HMS Minden (1810)

HMS Minden was a Royal Navy 74-gun Ganges-class third-rate ship of the line, launched on 19 June 1810. She was named after the German town Minden and the Battle of Minden of 1759, a decisive victory of British and Prussian forces over France in the Seven Years' War. The town is about 75 km away from Hanover, from where the House of Hanover comes—the dynasty which ruled the United Kingdom from 1714 until 1901.

Construction
Jamshedji Bomanji Wadia built Minden in 1810. She was launched from the Duncan Docks in Bombay (now Mumbai), India, and was built of teak.

Service history
Minden sailed from Bombay on her first cruise, under the command of Edward Wallis Hoare, and manned by the crew of the HMS Russell (1764), on 8 February 1811. In March she sailed from Madras to take part in the invasion of Java. On 29 July two of her boats, under the command of Lieutenant Edmund Lyons, with only 35 officers and men aboard, attacked and captured the fort covering the harbour of Marrack, to the westward of Batavia. The Naval General Service Medal with the clasp "30 July Boat Service 1811" was issued to survivors of this action in 1848. The Dutch and French forces in Java surrendered in September. Minden then sailed for the UK and escorted convoys to the East Indies, the Cape of Good Hope, South America, and the coast of Africa.

Minden saw service during the War of 1812 in the Chesapeake Bay. Some accounts state that Francis Scott Key was aboard Minden when he wrote the poem "The Defense of Ft. McHenry", which became the lyrics for "The Star-Spangled Banner".

In late July 1816 Minden sailed from Plymouth Sound, as part of an Anglo-Dutch fleet that made an attack on Algiers on 27 August. The Naval General Service Medal with the clasp "Algiers" was issued to survivors of this battle in 1848.

Minden then sailed for the East Indies, and was reported to be at Trincomalee in 1819. In July 1830 Minden was at Plymouth. She was commissioned there on 19 March 1836 and sailed for the Tagus joining the British squadron. In 1839 she was at Malta, returning to Plymouth in early 1840.

A typhoon destroyed the shore-based Royal Naval Hospital at Hong Kong on 22 July 1841, and Minden was commissioned at Plymouth in December 1841 to serve as a hospital ship there. She was stationed at Hong Kong as a hospital ship from 1842 until she was replaced by HMS Alligator (1821) in 1846. Minden then served there as stores ship until sold for scrapping in August 1861.

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