|
DOVER
|
(44) |
|
Built in 1786, Burlesdon.
Burnt in 1806. |
|
|
- 1795 Lieut. T. H. WILSON.
- 1797 Lieut. KENT, belonging to the Transport Office at Deptford.
- 1800 Gibraltar 1803 Out of commission at Woolwich.
In 1806 she was lying alongside the dockyard wharf, near to the mast houses at the upper end of the town. She was being used as a temporary marine barracks for the new Woolwich Division and normally contained three or four hundred marines, plus officers and women and children. - At about half past twelve in the morning of 6 August the poop sentry gave the alarm of fire on board and in half an hour she was ablaze from end to end.
By three o'clock she had burnt to the water's edge.
There were only about 120 men on board with 50 women and about 25 children.
Men were seen dragging their wives out of port holes and women were screaming for their children.
One sergeant's wife threw her child out of a port hole and and then jumped after it.
It being low tide they fell on the mud and were rescued.
Only one man was lost when he went back on board to save something.
|
|
|
