outbreak of the Second World War. She was then transferred to the East Indies Fleet. In November of that year, Cornwall was re-allocated to the South Atlantic Command, but returned to Britain with a convoy in July 1940. In early August she left Britain once again, operating off West Africa, to support the Dakar operation and the Free French occupation of Duala in Senegal. Based in Simonstown, South Africa from December 1940, she escorted numerous convoys in the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

Cornwall also undertook searches for armed merchant raiders which presented a hazard to Allied convoys. On 8th May 1941 she found and sank the German raider ship Pinguin, north of the Seychelles. In March 1942, she joined the Eastern Fleet, operating in the Ceylon area. On 5th April 1942, shortly after being detached with her sister-ship, the Dorsetshire from the Eastern Fleet, the two cruisers were sighted by Japanese aircraft. A short while later, both ships were completely overwhelmed by 50 Japanese dive bombers, whose deadly accuracy resulted in the sinking of both ships. 190 of Cornwall's 650 crew were lost.

HMS Cornwall (1985-present day)

The sixth and current HMS Cornwall (F99) is a Type 22 frigate. She was commissioned in 1988. She has been involved in many recent operations that the Royal Navy has undertaken and continues to be a potent flagship asset for the RN, as well as being a multi-role vessel.

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