Cutting Down the Nelson.

Scarce c.19th engraving showing the HMS Nelson having he decks cut down to a single deck and her rig reduced to the main mast only, the ship being reclassified as a frigate.

HMS Nelson was a 126-gun first rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 4 July 1814 at Woolwich Dockyard,[1] but then laid up incomplete at Portsmouth until 1854, when work began with a view to commissioning her for service in the Crimean War, but this ended before much work had been done, and the ship returned to reserve.[2]  She was converted into a screw ship in 1860, being cut down to a two-decker and fitted with an engine of 2,102 indicated horsepower (1,567 kW) for a speed of 10.5 knots (19.4 km/h; 12.1 mph).  In 1865, Nelson was given to the colony of Victoria as a training ship, and she was finally outfitted and rigged for £42,000 and sailed for Australia in October 1867. Travelling via the Cape of Good Hope, she arrived in February 1868. She was the first ship to dock in the newly constructed Alfred Graving Dock. Her armament in 1874 was listed as two 7-in RML, twenty 64 lb guns, twenty 32 lb guns and six 12 lb howitzers. She was laid up at Willamstown in 1891, her boilers being removed in 1893.   In 1898, as cut down to a single deck On 28 April 1898 she was put up for auction and sold to Bernard Einerson of Sydney for £2,400.

From the original edition of the Australasian Sketcher.

Collections:
National Library Australia: Bib ID 914558
State Library New South Wales: REF1/MAV/FM4/9236-9239
State Library Victoria: PCINF AS 06-09-73 P.104