3 of 7 April 2023 The 1805 Dispatches #23.02 On Monday 20 March your indefatigable Editor and your even less fatigable Club Secretary ventured to the north-east of England, on a maiden visit (for us) toHMS Trincomalee in the National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN) in Hartlepool. It was a trip well worth doing. Trincomalee, or ‘Trinc’ as those in her immediate vicinity call her, was built as a Leda-class frigate of 38 guns and launched in 1812, and she and HMS Unicorn(now in Dundee, Scotland) are the only surviving frigates of that class. In 1845 she was changed to 26 guns. Having been built of teak in India, and having missed the Napoleonic Wars, Trinc now has the honour of surviving as the oldest ship still afloat in Europe; the only older ship afloat being USS Constitution, ‘Old Ironsides’. Trinc has been lovingly preserved and moves to arrange a trip to the locality in the future – 2025 if we can manage it – for The 1805 Club. The NMRN has big plans for the future, so our visit may be determined by what they can achieve – we would look right flats to visit just before some big expansion were to occur. This was a private visit, but local members were informed of it and invited to join us. As it happened, only George Cansino was able to do so, and we were also joind by Jane Steele, then a non-member (“until I get home”, she said, and kept her word, joining on 21 March) but also a member of the Patrick O’Brian Appreciation Society on Facebook. We had the great benefit of being shown around by the Operations Manager, Simon Walsh, who sneaked us into the new display about the discovery of the wreck of HMSInvincible(obviously a misnomer), due to open at Easter. Photos, courtesy Stephen Howarth, clockwise from above: 1. Stephen Howarth, Jane Steele, George Cansino and Peter Turner. 2. Trinc from the pub. 3. Bow and stern of Trinc. 4. The Georgian facade of NMRN Hartlepool. 5. Ed ‘in’ costume. 6. Simon Walsh. Find him when you visit! VISITTO ‘TRINC’
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