HMS Porcupine (1807)

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Porcupine and Windsor Castle (ship).

Porcupine
History
United Kingdom
NameHMS Porcupine
Ordered30 January 1805
BuilderThomas Owen, Topsham, Exeter
Laid downSeptember 1805
Launched26 January 1807
Completed22 June 1807 at Plymouth Dockyard
CommissionedMarch 1807
Out of serviceSold 18 April 1816
Honours and
awards		Naval General Service Medal with clasp "10 July Boat Service 1808"[1]
United Kingdom
AcquiredApril 1818 by purchase
RenamedWindsor Castle
FateSold 1826 for breaking up
General characteristics [2]
Class and typeBanterer-class post ship
Tons burthen55968⁄94,[3] or 538, or 560[4] (bm)
Length
  • 118 ft 0+5⁄8 in (36.0 m) (overall)
  • 98 ft 7+3⁄4 in (30.1 m) (keel)
Beam32 ft 0+1⁄4 in (9.8 m)
Depth of hold10 ft 6 in (3.20 m)
Sail planFull-rigged ship
Complement155 (later 175)
Armament
  • As ordered:
  • Upper deck (UD): 22 × 9-pounder guns
  • QD: 6 × 24-pounder carronades
  • Fc: 2 × 6-pounder guns & 2 × 24-pounder carronades
  • Later:
  • UD: 22 × 32-pounder carronades
  • QD: 6 × 24-pounder carronades
  • Fc: 2 × 6-pounder bow chasers + 2 × 24-pounder carronades

HMS Porcupine was a Royal Navy Banterer-class post ship of 24 guns, launched in 1807. She served extensively and relatively independently in the Adriatic and the Western Mediterranean during the Napoleonic Wars, with her boats performing many cutting out expeditions, one of which earned for her crew the Naval General Service Medal. She was sold for breaking up in 1816 but instead became the mercantile Windsor Castle. She was finally sold for breaking up in 1826 at Mauritius.

  1. ^ "No. 20939". The London Gazette. 26 January 1849. p. 246.
  2. ^ Winfield (2008), p. 236.
  3. ^ Hackman (2001), p. 323.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference LR1816 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).