BOREAS HMS 1774

[shipstamps]

Built as a 6th Rate by the yard of Blaydes & Hodgson at Hull for the Royal Navy.
25 December 1770 ordered.
May 1771 keel laid down.
23 August 1774 launched under the name HMS BOREAS, one of the Mermaid class.
Tonnage 626 ton (bm), dim. 124.6 x 33.8 x 10.11ft.
Armament 24 – 9pdrs. upperdeck and 4 – 4 pdrs. Guns on quarter deck, original also 12 swivels guns. Later the armament was changed.
13 September 1774 completed and moved to Chatham for fitting out.
23 October 1775 fitting out completed, building cost £14.351.
August 1775 commissioned.

From November 1777 till January 1778 refitted and coppered at Plymouth.
1778 She was under command of Capt. Charles Thompson at the Leeward Islands in the West Indies.
18 December 1778 the BOREAS was off Martinique, when she attacked a French convoy from Marseilles. She captured a ship and a polacre and drove several others on shore, although coming under fire from two 74’s, two frigates and shore batteries.
January 1781 after wartime service paid off.
From March till November 1782 refitted and repaired at Woolwhich for a total of £13.145.

September 1782 recommissioned.
November 1783 paid off, but recommissioned the same month.

March 1784 she came under command of Capt. Horatio Nelson with orders to proceed to the West Indies.

1786 He was in command of the West Indies Station at English Harbour at Antigua. He was at that time not so popular in the West Indies, his task was to enforce the Navigation Act, but after the American Revolution the American vessels now foreign, dominated still the trade between the West Indies and the former colony.
When Nelson was cruising off Charlestown on the Island Nevis he seized four American ships loaded with Nevisians goods. The four ships had violating the Navigation Act, but the four captains supported by the merchants of Nevis sued Nelson for illegal seizure.

1787 The HMS BOREAS visited the British Virgin Islands, together with the SOLEBAY and PEGASUS.

The HMS BOREAS was decommissioned on 30 November 1787 at Portsmouth and Nelson was send home on half pay.

August 1779 the BOREAS captured the large ship COMPASS, an armed flute bound for Europe from Martinique with produce and 200 invalids. HMS BOREAS had 4 men killed during the fight, and several wounded. A gunpowder explosion on the COMPASS burned twenty others after her capture.

02 June 1788 fitted for ordinary.

1797 Slop ship.
And sold out of service in May 1802. Fate unknown.

On Antigua 1970 5c sg 327, 1975 35c sg 429.
Barbuda 1973 5c sg 107, 1975 35c sg 219
British Virgin Island 1979 6c sg 246, 1975 5c sg 325 (figurehead)
Nevis 1983 55c/$1 sg 103/4, 1987 $1 sg 474.
St Kitts 1980 10c sg 43
Turks and Caicos Islands 1983 25c sg 774, 1988 25c sg 923.

Source http://www.cronab.demon.co.uk/B2.HTM Ships of the Royal Navy by Colledge. http://www.geographia.com/stkitts-nevis/nelson3.htm British Warships in the age of Sail 1793- 1817 by Rif Winfield.

[john sefton]

Modified MERMAID Class. This 1760 Slade design was revived in 1770 for three new ships ordered during the breach

with Spain over the Falkland Islands, the first two being laid down the same month Slade died.
Dimensions & Tons: 124ft 0in, 103ft 4.75in x 33ft 6in x 11ft 0in. 617 22/94bm.
Men:200. Guns:UD 24x 9pdrs; QD 4x 3pdrs; also 12x 1/2pdr swivels. (6x 18pdr carronades (4 QD, 2 Fc) were added by AO

10 August 1779, and the 3pdrs replaced by 6pdrs by AO 2 Feb 1780).
(The three new ships were Greyhound, Triton and Boreas.)

[john sefton]

Capt. Horatio Nelson and one of his early commands, the frigate Boreas, are shown on the 5 cents value. Nelson served for some years in West Indies waters. It was here, when in his early twenties, that Admiral Hood presented him to the Duke of Clarence as being an officer well qualified to instruct him in naval tactics. The incident illustrates his brilliance even at this age. One of his early commands in Antigua was the frigate Boreas. The portrait on the stamp is based on a painting by John Francis Rigaud, R.A. in the National Maritime Museum. The Boreas was a 6th Rate of 28 guns; 626 tons (b.m.), dimensions 125 ft. x 34 ft., built by Blaydes and Hodgson, of Hull, in 1774. She was sold in May 1802.

[aukepalmhof]

Nevis 1983 55c/$2 sg103/4. 1987 $1 sg474

See also: http://www.shipstamps.co.uk/forum/viewt ... eas#p13252