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From ‘The Shipping Gazette & Sydney Trade List’- 1st February 1845
It has been asserted that the ships of the line of the English navy are, for the most part unfit for rough service, inasmuch as they are composed of old vessels which are kept water-tight, and venerated on account of their services during the late war. We beg to inform our contemporaries, foreign or otherwise, that of the thirty sail of the line “advanced ships” now ready for immediate service at the ports, one-half of them are not fifteen years old. The ‘Neptune’, 120, launched in 1832; the ‘Waterloo’, 120, launched 1833; the ‘Trafalgar’, 120, launched 1841; the ‘Nile’, 92, launched 1839; the ‘London’, 92, launched 1840; the ‘Superb’, 80, and the ‘Cumberland’, 70, launched 1843; and the ‘Boscawen’, 70, launched 1844, have never yet hoisted the pendent; nor has the ‘Clarence’, 84, another of the advanced ships. The ‘Royal Adelaide’, 104, has never been at sea; and of the remainder, the ‘Rodney’, 92, was launched in 1833; the ‘Monarch’, 84, was launched in 1832; and the ‘Indus’, 78, was launched in 1839. The other new ships not of the above list, out of commission, are the ‘Royal William’, 120; the ‘Goliath’, 80, launched in 1842; the ‘Hindustan’, 78, launched in 1841; and the ‘Centurion’, 80, launched in 1844. Of the ships of the line in commission the ‘Queen’, 110, was launched in 1839; the ‘Albion’, 90, launched in 1842; and the ‘Collingwood’, 80, launched in 1841. In fact, 30 sail of our noblest men of war, equal to any force that can be mustered by any naval power, have been launched since 1830.
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