HMS Royal William was a 120‑gun, three‑deck, first‑rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built to a broadened Caledonia‑class design. Ordered on 30 December 1823, she was laid down at Pembroke Dockyard in October 1825, launched on 2 April 1833, and completed in 1834.
Construction and specifications
- Displacement: 3 520 long tons (≈3 580 t).
- Length on the gundeck: 216 ft 9 in (66.1 m); beam: 55 ft 7 in (16.9 m); draught: 24 ft 7 in (7.5 m).
- Tonnage: 2 849 tons burthen (builder’s measurement).
- Crew complement: 830 officers and ratings.
Armament (as built)
- Lower deck: 32 × 8‑inch shell guns.
- Upper deck: 34 × 32‑pdr guns.
- Quarterdeck and forecastle: 22 × 32‑pdr guns and 1 × 68‑pdr gun.
Conversion to steam power
Remaining in ordinary after completion, Royal William was razeed and converted in the 1850s into a two‑deck, 89‑gun second‑rate. She received a horizontal two‑cylinder single‑expansion steam engine built by Robert Napier & Sons, rated at 500 nominal horsepower (1 763 indicated hp), driving a single screw and giving a trial speed of 10.6 knots.
Service history
- Commissioned for the first time on 16 February 1854 under Captain John Kingcome, she served as a guard ship at Devonport during the Crimean War (1854–1855).
- In 1860 she was fitted with screw propulsion and re‑armed to 72 guns.
Later career and renaming
In November 1885 the vessel was renamed Clarence and repurposed as a training ship for boys, a role she fulfilled until being decommissioned.
Fate
The ship was sold for scrap and subsequently burnt in 1899.
Royal William’s career illustrates the transitional period of the Royal Navy from sail‑only ships of the line to steam‑propelled iron‑clad warships, and her later use as a training ship reflects the navy’s practice of repurposing obsolete vessels for instructional purposes.
