We are in Teesside for a family funeral tomorrow, and a few spare hours this afternoon was an opportunity to visit the Museum of the Royal Navy in Hartlepool.
The centrepiece of the museum is HMS Trincomalee, one of two surviving British frigates of the post-Napoleonic era. Her near-sister, HMS Unicorn, is in Dundee, and I have regularly visited her on business trips. Trincomalee was ordered in 1812 and built in teak in Bombay, India, due to oak shortages in Britain due to shipbuilding drives for the Napoleonic Wars. She was a 38-gun frigate of the Leda class, although rated as 46 because carronades were counted in armament from 1817. She was launched in 1817 and arrived in Portsmouth in 1819, too late for the Napoleonic Wars, so she was put in reserve. Trincomalee was refitted and rearmed in 1845. She departed from Portsmouth in 1847 and remained in service for ten years, serving on the North America and West Indies Station.
The ship is in much better condition than Unicorn and is fully masted.
The dock buildings have been converted into shops of the period, with nautical themes.
There is a display area describing the ship and a series of displays on naval life of the period. If you are in the area, it is well worth a visit.
Did you manage to find any useful information on the “monkey hanging” at all? I just wondered if, given the naval connection, the museum had shed any light on the subject 😉
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Geoff
I might have missed it but I don't think there was. The memorial is up on the headland and we stayed at the marina. I did want to go up there to see the WW1 battery, but we had to get to the funeral in Redcar and 10am opening would have been tight. Pushing my luck with Mrs W if I tried that one!
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