HMS Frederick William

	As Worcester
History
United Kingdom
Name	Frederick William
Namesake	Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia
Ordered	12 September 1833 (as Royal Sovereign); 29 June 1848 (as modified Queen class); 28 February 1857 (as screw battleship);
Builder	HM Dockyard, Portsmouth
Laid down	July 1841
Launched	24 March 1860
Commissioned	1 July 1864
Renamed	Originally ordered as Royal Sovereign; Renamed Royal Frederick on 12 April 1839; Renamed Frederick William on 28 January 1860; Renamed Worcester on 19 October 1876;
Reclassified	Training ship, 1876
Fate	Foundered in River Thames, 30 August 1948; Salvaged for scrap, 1953;
General characteristics (as completed)
Class & type	86-gun second-rate ship of the line
Displacement	4,502 long tons (4,574 t)
Tons burthen	3,241 bm
Length	214 ft (65.2 m) (gundeck)
Beam	60 ft (18.3 m)
Depth of hold	23 ft 9 in (7.24 m)
Installed power	4 fire-tube boilers; 2,276 ihp (1,697 kW);
Propulsion	1 propeller shaft; HRCR steam engine
Sail plan	full-rigged ship
Speed	11.7 knots (21.7 km/h; 13.5 mph) (under steam)
Complement	830
Armament	Lower deck: 30 × 8 in (203 mm) shell guns; Upper deck: 32 × 32 pdr guns; Quarterdeck/Forecastle: 22 × 32pdr guns; 2 × 68 pdr guns;

HMS Frederick William was an 86-gun screw-propelled second-rate ship of the line built for the Royal Navy during the 1850s. She was originally ordered in 1833 as a 110-gun, first-rate ship of the line under the name of Royal Sovereign, but was renamed Royal Frederick in 1839. Construction did not begin until 1841 and proceeded very, very slowly and was often suspended entirely. Still under construction, the ship was ordered to be razeed and converted into a steam-powered, two-deck ship of the line in 1857. Royal Frederick was renamed Frederick William in 1860 and completed that same year.

The ship was immediately placed in ordinary and was not commissioned until 1864 when she began her service as a guard ship. That lasted until 1868 when she was again placed in ordinary. Frederick William was renamed Worcester in 1876 and became a training ship for merchant seamen until she was sold for scrap in 1948. The ship foundered shortly after the sale and was not salvaged until 1953.