Bronze Age Gold from Wales

Brass bell from the H.M.S. HAMADRYAD built between 1819 and 1823. Prior to the ship leaving Cardiff in 1905, the London-based buyers presented the figurehead and bell to the newly built hospital where they were displayed until being presented to Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales in 1974.

Inscription in black on front. The date inscription on the bell is retrospective and post-dates 1921. The year 1797 refers to when the first ship of this name was commissioned into the Royal Navy, and the year 1921 refers to when the third and last Royal Navy ship of this name (the one that was used as a hospital ship at Cardiff) was broken up at Appledore. Although it has been suggested that the bell came from the first Royal Naval ship of this name, this is unlikely. The first H.M.S. Hamadryad was the captured Spanish frigate named Ninfa. Taken as a prize at Cadiz in April 1797, she was renamed HMS Hamadryad and employed as an armed transport in the Mediterranean Fleet until being wrecked near Algiers in December 1797. The second HMS Hamadryad was another captured Spanish frigate, the Santa Maria, taken off Cadiz in 1804. After changes to her armament and being renamed HMS Hamadryad she remained in commission until 1815 when she was sold for breaking-up.

H.M.S. HAMADRYAD was the third ship of that name. She was built at Pembroke Dock between 1819 and 1823 for £24 683 but never saw active service. Following her launch at Pembroke Dock in 1823 she was towed to Portsmouth for completion The ship never saw active service, being laid-up in reserve at Devonport until 1866 when she was declared surplus and destined to be broken-up. Instead she was loaned for conversion into a seamen’s hospital ship for the port of Cardiff. She arrived by July 1866 and was berthed in the Bute East Dock where, with masts removed and her upper deck roofed-over, she opened as “Hamadryad Hospital” on 1 November 1866. In summer 1867 she was moved and anchored on “The West Mud”, at a location that later became close to the junction of Ferry Road and Hunter Street. In 1905 a replacement hospital was built on shore, opening on 29 June 1905, and the ship was sold by the Admiralty to London-based buyers for breaking-up. She left Cardiff under tow on 5 September 1905 for Appledore where she was finally broken-up in 1921.