HMS Centurion was an 80-gun second-rate ship of the line constructed for the Royal Navy in the 1840s as part of the Vanguard class. Designed by Sir William Symonds, each Vanguard-class vessel featured a slightly different hull shape to assess their performance in speed and handling. Centurion measured 190 feet 8 inches (58.1 meters) along the gundeck and had a keel length of 153 feet 5 inches (46.8 meters). The ship’s beam was 57 feet 1 inch (17.4 meters), with a draught of 18 feet 10 inches (5.7 meters) and a depth of hold of 23 feet 4 inches (7.1 meters). Her tonnage was approximately 2,589 tons burthen, and she was crewed by about 720 officers and ratings during wartime. The armament of HMS Centurion comprised twenty 32-pounder cannons and two 68-pounder carronades on her lower gundeck, twenty-eight 32-pounders and two 68-pounder carronades on the upper gundeck, fourteen 32-pounder cannons on the quarterdeck, and eight more on the forecastle deck, making her a formidable line-of-battle ship. In 1854, Centurion underwent a significant modification to include steam propulsion. She was fitted with a two-cylinder horizontal steam engine producing 400 nominal horsepower, which on trial delivered 1,255 indicated horsepower. This engine enabled a maximum speed of 8.5 knots. The ship was ordered from Pembroke Dockyard in 1839, laid down in July, launched on 2 May 1844, and completed by 10 June of that year. Initially, she was placed in ordinary, and her construction cost was £57,386. The vessel’s figurehead, carved by Hellyer & Sons of Portsmouth, is now preserved at the National Museum of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth. HMS Centurion served during a period of transition in naval technology before being sold for scrap in 1870 for £8,200, marking the end of her maritime service.

This description has been generated using GPT-4.1-NANO based on the Vessel's wikidata information and then modified by ShipIndex.org staff.