Sunk by bombing, 24 September 1940, raised and broken up 1948
HMS Wellesley was a 74-gun third rate, named after the Duke of Wellington, and launched in 1815. She captured Karachi for the British, and participated in the First Opium War, which resulted in Britain gaining control of Hong Kong. Thereafter she served primarily as a training ship before gaining the almost surely unwanted distinction of being the last British ship of the line to be sunk by enemy action and the only one to have been sunk by an air-raid.
We have been unable to locate a specific song about this vessel. Perhaps one of the talented members of the many maritime musical acts on today’s scene might be inspired by the irony of this ship’s demise?
Read the complete article on Wikipedia.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Wellesley_(1815)