HMS Winchester (launched as Conway, 1832)
HMS Winchester (launched as Conway, 1832)


Royal NavyVessels

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NameWinchester (launched as Conway, 1832)Explanation
TypeSixth rate   
Launched2 February 1832
HullWooden
PropulsionSail
Builders measure652 tons
Displacement 
Guns26
Fate1871
Class 
Ships book
Note1859 t.s.
1861 = Winchester
Snippets concerning this vessels career
DateEvent
17 February 1832
- 31 October 1835
Commanded (from commissioning until paying off) by Captain Henry Eden, North Sea, Lisbon, and South America
9 September 1836
- 15 January 1842
Commanded (from commissioning until paying off) by Captain Charles Ramsay Drinkwater-Bethune, East Indies (including the first Anglo-Chinese war)
18 May 1843
- March 1844
Commanded (from commissioning at Portsmouth) by Captain Robert Fair, Cape of Good Hope (until he died)
5 April 1844
- 15 July 1847
Commanded (until paying off at Portsmouth) by Captain William Kelly, Cape of Good Hope
23 February 1854
- 23 May 1856
Commanded (from commissioning at Portsmouth) by Captain John Fulford, flagship of Rear-Admiral William Fairbrother Carroll, Queenstown
6 April 1857
- 20 May 1857
Commanded by Captain Henry Chads, Queenstown
20 May 1857
- 31 January 1858
Commanded (until paying off at Plymouth) by Captain John NcNeill Boyd, Coast Guard, Queenstown
1859Lent to the Mercantile Marine Association, Liverpool, as a training ship for officers
28 August 1861Renamed Winchester
Extracts from the Times newspaper
DateExtract
Ma 19 July 1847The following are the extraordinary particulars relating to the death of Mr. Thomas Hart, late assistant-surgeon of the Conway, 26, who destroyed himself by cutting his throat with a razor at the Quebec Hotel on Friday morning last, as stated in The Times of yesterday: - It appeared in evidence at the inquest taken before Mr. Cooper, the coroner for the borough, of Portsmouth, on Friday evening, that the deceased went to the Quebec Hotel on the previous evening in company with Mr. Henry Wilson, R.N., acting assistant-surgeon of the Victory (newly appointed), and partook of a little draught pale ale about half-past 9 in the evening. He had been paid off the same day. Mr. Wilson had known the deceased about four years ago, before he went in the Conway. On the occasion under investigation he did not observe any peculiarity about the deceased, who appeared in his usual health and spirits, but spoke vehemently and indignantly of the degradation his class was suffering under in the navy, in being so ill provided with proper messmates and accommodation: he seemed to consider his class ill-used by being compelled to exist in the midshipmen's berth, and to have no other associates than that position provided in the navy. He did not speak of this personally, but generally, and after the manner of information to Mr. Wilson, who has just entered the navy in the first step ("acting") of the medical branch, and told him (the witness) that he must be prepared to "rough it." Deceased had told him he had lost three 5l. Notes and a sovereign, but believed he had been robbed of it prior to quitting the Conway after she was paid off. This witness and another friend of the deceased slept at the Quebec on Thursday night, and were to have started together some time early on Friday morning, consequently witness ordered the chambermaid to call deceased at 7 o'clock, which was done, and he answered, and asked for a razor to shave with. The girl said they had not one, and asked if she should send for a barber, which was done, but when he came deceased borrowed his razor with the profession of intending to shave himself. He was subsequently found quite dead, about half-past 8 o'clock, the razor lying near him. He had cut the jugular and carotid artery. No explanation was found in the room or on the person of the deceased, nor any information as to where his relatives or friends resided, but two certificates were found lying on the table worded as follows -
"These are to certify the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty that Mr. Thomas Hart served as Assistant-Surgeon on board Her Majesty's ship Conway, under my command, from the 1st of September. 1844, to the date hereof, during which time he has conducted him-self with diligence, sobriety, and attention, and was always obedient to command.
"Given under my hand on board Her Majesty's ship Conway, at Portsmouth, this 15th day of July, 1847.
"WILLIAM KELLY, Captain."
At the bottom of which, in pencil, was written, apparently very hurriedly-
"I should have been recommended for promotion."

The other certificate was worded in precisely the same terms, only the dates were "from the 1st of July, 1846, to the date hereof, 1st of July, 1847)," also signed by the Captain, and at bottom of which was written, also in pencil -
"Heart-broken and disappointed."

It therefore appeared to the jury that on the ship's arrival at Spithead the deceased had asked for the last quoted certificate to memorialize the Admiralty with for his promotion, as he appears on the Navy List as an Assistant Surgeon of 1839; but what appears most incomprehensible is the fact, proved by the above certificates, of the deceased's having been on the books and done the duty of assistant-surgeon of the Conway from the 1st of September, 1844, until Thursday last, nearly three years, without his name appearing in the list of officers' names appointed to the ship as shown in the official Navy List. The jury returned a verdict in accordance with the evidence -viz., "That the deceased died from wounds inflicted on himself, but what the state of his mind was at the time he committed the act there was no evidence to prove."

In the absence of any relative or friends to claim the body, the preparations for interment were, with the sanction of the coroner, immediately made by Mr. Forbes, of Portsmouth, undertaker and united service outfitter.
We 5 January 1859The Conway, 26 for Liverpool, will be ready to be moved out of the basin at Devonport on Friday.
Ma 31 January 1859Training-ships for Boys. — The training-ship now about to proceed to the Mersey, the ci-devant 28 gun ship Conway, is, we believe, only the first of a series of ships to be similarly fitted and employed. The Conway will be employed as a training*ship for boys between the ages of 13 and 15. They will be received in three classes, One class will consist of lads whose parents are able and willing to pay a moderate sum for their support and education; another will comprise those whose friends can contribute in a lesser degree; while the third will consist of poor boys, orphans or others, who have no friends to help them. An association has been formed to supply the funds necessary for the support of the establishment, which will be raised by voluntary contribution. The merchants of Liverpool have subscribed, liberally for this purpose, and the Admiralty have lent a ship well calculated for the service as a commencement, and have fitted her as for sea. After some probationary terms have been gone through the most proficient among the lads will be allowed to choose between the Royal and mercantile services — the Admiralty, we presume, undertaking to receive boys recommended by the Association into Her Majesty's ships. The Conway has a superintendent and a schoolmaster, receiving moderate but improving salaries; and, as the numbers of boys increase, so the staff will be augmented; but it does not seem a part of the scheme to educate the lads beyond certain elementary standards, or to fit them for pursuits of a higher character. The boys are to be trained for the sea, and prepared in morals and discipline for apprentices to the sea service. We hope to find the Admiralty taking the hint from the Liverpool Association, and fitting out a number of the old men-of-war, now rotting in ordinary, as training-ships for boys. From 5,000 to 10,000 lads should he trained annually. The merchant service would be glad of one moiety, and the Royal navy could dispose of the other. Every ship might carry double her present complement of stout hoys with advantage. The boy of 16 who leaves England for a foreign station usually returns a smart young seaman of 19 or 20, fit for anything, and from this stock we derive the best men under the pendant. Were this principle acted upon, the cry of want of seamen would soon cease to be uttered; for the boys who entered the merchant service would, in most instances, be true to their first masters, and enter freely in ships of war were their services required. The Royal Navy has no worse enemy to contend against than prejudice. The merchant seaman hears the Royal service badly spoken of; every punishment is set down to the account of cruelty, and the rules of a man of war are often described as inhuman and debasing. Men who know little about it, or whose bad conduct has brought upon them needful punishment, delight in misleading others; but if naval discipline were inculcated as a part of their education, and boys were made to look upon the restraints imposed as needful to the general good, ill-disposed men would find their damaging assertions controverted, and the regulations of the navy would often be successfully vindicated. The agricultural counties would always furnish a large supply of hardy, strong-limbed boys. Little or no persuasion need be used in obtaining recruits, for if a well-dressed sailor lad were to go into any country church on a Sunday, we will answer for it he would be an object of attraction to scores of boys of his own age, all eager to enrol themselves in the same service. Boys of this description received on board a training-strip would in a short time have the rough edge taken off, and be prepared to begin a sailor's career with right notions; and it is well known that during the long war the finest and bravest sailors we had were found among those who a few years previously had followed the plough. — United Service Gazette.
Ma 7 February 1859The school ship Conway, in charge of Mr. Paul, Assistant-Master at Devonport Dockyard, and in tow of the steamship Virago, Commander Dunn, left Plymouth on Saturday morning for Liverpool.
We 9 February 1859Her Majesty’s steam-sloop Virago, Commander Dunn, having in tow the Conway, 26, intended for a training ship at Liverpool, put into Falmouth, from Plymouth, on Sunday, owing to stress of weather, and sailed again on Monday.


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