H.M.S. St. Vincent lying in the Harbour at Portsmouth

H.M.S. St. Vincent, a large first rate of 2,612 tons and designed to mount 120 guns, was laid down at Plymouth in May 1810. By that date however the Napoleonic Wars were effectively over and, with plans already in hand to reduce the activities of the fleet, she was laid up until commissioned in February 1831 for service with the Mediterranean Fleet. Almost wrecked in February 1834 when she was driven ashore during a tremendous storm off Malta, she was eventually refloated and returned home where she was paid off. Recommissioned for the Channel squadron in 1841, she was frequently in Portsmouth where she was twice visited by Queen Victoria in 1842 and 1847. During the 1842 visit, she acted as flagship to the 'Experimental Squadron' at the last Royal Review of a sailing fleet. In 1854, she took part in the war in the Baltic and returned to Portsmouth with Russian prisoners-of-war aboard her, this operation marking the end of her sea service. In 1862 she became a training ship for boys and was given a permanent mooring off the entrance to Haslar Creek in Portsmouth Harbour. She held her last passing-out parade on 18th December 1905 and was broken up in the summer of 1906.