Today, mine own true love and my wife and I went to Hartlepool which is to hell and gone over on the east coast of Yorkshire. Hartlepool has an interesting history which I won't bore you with (oh, all right then, I will, kinda). But what it does have is an old dockyard which has been tarted up and restored to what might have been its early 19th century splendour. Interesting in its own right. But the real reason we trooped 210 miles north of home was to have a look over the HMS Trincomalee.
The Trincomalee, known to the locals as the Trinc, is a genuine fifth rate Royal Navy frigate, commissioned in 1817. It was built in India from Indian hardwood and it had been ordered because of the shortage of seasoned English oak which the 20-year Napoleonic Wars and the demands of naval building the wars created.
The Trinc never saw action, but managed to survive, mainly because of its continued seaworthiness, right up until 1987 despite being pretty much little more than a hulk. Some local Hartlepool nutcases (well, you'd need to be, wouldn't you?) acquired her and berthed her in the old Hartlepool dock and then set to work restoring her. And they've done an absolutely amazing job of it. Full marks - insanity pays!
She is a 38-gun frigate, although she was over-gunned to 46 guns (including six rather wicked-looking carronades).
Anyway, as a result of our discussion about orlop decks above, I went down into the hold to have a look at the orlop deck on the Trinc. There isn't room to swing a cat in
any direction down there. There is less than five feet of headroom and access is via a very steep companionway.
Trinc may never have seen action, but her sister ship, the HMS Shannon, fought and captured the USS Chesapeake in 1813. This link:
http://data2.archives.ca/ap/c/c040089k.jpgshows you what the Trinc would have looked like in her heyday.
Thought some of you might be interested!
