HMS President (1829)

HMS President in South West India Dock, London, ca. 1880
History
United Kingdom
Ordered	25 May 1818
Builder	Portsmouth Dockyard
Laid down	June 1824
Launched	20 April 1829
Fate	Sold for breaking up, 7 July 1903.
General characteristics
Tons burthen	1,53457⁄94 bm
Length	173 ft 5+1⁄2 in (52.870 m)
Beam	44 ft 10+3⁄4 in (13.684 m)
Depth of hold	14 ft 2 in (4.32 m)
Sail plan	Full-rigged ship
Complement	450
Armament	Upper deck: 30 × 24-pounder guns QD & Fc: 16 × 24-pounder carronades + 6 × 24-pounder guns.

HMS President was a large frigate in the British Royal Navy (RN). She was built to replace the previous HMS President, redesignated from the heavy frigate USS President built in 1800 as the last of the original six frigates of the United States Navy under the Naval Act of 1794. The first President had been the active flagship of the U.S. Navy until captured while trying to escape the Royal Navy blockade around New York in 1815 at the end of the War of 1812, and then served in the RN until broken up in 1818. The new British President was built using her American predecessor's exact lines for reference, as a reminder to the United States of the capture of their flagship – a fact driven home by President being assigned as the flagship of the North America and West Indies Station in the western Atlantic Ocean under the command of Admiral Sir George Cockburn (1772–1853), who had directed raids throughout the Chesapeake Bay in 1813–1814 that culminated in the 1814 burning of official buildings in the American capital, Washington, D.C.

The second President was laid down at Portsmouth Dockyard in June 1824 and launched on 20 April 1829; she was completed in 1830 but not commissioned into the Royal Navy until February 1832. USS President of 1800 was originally armed as a spar-decked frigate, however, at the time of her capture and for some years previously she was armed as a conventional frigate. The design of HMS President reflected the 'as captured' armament of the American ship and was completed as a 52-gun frigate with an unarmed spar deck. She was later re-armed with thirty-two 32-pounder guns on the upper deck, and twenty 32-pounder carronades on the quarterdeck and forecastle.