HMS Heartsease

HMS Heartsease
Rating: 4th-rate

Class: Reason-Class Ship of the Line

Date of Commission: April 14th, 1721

Guns: 52

Crew: 475

Status: Currently cruising the Bahamas station.

History:
Originally HMS Wallflower, she was built by the British in 1689 and sent to the North American Station the same year under the experienced Post-Captain Geoffrey Gordon. In 1690 however, she was captured by the French and renamed Viola Tricolor. She served the French as an escort and blockading ship from her home port of Quebec without distinguishing herself notably before she was ordered back to Europe in 1701. She was recaptured by the British in 1712 and renamed Heartsease. She then underwent repairs until the end of the war in 1713. In 1714 she was again put to sea under Post-Captain John Belchard, ordered to take her to the Caribbean to join the British naval forces stationed there. She changed captain once more during the following years before being commissioned to Post-Captain Nathaniel Blatchford in 1721.

On April 25th 1721 she took part in the disastrous Battle of Cartagena, taking heavy damage to her aging timbers and internal structure. Though shipwrights were able to make repairs allowing her to continue floating, she is now largely unfit for fleet actions and is restriced to rolling broadsides only as the force of a full broadside would shatter her timbers beyond repair.

British Captains:
1689-1690: Captain Geoffrey Gordon

1716-1718: Captain John Belchard

1718-1721: Captain Lawrence Peterson

1721-present: Captain Nathaniel Blatchford