HMS Minden

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HMS Minden was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, named after the German Hanoverian town Minden. She was built by the Indian company Jamshedji Bomanji Wadia in 1810. Christened and launched from the Duncan docks in Bombay on June 23 of that year, she was the first RN ship built outside of the British Isles. It was named Minden because of the decisive victory of British and Prussian forces over French in Seven Years' War in the town.

[edit] Service

Minden saw service during the War of 1812 in the Chesapeake Bay. In 1816, Minden participated in the Battle of Algiers. It was also served in Java and Australia.

Toward the end of her career Minden saw duty as a hospital ship in Hong Kong from 1842 because a naval hospital on the shore was destroyed in typhoon. It severed those suffered from malaria in the early colonial years. Its role was replaced by HMS Alligator in 1857. The ship was sold for scrap and broken up in 1861 in Hong Kong.

In memory of the ship, two streets of Minden Row and Minden Avenue behide Signal Hill of Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon of Hong Kong were named after it.

[edit] Trivial

Some accounts state that Francis Scott Key was aboard the HMS Minden when he wrote the Poem "The Defense of Ft. McHenry", later renamed "The Star Spangled Banner". These accounts are not true.

If the story that has for so long been told regarding the Minden and Scott Key is wrong then reference should be made to two letters from Keys daughter Elizabeth that state the opposite. The letters were written after Keys death and specifically mention the Minden as the ship her father was on. Key was with her until he died and staying at her home. There is much speculation and a lot of research that is current and shows otherwise. I ask you then why would Elizabeth mention the Minden? I suggest that despite what has been discovered that her statements in these letters is oral history and compelling evidence. One would think that the daughter of a then already famous man would have been told in detail the events of those days when the anthem was written. She states "the Minden was the ship my father was on".