3-082-384 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Breaking up the Old "Benbow", 1895. '...one of the few remaining battleships of former times [being broken up] at Messrs. Henry Castle and Sons' yard at Woolwich [in London]...another of the wooden walls of Old England associated with a glorious period in our naval history is passing from among us...the quaint and beautiful semicircular stern is characteristic of an earlier type of battle-ship than the majority of those that carried the English flag to victory in the days of Nelson...Designed to carry seventy-two guns (the largest of which were 32-pounders), she was commenced in 1808...on Nov. 3, 1840, St. Jean d'Acre was stormed by the allied fleets and taken after a few hours' bombardment...This appears to be the only action in which the Benbow took part...In 1848 she was turned into a marine barrack-ship and stationed at Woolwich, and in 1859 she descended to still lower depths, becoming a coal depot m the Medway, where she was moored until a few weeks ago, when she made her last voyage and was towed round to Woolwich to be broken up...already the poor old Benbow presents a forlorn appearance, her beams, from which the planks have been wrenched down to the lower deck, standing up as if in silent protest against her inglorious end'. From "Illustrated London News", 1895.