HMS Albion was a 90-gun second rate ship of the line

Ship of the line

A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed from the 17th through the mid-19th century to take part in the naval tactic known as the line of battle, in which two columns of opposing warships would manoeuvre to bring the greatest weight of broadside guns to bear...

 of the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

. Ordered in 1839, she was built at Plymouth

Plymouth

Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...

 and launched on 6 September 1842, and entered service in 1843. Albion was designed by Sir William Symonds

William Symonds

Sir William Symonds FRS was "Surveyor of the Navy" in the Royal Navy from 9 June 1832 to October 1847, and took part in the naval reforms instituted by the Whig First Lord of the Admiralty Sir James Robert George Graham in 1832.-Early life:He was the second son...

, was the only ship of her class to ever serve as a sailing ship, and the last British

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....

 two-decker to complete and enter service without a steam engine. She was the name ship of a class of three second rates—the others being Aboukir and Exmouth

HMS Exmouth (1854)

HMS Exmouth was a 91-gun screw propelled Albion-class second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy.-Design:Exmouth was ordered as a 90-gun sailing ship from Plymouth Dockyard in 1841, but was ordered to be converted to operate under steam propulsion on 30 October 1852. The conversion began on 20...

.

Her first military action was in the Crimean War

Crimean War

The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...

 during the siege of Sevastopol on 17 October 1854. While Albion's commanding officer, Captain Stephen Lushington, was commanding a Naval Brigade

Naval Brigade

A Naval Brigade is a body of sailors serving in a ground combat role to augment land forces.-Royal Navy:Within the Royal Navy, a Naval Brigade is a large temporary detachment of Royal Marines and of seamen from the Royal Navy formed to undertake operations on shore, particularly during the mid- to...

 providing vital heavy artillery support for the Allied forces besieging Sevastopol

Sevastopol

Sevastopol is a city on rights of administrative division of Ukraine, located on the Black Sea coast of the Crimea peninsula. It has a population of 342,451 . Sevastopol is the second largest port in Ukraine, after the Port of Odessa....

, Albion under the command of Commander Henry Rogers

Henry Rogers

Henry Rogers may refer to:*Henry Darwin Rogers -- U.S. geologist*Henry Huttleston Rogers -- U.S. businessman and philanthropist*Henry Wade Rogers -- U.S...

joined over 50 British and French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 warships of various types into action. The Russians suffered heavy casualties but the Allies had failed to seriously damaged the batteries, though the Anglo-French fleet had received comparatively light casualties, with about 500 killed or wounded in total. However, the Allies had taken a beating from the Russian batteries, and Albion had been set on fire three times during the engagement. Without the assistance of the courageous tugs, she would surely have succumbed to her damage and run aground.

From 1860 until 1861 she was converted to steam screw propulsion at Devonport

HMNB Devonport

Her Majesty's Naval Base Devonport , is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy . HMNB Devonport is located in Devonport, in the west of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England...

, but the modifications were never finished. She was kept in reserve in Devonport for more than twenty years, before the decision was made to scrap her, and she was finally broken up at Devonport in 1884.