HMS Euphrates (1813)
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 Plan of the Scamander-class frigates | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | Euphrates |
| Namesake | Euphrates |
| Ordered | 12 October 1812 |
| Builder | John King, Upnor |
| Laid down | January 1813 |
| Launched | 8 November 1813 |
| Completed | 24 September 1814 |
| Commissioned | August 1814 |
| Out of service | 1817 |
| Fate | Sold 29 January 1818 |
| General characteristics [1] | |
| Class & type | Fifth-rate Scamander-class frigate |
| Tons burthen | 943 (bm) |
| Length |
|
| Beam | 38 ft 5 in (11.7 m) |
| Draught |
|
| Depth of hold | 12 ft 4 in (3.8 m) |
| Propulsion | Sails |
| Complement | 284 |
| Armament |
|
HMS Euphrates was a 36-gun Scamander-class frigate of the Royal Navy. Constructed in response to the start of the War of 1812, Euphrates was commissioned in August 1814 under Captain Robert Foulis Preston. The frigate spent her wartime service in the English Channel and unsuccessfully hunting for American privateers off the Azores. Kept on in the post-Napoleonic Wars peace, the ship was sent to serve in the Mediterranean Fleet.
Euphrates was stationed at Corfu with orders to combat pirates, until Admiral Lord Exmouth arrived in the Mediterranean for operations against Algiers. Taken off her regular duties for this, Euphrates missed the Bombardment of Algiers when Preston chose not to pass on the despatch announcing Exmouth's arrival to his commanding officer, Rear-Admiral Sir Charles Penrose. Early in the following year the frigate was ordered home. Preston, whose mental health had been deteriorating, slit his throat after Euphrates had departed from Gibraltar, and died rabidly insane three days later. The frigate saw no more service after returning to England, and was sold in 1818.
Euphrates was a 36-gun, 18-pounder fifth-rate Scamander-class frigate. The class was constructed as part of the reaction of Lord Melville's Admiralty to the beginning of the War of 1812. This new theatre of operations, with the Napoleonic Wars ongoing, was expected to put a strain on the existing fleet of Royal Navy frigates. Designed by the Surveyor of the Navy, Sir William Rule, the Scamander class was put into construction to fill this need.[2] The class was a variant of the existing Apollo-class frigate, which had been the standard design for 36-gun frigates in the Royal Navy for over a decade.[3][4] The class was particularly copied from the lines of the 36-gun frigate HMS Euryalus.[5]
The war was expected to only be a short affair, and so ships built specifically for it were not designed for long service lives. As such Euphrates's class was ordered to be constructed out of the soft but easily available "fir". This meant the use of red and yellow pine.[2] Using pine for construction meant that the usually long period of time between keel laying and launching could be dramatically decreased to as little as three months. Pine-built ships could usually be differentiated from those of oak by their flat "square tuck" stern, but as copies of oak-built ships the Scamander class did not have this feature.[5] The naval historian Robert Gardiner describes the class as an "austerity" version of the Apollos.[3][4]
Pine was a lighter material than oak which allowed the ships to often sail faster than those built of the heavier wood, but this in turn meant that the ships required more ballast than usual to ensure that they sat at their designated waterline. Based on an oak-built design but with more ballast than that design was expected to carry, Euphrates and her class were designed with a distinctly shallower depth in the hold. This ensured that the frigates were not aversely affected by the excess ballast, which could cause them to sail overly rigidly and without much give.[5]
Construction
The first seven ships of the Scamander class, six of which were ordered in May before the war had begun, were built with red pine. Euphrates was one of theses. The final three received yellow pine. All ships of the class were ordered to commercial shipyards rather than Royal Navy Dockyards, with the navy providing the pine for their construction from its own stocks.[2] Euphrates was ordered on 12 October 1812, to be built by the shipwright John King at Upnor. She was initially ordered under the name Greyhound, but this was changed on 11 December for her namesake the Euphrates.[6][7] The frigate was laid down in January the following year, and launched on 8 November 1813 with the following dimensions: 143 feet 3+1⁄2 inches (43.7 m) along the upper deck, 120 feet 2+1⁄4 inches (36.6 m) at the keel, with a beam of 38 feet 5 inches (11.7 m) and a depth of hold of 12 feet 4 inches (3.8 m). The ship had a draught of 8 feet 5 inches (2.6 m) forward and 12 feet 8 inches (3.9 m) aft, and measured 943 tons burthen.[1]
The fitting out process for Euphrates was completed at Chatham Dockyard on 24 September 1814.[1] The frigate originally had a crew complement of 274, but this was increased to 284 for the entire class on 26 January 1813, while she was under construction. Euphrates held twenty-six 18-pounder long guns on her upper deck. Complimenting this armament were twelve 32-pounder carronades on the quarterdeck, with two 9-pounder long guns and two additional 32-pounder carronades on the forecastle.[2]
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