HMS Prince (1854)

HMS Prince was a Royal Navy storeship purchased in 1854 from mercantile owners and lost in a storm off Balaklava in November that year during the Crimean War.

She was purchased from the General Screw Steam Shipping Company for £105,000 by Admiralty Order dated July 1854 and commissioned under Commander Benjamin Baynton. She sailed for the Crimea, carrying 150 persons and a cargo of much needed winter uniforms. The loss of the ship and its cargo caused a public outcry in Britain because of the severe winter conditions being endured by troops in unsuitable clothing.

She was destroyed at a deep water anchorage outside Balaklava by a hurricane-force storm which tore her from her anchorage and dashed her onto rocks: she broke up completely within ten minutes and only six of her 150 crew were saved. Correspondent William Howard Russell considered her officers to have been negligent in losing her bower anchors. Commander Bayntoun, her commanding officer, perished in the wreck.

29 other Allied transport ships were wrecked during the same storm.

HMS Prince

Six ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Prince, including:

In addition many ships have been named after specific princes, including:

HMS Triumph (1698)

HMS Triumph was a 90-gun second rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Chatham Dockyard in 1698. She was renamed HMS Prince in 1714.

On 13 December 1742 Prince was ordered to be taken to pieces and rebuilt at Chatham, according to the 1741 proposals of the 1719 Establishment. She was relaunched on 8 August 1750.

Prince continued to serve until 1773, when she was broken up.

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References

HMS Prince (1670)

HMS Prince (sometimes also referred to as Royal Prince) was a 100-gun first rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built by Phineas Pett the Younger at Deptford Dockyard and launched in 1670. A contemporary shipyard model (today at the Science Museum London) and a drawing by Willem van de Velde the Elder (today in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam) give a good impression how she looked. Especially her stern was extensively decorated with gilded carvings.

During the Third Anglo-Dutch War she served as a flagship of the Lord High Admiral the Duke of York (later James II & VII.) During the Battle of Solebay (1672) she was in the centre of the English fleet that was attacked by the Dutch centre led by Admiral Michiel de Ruyter. The Prince was heavily damaged by De Ruyter's flagship De Zeven Provinciën in a two hours' duel and Captain of the Fleet Sir John Cox was killed on board. The Duke of York was forced to shift his flag to HMS St Michael. The Prince's second captain, John Narborough, however conducted himself with such conspicuous valour that he won special approbation and was knighted shortly afterwards.