Ant-class gunboat

Last updated

HMS arrow flatiron.JPG
A model of HMS Arrow
Class overview
NameAnt class
Builders
  • Portsmouth Dockyard
  • Robert Napier & Sons
  • Chatham Dockyard
  • Charles Mitchell & Co
  • J & G Rennie, Greenwich
  • Campbell Johnston, North Woolwich
  • Laird Brothers, Birkenhead
  • Pembroke Dockyard
OperatorsNaval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg  Royal Navy
Preceded by HMS Plucky
Succeeded by Medinaclass
SubclassesGadfly class
Built1870 - 1879
In commission1870 - 1959
Completed24
General characteristics
Type Flat-iron gunboat
Displacement254 tons standard
Length85 ft (26 m)
Beam26 ft 1.5 in (7.963 m)
Draught6 ft (1.8 m)
Installed power260  ihp (190 kW) [1]
Propulsion
  • Two 2-cylinder horizontal single-expansion steam engines
  • Two screws [1]
Speed8.5 kn (15.7 km/h) [1]
Crew30 [1]
ArmamentOne 10-inch (18 ton) muzzle-loading rifle [1]

The Ant-class gunboat was a class of twenty-four Royal Navy flat-iron gunboats mounting a single 10-inch gun, built between 1870 and 1880. [1] They carried no masts or sails, being among the first Royal Navy vessels not to do so. The last four vessels were ordered separately and are sometimes known as the Gadfly class, although they were essentially identical. Members of the class lingered on as steam lighters, dredgers, boom defence vessels and base ships, lasting in some cases into the 1950s.

Contents

Design

The flat-iron gunboats were designed for coastal defence and bombardment, and were constructed from iron. They were not rigged, and the single 10-inch (18 ton) muzzle-loading rifle was fitted forward on a hydraulic mount that allowed it to be lowered for a sea passage to improve the vessel's seaworthiness, and raised for action. [1] Power was provided by a pair of two-cylinder horizontal single-expansion steam engines driving twin screws. Together they developed 260 indicated horsepower (190 kW), giving a top speed of about 8.5 knots (15.7 km/h). [1]

Ships

Mastiff (foreground, in white) HMS Mastiff (1871).jpg
Mastiff (foreground, in white)
NameShip BuilderLaunchedFate
Blazer Portsmouth Dockyard 7 December 1870Became seagoing tender for weapons testing in 1904. Gunboat August 1914. Sold to W Loveridge, West Hartlepool 19 August 1919.
Comet Portsmouth Dockyard 8 December 1870Sold to J Pas on 12 May 1908 and broken up in the Netherlands
Bustard Robert Napier & Sons, Govan 7 January 1871Sold to Thos. W. Ward, Milford Haven March 1923
Kite Robert Napier & Sons, Govan 8 February 1871Sold in a partially dismantled state to Hughes Bolckow on 18 May 1920 and converted to a dredger
Scourge Chatham Dockyard25 March 1871Converted to tank vessel, renamed C79 in 1903-4 and still listed as in service in 1930
Snake Chatham Dockyard25 March 1871Completed as a cable lighter, renamed YC15 on 23 September 1907
Mastiff Charles Mitchell and Co, Walker 4 April 1871Renamed Snapper in 1914, sold to Thames Shipbreakers Ltd on 28 November 1931
Bloodhound Charles Mitchell and Co, Walker 22 April 1871Boom defence vessel in 1917, sold to F Bevis Ltd on 28 June 1921
Arrow J & G Rennie, Greenwich 22 April 1871Sold to W H Webber on 1 March 1922
Bonetta J & G Rennie, Greenwich 20 May 1871Sold on 12 January 1909 as salvage vessel Disperser and lost in April 1940
Badger Chatham Dockyard13 March 1872Sold to W Loveridge, West Hartlepool on 6 October 1908
Fidget Chatham Dockyard13 March 1872Hulked or sold in 1905
Bulldog Campbell Johnston, North Woolwich 17 September 1872Sold to R Gillham on 16 July 1906
Pike Campbell Johnston, North Woolwich 16 October 1872Boom defence vessel at Southampton in 1908, sold to G Sharpe on 27 March 1920
Pickle Campbell Johnston, North Woolwich 15 November 1872Dockyard lighter in 1906
Snap Campbell Johnston, North Woolwich 11 December 1872Sold at Chatham to Deaker, Hull in 1909
Ant Laird Brothers, Birkenhead 14 August 1873Boom defence vessel 1917, used as a target in 1921, sold to Granton Shipbreaking Company for breaking up on 2 June 1926
Cuckoo Laird Brothers, Birkenhead 14 August 1873Became base ship, renamed Vivid on 19 February 1912, Vivid II in January 1922, YC37 in 1923 and finally sold to Hocking, Plymouth in 1959
Hyaena Laird Brothers, Birkenhead 30 August 1873Sold at Chatham to Adrienne Merveille of Dunkirk on 3 April 1906
Weazel Laird Brothers, Birkenhead 4 September 1873Became oil fuel lighter C118 in 1904
Gadfly Pembroke Dock 5 May 1879Converted to a coal lighter at Simonstown, completing on 18 May 1900 and then renamed YC230. Sold at the Cape in 1918
Pincher Pembroke Dock 5 May 1879Sold at Portsmouth on 11 June 1905
Griper Pembroke Dock 15 September 1879Became steam lighter YC373 in 1905, renamed Flora on 19 June 1923 as base ship, then Afrikander in 1933. Believed to have been broken up at the Cape in 1951
Tickler Pembroke Dock 15 September 1879Converted to steam lighter at Simonstown in 1902, renamed Afrikander as base ship on 26 February 1919, then Afrikander II in 1933. Broken up at Simonstown in 1937

Related Research Articles

<i>Amazon</i>-class sloop

The Amazon class was a class of six screw sloops of wooden construction built for the Royal Navy between 1865 and 1866.

<i>Mariner</i>-class gunvessel

The Mariner class was a class of six 8-gun gunvessels built for the Royal Navy between 1883 and 1888. Four were built in the Naval Dockard at Devonport, and two elsewhere; the Acorn was built by contract at Jacobs Pill on the Pembroke River, while the Melita was built in the Malta Dockyard, the only substantial ship of the Royal Navy ever to be built in the island.

<i>Redbreast</i>-class gunboat

The Redbreast class comprised nine first-class screw-driven composite gunboats built for the Royal Navy in 1889, mounting six guns.

HMS Viper was an armoured iron gunboat, the only ship of her class, and the fourteenth ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name.

<i>Dryad</i>-class torpedo gunboat

The Dryad-class torpedo gunboat was the last class of torpedo gunboat built for the Royal Navy. This type of vessel was rapidly replaced by the faster torpedo boat destroyer, and all of the class were converted to minesweepers during World War I, with the exception of Hazard, which became a submarine depot ship.

<i>Alarm</i>-class torpedo gunboat

The Alarm-class torpedo gunboat was the penultimate class of torpedo gunboat built for the Royal Navy. The class was contemporary with the early torpedo boat destroyers, which were faster and better suited to accompanying the battlefleet. By World War I the class had either been sold, converted to submarine depot ships or minesweepers, or reduced to harbour service. Three of the class were lost during World War I while serving in the minesweeping role.

HMS <i>Rattlesnake</i> (1886)

HMS Rattlesnake was a unique design of torpedo gunboat of the Royal Navy. A result of the Russian war scare of 1885, she was designed by Nathaniel Barnaby that year and built by Laird Brothers, of Birkenhead. Quickly made obsolete by the new torpedo boat destroyers, she became an experimental submarine target ship in 1906, and was sold in 1910.

HMS <i>Wasp</i> (1880)

HMS Wasp was a Banterer-class composite screw gunboat of the Royal Navy, built in 1880 by Barrow Iron Shipbuilding and wrecked off Tory Island in 1884.

Flat-iron gunboat

Flat-iron gunboats were a number of classes of coastal gunboats generally characterised by small size, low freeboard, the absence of masts, and the mounting of a single non-traversing large gun, aimed by pointing the vessel. They acquired their nickname from the physical similarity with the flat iron used for ironing clothes during the 19th century.

<i>Doterel</i>-class sloop

The Doterel class was a Royal Navy class of screw-driven sloops. They were of composite construction, with wooden hulls over an iron frame. They were a revised version of an 1874 design by the Royal Navy's Chief Constructor, William Henry White, the Osprey-class sloop. Two of the class were lost, one to an explosion off Chile and one wrecked off Canada. Gannet is preserved at Chatham Historic Dockyard.

<i>Ariel</i>-class gunboat

The Ariel-class gunboat was a class of nine 4-gun composite gunboats built for the Royal Navy between 1871 and 1873. Although most were sold by 1890, one of them survived into the 1920s as a salvage vessel in private ownership. They were the first class of Royal Navy gunboat built of composite construction, that is, with iron keel, stem and stern posts, and iron framing, but planked with wood.

HMS <i>Trent</i> (1877)

HMS Trent was a Medina-class gunboat launched in 1877. She was the fifth ship of the Royal Navy to be named after the River Trent. She was renamed HMS Pembroke in 1905, and served off the coast of Tanganyika in 1915. She was renamed HMS Gannet in 1917 while serving as a diving tender. She was scrapped in 1923.

<i>Medina</i>-class gunboat

The Medina-class gunboat was a class of 12 Royal Navy Rendel gunboats mounting three 6.3-inch guns, built between 1876 and 1877. Flat-iron gunboats were normally built without masts or rigging, but the Medinas carried a full barquentine rig. Their robust iron hulls meant that they lingered on as diving tenders, barges and lighters, with five of them working into the 1920s. The hull of Medway lies in shallow water in Bermuda and is visible on satellite imagery.

HMS <i>Mutine</i> (1880)

HMS Mutine was a Doterel-class sloop of the Royal Navy, built at the Devonport Dockyard and launched on 20 July 1880. She became a boom defence vessel at Southampton in 1899 and was renamed Azov in 1904. She was sold after World War I.

<i>Banterer</i>-class gunboat

The Banterer-class gunboat was a class of eleven gunboats mounting two 6-inch and two 4-inch guns, built for the Royal Navy between 1880 and 1892.

<i>Albacore</i>-class gunboat (1855) British Royal Navy gunboat class

The Albacore-class gunboat, also known as "Crimean gunboat", was a class of 98 gunboats built for the Royal Navy in 1855 and 1856 for use in the 1853-1856 Crimean War. The design of the class, by W. H. Walker, was approved on 18 April 1855. The first vessels were ordered the same day, and 48 were on order by July; a second batch, which included Surly, were ordered in early October.

<i>Britomart</i>-class gunboat

The Britomart-class gunboat was a class of sixteen gunboats built for the Royal Navy in 1859–1867.

<i>Bramble</i>-class gunboat (1886)

The Bramble-class gunboat was a class of four gunboats mounting six 4-inch guns, built for the Royal Navy in 1886. In 1887 the first three were reclassified as gunvessels.

<i>Forester</i>-class gunboat

The Forester-class gunboat was a class of 4-gun composite gunboats built for the Royal Navy between 1874 and 1877. Although half had been sold by 1890, the rest survived into the 20th century as coal hulks, base vessels and other secondary uses. Foxhound survived as a hulk on the Blackwall Reach of the Thames until 1975, when she was broken up. They were built of composite construction, that is, with iron keel, stem and stern posts, and iron framing, but planked with wood.

<i>Albacore</i>-class gunboat (1883) British gunboat class

The Albacore-class gunboat was a class of three gunboats built for the Royal Navy in 1883. The name had already been used for a class of 98 gunboats built during the Great Armament of the Crimean War.

References