Naval Ship Journeys from Portsmouth

[Sop_AF]

Hello,

Is there any way to ascertain whether these ships my ancestor served on from Portsmouth ever journeyed to Canada?

Duke of Wellington - Served from unknown until Jan 1873
Achilles - Jan 1873 until Jan 1875
Duke of Wellington - Jan until Apr 1875
Hercules - Apr until De 1875
Hibernia - Dec 1875
Hercules - Dec 1875 until Apr 1877
Excellent - May 1877 until Sept 1878
Osborne - Sept 1878 until Mar 1880
Asia - Apr 1880 until Feb 1881
Osbourne - Feb 1881 until Aug 1887

Any help would be much appreciated!

Annaliese

[GrahamSimons]

Loooks like being fairly hard work. See the series ADM53 at Kew:
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C1762

You might get lucky with a search in the newspaper archive, or with a general search by ship's name, but both of those look to be uphill too.

[mckha489]

I was able to follow my ancestor around the world in his various navy vessels quite easily via the newspapers. You have the dates.

Then I had some pages of the log of the ship for what seemed the most interesting journey photographed at TNA and they were interesting too.

Added, but just realised you are looking at a later period, (mine was c 1820-1850) so it might be different.

[mckha489]

https://search.findmypast.co.uk/bna/viewarticle?id=bl%2f0000499%2f18750511%2f016&stringtohighlight=h.m.s.%20hercules

Arrived Gibraltar 27th April and left for Malta on the 29th


https://search.findmypast.co.uk/bna/viewarticle?id=bl%2f0000081%2f18750603%2f022&stringtohighlight=h.m.s.%20hercules

Left Malta for a cruise in the Ionian Archipelago and the Adriatic

https://search.findmypast.co.uk/bna/viewarticle?id=bl%2f0000540%2f18750907%2f072&stringtohighlight=h.m.s.%20hercules

HMS Hercules the flagship of the Mediterranean squadron

[Little Nell]

This site may also be of use to you:

https://sites.rootsweb.com/~pbtyc/18-1900/Index.html

It would seem that HMS Osborne was the Royal Yacht and HMS Excellent was a gunnery ship at Portsmouth on the relevant dates.

Nell

[Sop_AF]

This site may also be of use to you:

https://sites.rootsweb.com/~pbtyc/18-1900/Index.html

It would seem that HMS Osborne was the Royal Yacht and HMS Excellent was a gunnery ship at Portsmouth on the relevant dates.

Nell

This is great! Thank you so much.

[AngelaC]

I was able to do this for several generations of my father's family. I began by googling the ship's name. There is also some interesting information on Wikipedia. Be aware that some of the ships changed their names over the years - this will be indicated on Wikipedia. From the Google search, you will find a number of extensive websites collated by naval enthusiasts, containing technical information on the ships and, in many cases, at least one photograph. It's quite a job but very rewarding, and you may be surprised at just how far your ancestor travelled.