HMS Nile (1839)

The ships were 205 feet 6 inches (62.6 m) at the gun deck and 170 feet 1 inch (51.8 m) at the keel. The Rodney class had a beam of 54 feet 5 inches (16.6 m), a depth of hold of 23 feet (7.0 m) and measured 2,625 69⁄94 tons burthen. Their crew numbered 720 in peacetime and 820 in wartime.^[1] The ships had the usual three-masted full-ship rig with a sail area of 28,102 square feet (2,610.8 m²).^[2]

The muzzle-loading, smoothbore armament of the Rodney class initially consisted of thirty-two 32-pounder (63 cwt) guns^{[Note 1]} and two 8-inch (203 mm) (50 cwt) shell guns on the lower gun deck and thirty-two 32-pounder (55 cwt) and two 8-inch (50 cwt) shell guns on the upper gun deck. Between their forecastle and quarterdeck, they carried twenty-four 32-pounder (42 cwt) guns. The ships were later rearmed with twenty-six 32-pounders (56 cwt) and six 8-inch shell guns on the lower gundeck and thirty 32-pounders (56 cwt) and six 8-inch shell guns on the upper deck. The number of guns on the forecastle and quarterdeck increased to twenty-six 32-pounders (42 cwt) guns.^[3]

The second ship of her name to serve in the RN,^[7] and named after the 1798 British victory in the Battle of the Nile,^[8] the ship was launched on 28 June 1839.^[9] Upon her completion on 12 August 1839, but before she was commissioned, Nile was placed in ordinary at Devonport. The ship was fitted as a demonstration ship from October 1840 to March 1841.^[3] Her conversion into a screw ship of the line was ordered on 24 November 1852 and the work began on 14 December. Nile was undocked on 30 January 1854 and was commissioned by Commodore Henry Martin on 25 February. The ship was completed in April and assigned to the Western Squadron.^[10]

The decisive Russian victory in the Battle of Sinop over the Ottoman Navy on 30 November 1853 alarmed politicians in both Britain and France. They decided to intervene on the side of the Ottomans and the British began forming a Baltic Fleet in February 1854 in anticipation of war. The Russians did not withdraw their forces in the Balkans as demanded by the British and French governments on 27 February and declarations of war by both governments followed a month later. Admiral Sir Charles Napier, commander-in-chief of the Baltic Fleet, was charged to blockade the exit from the Baltic Sea and all of the Russian ports therein. Nile is known to have been with the fleet by 13 June when the bulk of the French contingent rendezvoused with the British fleet.^[11][12] Captain Rodney Mundy relieved Martin on 17 July.^[3] The ship did not participate in any of the minor actions in 1854 and was part of the force based near Nargen Island (now Naissaar) blockading Reval (now Tallinn) and the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland by late 1854. By 19 October, bad weather had forced the ships to withdraw to Kiel, Germany, where they blockaded the entrance to the Baltic Sea until December when they were ordered home.^[13]

The ship returned to the Baltic in early 1855. On 12 September, Nile and the frigate Arrogant destroyed some Russian transports in the Bay of Virta Nemi. Six days later, the ship's boats boarded and burnt some Russian vessels near Hammeliski (possibly Humaliski on the island of Björkö, now called Primorsk, Leningrad Oblast).^[14] At the end of that month, the fleet began to return to the United Kingdom and on 23 April 1856, participating ships, including Nile, attended a Review of the Fleet at Spithead by Queen Victoria. In June 1856, Nile was assigned to the North American and West Indies Station and returned to Plymouth on 31 March 1857 to be paid off on 20 April. She was refitted from July to April 1858 to serve as the guardship for Queenstown (modern Cobh) in County Cork, Ireland. Nile was recommissioned on 1 March 1858 by Captain Henry Chads as the flagship of his father, Rear-Admiral Henry Ducie Chads, in Queenstown.^[3]

Captain Arthur Eardley-Wilmot relieved Chads on 7 December as the flagship of Rear-Admiral Charles Talbot. Nile had her boilers and piping replaced in April 1859^[15] at Devonport. Captain Edward King Barnard relieved Eardley-Wilmot in his turn on 31 December as the ship returned to the North American and West Indies Station and became the flagship of Rear Admiral Alexander Milne, the commander-in-chief of the station.^[3] She conducted her sea trials at sea on 7 April 1860, reaching 8.2 knots (15.2 km/h; 9.4 mph) from 1,247 ihp (930 kW).^[15]

Nile operated from Bermuda and Halifax Naval Yard, Nova Scotia, during the tense period following the Trent Affair in 1861, when the United Kingdom's entry into the American Civil War seemed possible, eventually cementing cordial relations with the Union by means of a visit to New York City in September 1863. Returning to Plymouth in the following April, she was paid off on 23 April 1864and placed in ordinary. Her engines, boilers and propellers were removed between March and May 1875 and Nile was refitted the following year to prepare her for service as a training ship.^[10]

Training ship at Liverpool as HMS Conway

The ship was loaned to the Mercantile Marine Service Association at Liverpool and renamed HMS Conway on 24 July 1876.^[3] She replaced the previous Conway (ex-HMS Winchester) which had proved to be too small. The third HMS Conway (ex-Nile) remained at a mooring off Rock Ferry Pier in Wirral and was home to up to 250 cadets. She was refitted twice during this time. In October 1940, Conway was struck by SS Hektoria, a 13,000-ton whaling factory ship, and moved to a dock at Birkenhead for repairs. During the Liverpool Blitz there was concern that there might be considerable loss of life if the ship were hit and she moved to Glyn Garth Mooring on the Menai Straits, Anglesey, in May 1941. In 1949 she moved further along the Strait to a new mooring off Plas Newydd where a shore establishment was also established.^[16]

In 1953, the association decided to return Conway to Birkenhead for a refit. On 14 April, the ship left her moorings in the Menai Strait under tow, but was driven ashore shortly afterwards by unexpectedly strong tides and wrecked, watched by a large crowd on the Menai Suspension Bridge.^[17] A fire on 31 October 1956 while she was being dismantled then destroyed her.^[3] One may still find nails and timber at the site. Two Admiralty Pattern anchors from Conway survive; one at the Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool and one on Caernarfon marine promenade.^[18]