HMS Carnatic (1823)

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Carnatic.

HMS Carnatic was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 21 October 1823 at Portsmouth Dockyard. Her design was based on HMS Cornwallis, as completed.^[1]

Figurehead of HMS Carnatic, 1823. Solid Imagery © National Museum of the Royal Navy
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Carnatic
Ordered	10 November 1817
Builder	Portsmouth Dockyard
Laid down	January 1818
Launched	21 October 1823
Fate	Sold, 1914
General characteristics [1]
Class & type	74-gun third rate ship of the line
Tons burthen	1790 bm
Length	177 ft (54 m) (gundeck)
Beam	48 ft 10+1⁄2 in (14.9 m)
Depth of hold	21 ft 2 in (6.45 m)
Propulsion	Sails
Sail plan	Full-rigged ship
Armament	74 guns: Gundeck: 28 × 32 pdrs Upper gundeck: 28 × 18 pdrs Quarterdeck: 4 × 12 pdrs, 10 × 32 pdr carronades Forecastle: 2 × 12 pdrs, 2 × 32 pdr carronades

Carnatic was used first as a store and then as a coal hulk in 1860, before becoming a powder store on loan to the War Department between 1886 and 1891, and then subsequently used by the Admiralty.

The ship was sold out of the navy in 1914 and broken up in Germany^[1]

Figurehead

When the ship was sold for breaking up, the Admiralty instructed the figurehead be allocated to the Museum at Portsmouth, where it was eventually included in the 1919 edition of the Portsmouth Dockyard Museum’s catalogue.^[2] The figurehead is part of the collection at the National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth.^[3]