Felix Richardson RN

[peterd]

hi adrian this may be a bit of a long shot but can you find anything about this guy. pete

My ancestor was in the Royal Navy on the ship HMS Forte and was in the census of 1871 docked in Bombay . I have traced a death in his name Felix Richardson in the death overseas section in the GRO Marine Deaths indices 1846-1902 . It was in the section 1871-1875 giving a record page of 89 .

Is there any way that I can find out more about this loss at sea ?

Many thanks

Franny

[mumbles]

Hi Adrian,
I have found following site good for old RN ships www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/astraea_class
HMS Forte appears to have been re-built at 1893 so you will have to browse site for older ships.
Also google comes up with a lot of info if you google HMS Forte 1860 to 1875

[apowell]

Hi Franny,

I've attempted to find out some information for you to help in your research of your relative.

Mumbles I'd been thinking along the same lines and found quite a few websites on naval ships that gives information on ships. The name HMS Forte was used by the Royal Navy to name a number of her vessels dating from the early 1800's but the information listed below would be the one Felix was stationed upon.

Name Forte
Type Frigate
Launched 29 May 1858
Hull Wooden Length 212 feet
Propulsion Screw
Men 515
Builders measure 2364 tons
Displacement 3456 tons
Guns 51
Fate Last in commission 1872. Destroyed 1905
Class (as screw) Forte
Ships book ADM 135/185 (This is the national archives reference for the ships log and history)

Career and dates
29 May 1858 Launched at Deptford Dockyard.

25 January 1860 Commanded by Captain Edward Winterton Turnour, flagship of Rear-Admiral Henry Keppel, Cape of Good Hope

June 1861- November 1862 Commanded by Captain Thomas Saumarez, flagship of Vice-Admiral Richard Laird Warren, south east coast of America

12 November 1862- 8 September 1864 Commanded (until paying off at Sheerness) by Captain Arthur Mellersh, flagship of Rear-Admiral Richard Laird Warren, south east coast of America

21 August 1868- 1869 Commanded (from commissioning at Sheerness) by Captain John Hobhouse Inglis Alexander, flagship of Commodore Leopold George Heath, East Indies

(9 September 1870)- 17 February 1872 Commanded (until paying off at Sheerness) by Captain Henry Fairfax, flagship of Rear-Admiral James Horsford Cockburn, East Indies

(1879) Receiving hulk, Chatham

March 1894 Coal hulk, Sheerness (replacing Benbow).

23 November 1905 Burnt, together with 1800 tons of coal, by accident; sunk at her moorings by boats of Acteon torpedo school to prevent her acting as an unintentional fireship in the crowded harbour

I would think that just looking at her size, guns and crew members in her time HMS Forte would have been a very important ship of the navy. Felix would have been onboard the time HMS Forte was the flag ship of a Rear-Admiral.

I'm afraid I've been unable to locate any pictures of HMS Forte but if you search the website mumbles gave it shows photo's of ships from around the same time which will give you an idea of how HMS Forte would have looked.

If you go to this site you can join the forum which seems to have lots of navel experts who I'm sure could offer you some further help.
http://www.worldnavalships.com ( top left hand corner of the web page is the link forum)

I would take a educated guess and say that Felix would have sadly died of disease or illness while in the Far East where malaria, yellow fever etc were rife.

The only way I think to find out 100% would be to check the national archives which keep service records on military personnel but I've tried searching Felix's details on their search engine but with no luck. This I'm afraid means the records haven't been transcribed onto the web and his records are kept at the national archive centre.

If you check the national archives websites it explains how you can request copies etc.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Hope this helps and post a message on that forum I mentioned because sometimes these boffins have photocopied all sorts of interesting information.

Kind regards
Adrian