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BLONDE
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(46) |
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Built in 1819, Deptford.
Hospital ship in 1850. |
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- 1820 Deptford.
- 1824 Capt. George Anson Lord BYRON, 05/6/1814, fitting out for a particular service.
BLONDE was to take the bodies of the king and queen of the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) home from England. She sailed September and on arrival at Valparaiso the Consul General was sent forward to Oahu to announce the death of their majesties. When BLONDE arrived at Honolulu on 19 May 1825 she was saluted by 19 guns from the fort and the following day Lord BYRON and his officers had an audience with the regent Karaimoku.
The bodies were landed for an elaborate funeral on the 23rd. - BLONDE remained at Honolulu for about six weeks before sailing to refit in the island of Hawaii.
Before he departed from the Sandwich Is. Lord BYRON erected a monument to Capt. COOK about a mile from the spot where he was killed in Kaelakekua Bay. - BLONDE touched at Coquimbo in Chile before making a six week run around Cape Horn to St. Helena.
On 7 March 1826, eight days before reaching Spithead, BLONDE rescued the six survivors, four men and two women, of the merchant ship FRANCES and MAY, Capt. Kendall, which had been dismasted and badly damaged by a gale two weeks after leaving St. John's, New Brunswick, on 18 January. For six weeks they had had nothing to eat but the bodies of those who died.
The captain, officers and crew of BLONDE subscribed a considerable sum of money for their relief. - Soon after her return BLONDE sailed for Bermuda carrying dispatches for Rear Ad. Willoughby LAKE, commander-in-chief on the North American station.
- BLONDE paid off at Portsmouth on 15 December 1826.
- 1828 Capt. Edmund LYONS, 01/1828, Mediterranean.
In October BLONDE, with the French frigates DUCHESSE DE BERRI, ARMIDE and DIDON, took part in driving the Turks from Morea Castle, at Patras, their last foothold in the Peloponnese. On the 18th. General Schneider requested that four 18-pounders should be landed from each ship. The operation was completed in four hours with the French and English in the water together assisting each other through the surf. Lieut. Thomas BROCK was responsible for BLONDE's part. - On the 20th. Lieuts. Alfred LUCKRAFT and Sidney COLPOYS; Messrs MOCKLER, HAY, BLAIR and AUSTEN, mates, and Messrs. DESAUMAREZ, KENEDDY, HAWKINS and DOR, midshipmen, landed with a party of seamen and commenced building batteries under the direction of French artillery officers.
At 9 o'clock on the 22nd the batteries opened fire and continued at intervals for eight days and nights.
Eventually the addition of two 24-pounders ashore, a mortar battery and 102 shells from AETNA, which had managed to work within 800 yards of the castle, produced an unconditional surrender and on the 31st. the union flag and the lily of France were flying side by side over the castle.
BLONDE, with PELICAN under Capt. LYONS' orders, attended the second division of the Egyptian fleet sent from Alexandria to complete the evacuation of the last part of Ibrahim Pacha's army from the Morea. - 1833 Capt. Francis MASON, 11/1833, Portsmouth for South America.
- 1839 Capt. Thomas BOUCHIER, 11/1839, Portsmouth for the East Indies.
This was her last commission and from 1850 she was used as a receiving hulk at Portsmouth.
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